Posted on 08/17/2006 2:29:08 PM PDT by weegee
In today's Wall Street Journal, Thaddeus Herrick reports on the continued concern about the fate of several landmarks in Houston. This time, though, there is a solid statement about the developments:
David Deason, vice president for development at Barnes & Noble, said the New York-based company intends to close the Bookstop in favor of a "state of the art" facility. But Mr. Deason said the fate of the landmarks is in the hands of Weingarten.
Also quoted was Weingarten's Director of Leasing, Patty Bender. She stated that "the company doesn't yet have a 'definite plan' for the shopping center but that the Alabama Theater could pose a 'challenging situation' should Barnes & Noble pull out." While a "challenging situation" can allude to many different scenarios, we are thinking she meant "now that Bookstop will be vacating, we can demolish the theater like we've wanted to do for the past decade or so, and that might upset a few folks." Please surprise us, Weingarten, because you've already upset way more then a few without even directly making that statement.
Looks like we may lose The River Oaks Theater and the Alamaba Theater...
I don't understand why Barnes & Noble couldn't have moved into the Alabama location.
There are some vintage shots here...
http://www.cah.utexas.edu/db/dmr/dmr_results.php?box=3N368-Restricted&folder=26
Bibliopath PING
B&N isn't the type of bookstore the boyz in that hood prefer anyway.
It's all the same organization when you get down to it and Barnes & Noble's new RO Theater location is closer to Montrose than Alabama Bookstop (which is Upper Kirby).
Bookstop was a valid bookstore in this town until Barnes & Noble swallowed them up and opened the big brick & mortar stores.
There is a Border's bookstore at Alabama and Kirby. I guess B&N didn't want to compete with Border's and abandoned the neighborhood.
I was thinking, "Like anyone in Alabama would notice the loss of a book store."
*rim shot*
*running for cover*
I think the Gore global warming opus is playing there now.
I seldom go to B & N, Bookstop, or Borders anymore. I usually get books and music from Amazon these days. I really consider the Alabama gone since it stopped being a theatre and became Bookstop. I still remember that huge screen, where i saw the premires of movies like The Empire strikes Back, Alien, The Omen, etc
I liked the link you provided, lots of good pics from the good ole days.
My first thoughs as well. hehe
That's odd . . . the Weingarten statement directly contradicts the headline.
I go to B&N (usually the one on Westheimer near Sage, sometimes the one near home at Town & Country) if I have some time to kill.
If I know exactly what I want, I use Amazon.
Suddenly, I wish I had kept that fact to myself. :-|
I understand the nostalgic concern but what they do with their own property is really up to them.
You can try to to use the force of public opinion and that is legitimate but I think some of the efforts to use city council etc. to block this is just wrong. It would also add to the tearing down of something a lot more important than a theatre or a bookstore...
And I care because........
Houston has no history. Anything over 30 years old gets bulldozed.
These are nationally recognized art deco buildings. Some would say that they are landmarks.
Maybe I should change the headline to read "third Starbucks to open at corner of Shepherd and Grey". Maybe that announcement is more to your liking.
Greenway (the subterranean Landmark chain theater near the old Summit) or the Angelika (downtown near Jones Plaza) or Alamo Drafthouse (which seems only to have retained the beer and Austin political leanings of the original) or the MFA or Rice University (both of which have a considerable share of leftist documentary screenings).
You won't miss those films coming to town. They'll still be here.
The CITY wants to tear down the main post office downtown (which would require building another huge post office in the area) to build more theater space downtown (public construction for private tenents).
Now there is no nostalgia in that but there is a lot of good old boy networking.
The train station "had to be" the center switching center for the city's proposed rail line. And when that was rejected it "had to be" the new ballpark.
A lot of "had to bes" there. Of course, they then had to MOVE the Star of Hope charity because they didn't want a long established homeless shelter near somebody's new pricey real estate.
Meanwhile South Main (where the old stadium is) is a declining sh!thole.
I agree that there are other things to take up with city hall than preservation of someone's private property. And even when there is preservation of a property, someone like Pappa's will start the demolition early on a Saturday and claim it was a mistake (recycling the old brick for their "retro restaurants).
Still worth noting the begining of the end for some visible landmarks.
There is (or was) a pretty good pseudo English pub around Alabama & Kirby best I can remember, not been down there in last ten years or so.
Was. The Ale House got bulldozed to make room for "parking" for the properties including the Border's bookstore.
That 100 year old home (which became a 2 story bar/live music venue) wasn't even owned by that agency when they were showing diagrams to prospective tenants including that land.
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