Tour:Smart - Martin Atkins at Avant Garden Tonight.
H-Town Rock
Missed Connections: November 2 - 5
Daily-ist Thursday: River Oaks Theater 70th Anniversary Celebration
Get sticky at Lawndale's Sugar Skull workshop
Ever since LIFE opened its archive of mostly unpublished photographs from 1750 onward, Houstonist has been obsessed with searching through old pictures of Houston (among many other things, of course). Pictures of Judge Roy Hofheinz's apartment in the Astrodome? Check. An eerily barren River Oaks Boulevard? Check. Shudde Brothers before the surrounding neighborhood went downhill and came back up again? Check. Buzz Aldrin glumly sitting in a Tilt-A-Whirl at Astroworld? Check. Houston revelling in its redneck glory at the erstwhile Frontier Festival? Check.
What we've learned from the pictures shouldn't be surprising to any Houstonians, whether they've lived here their whole lives or are brand-new transplants: the more things change, the more they stay the same. Below are some of our favorite images from the past alongside some of our favorite images from the present (courtesy of our wonderful contributors to the Houstonist Flickr photo pool).
---
Identical, boxy houses outside of downtown Houston in 1946. Identical, boxy houses outside of downtown Houston in 2008. Only the skyline has changed.
Photo courtesy of LIFE.
Photo courtesy of Flickr user mlsnp.
---
Believe it or not, back in 1956, Houston had a monorail system (which we did not purchase from Lyle Lanley). Granted, it only operated for a little under a year, ran in a very limited geographic area and had a maximum capacity of 55 people, but look at all the progress we've made in public transportation since then! ...oh, wait.
Photo courtesy of LIFE.
Photo courtesy of Flickr user J-a-x.
More trips down memory lane...after the jump!
---
Chance pictures of Houston's finest goofing off span the years. At least their uniforms are no longer made of wool (whose bright idea was that?). Below, an HPD officer videotapes President Eisenhower boarding a plane in 1952. And in 2007, officers reluctantly pose with a capricious-looking Santa Claus.
Photo courtesy of LIFE.
Photo courtesy of Flickr user Delta Niner.
---
A LIFE photographer was sent to Houston in 1955 to capture the building boom of churches that was happening at the time. Over 50 years later, religious structures are still a big business in Houston -- from brand-new churches like St. Martin's (below) that painfully mimic old-world cathedrals to churches in sports arenas and churches with five campuses.
Photo courtesy of LIFE.
Photo courtesy of Flickr user baldheretic.
---
Thanks to revitalization efforts after the oil bust in the 1980s, Main Street in downtown is once again as bustling and vibrant as it was here in 1946.
Photo courtesy of LIFE.
Photo courtesy of Flickr user J-a-x.
---
When the Port of Houston was established in 1842, the Houston Ship Channel was little more than a narrow canal that led to Buffalo Bayou. By the time this picture was taken in 1946, nine oil refineries operated along its banks and it had become the third largest port in the nation (in terms of gross tonnage). Today, the 50 mile Ship Channel is the second largest port in the nation (and the first largest in terms of foreign tonnage) and generates $118 billion in revenue each year.
Photo courtesy of LIFE.
Photo courtesy of Flickr user espngo.
---
Take a spin through the archives for yourselves, readers, and let us know your favorite pictures from Houston's past in the comments section below. Houstonist's Tip o' the Day: make sure to include -Whitney in your search to exclude the baffling amount of Whitney Houston pictures in the archive.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
Dot Coffee Shop near Gulfgate Mall at 45 and 610 has some nice old B&W colorized photographs of downtown Houston. Check 'em out if that's your thing. A photograph that I took there once:
http://www.natuba.com/photo/mp6h1M/
I've also got an old photograph of Main Street in downtown Houston in my office:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbAfFjQ2vL8#t=2m45s
(the link will take you straight to 2min 45seconds where I show that particular photograph off)
bring back the monorail!!
Videotaping in 1952? Ho ho ho. Looks like an 8mm movie camera.