Gone but not forgotten- Old Corpus Christi (Houston, Mission: neighborhood, school)

[wehotex]

Originally Posted by doctorjef

I don't suppose there is still a department store there called Lichtenstein's (sp?). They used to be CC's premier department store, located downtown. They had a tea room that served, among other items, yummy hot fudge sundaes (or at least I thought so at the age of 6).

Liechenstein's is long gone from the DT area. The last time that I remember going in there was in the early 80s. The shell of the bldg is still there though. I still remember the smell of the mezzanine and how luxurious the men's room seemed to me as a little kid. There were black fixtures (reminded me of licorice) and that really pleasant smell. Woolworths was right across the street.

[doctorjef]

Oh yeah, the mezzanine was where the tea room was, I think. In any case I'd quite forgotten about old department store mezzanines. They always seemed so fashionable. Hemphill-Wells in Lubbock had one and were still open into the 1970s -- don't know if they still are. I read that Lichtenstein's got sold to the company that owned Frost Brothers and became one of those before the downtown store was closed altogether. It seems there may be plans afoot for the building (I did some browsing on google).

[Marlow]

Ahhh, the Lichenstein's mezzanine. And the tea room. As a little girl I thought that place was magical. And yes, Frost Bros. bought them out and later closed.

The building is there and lots of people have said they were going to renovate it, but it still sits vacant. Guess it just costs too much.

[panthercityhorn]

Originally Posted by wehotex

Amen to that!! Burger Chalet? where was that? you don't mean Burger chef at Everhart & Alameda maybe?
Burger Chef helped out everyone who needed food and ice after Hurricane Celia. Ppl stood in line to get hamburger meat and buns to cook on portable coleman stoves. Burger Chef also gave me free drinks and burgers to feed a group of us who were decorating for a King High School event once, must have been about 1979, 1980 or so. They were so generous to us. I hated to see them go. The lot that fills the corner of Everhart & Alameda will never measure up to Burger Chef.

The Crain family owned and operated the Burger Chef chain. Dan Crain later moved to Fort Worth and had the Miller Beer distributorship until selling it to Andrews a couple of years ago.

The Everhart location was always a great hangout for students from Carroll, Ray, and King. And I remember getting ice there during the recovery from Celia as well. They were not selling it at inflated prices as some people did, just giving it away to help.

[doctorjef]

Originally Posted by Marlow

Ahhh, the Lichenstein's mezzanine. And the tea room. As a little girl I thought that place was magical. And yes, Frost Bros. bought them out and later closed.

The building is there and lots of people have said they were going to renovate it, but it still sits vacant. Guess it just costs too much.

It's kind of incredible that a store like that existed in CC and I don't think that our youthful memories are all that distorted. I researched the vicissitudes of the downtown Hemphill-Wells in Lubbock also and found they threw in the towel also in the early '80s even though they were still considered a really special store that had no peer in the city (they had stores at suburban malls in Lubbock and San Angelo as well that never had the same status as the downtown Lubbock location -- all of them are closed now). By the same token, Striplings in Fort Worth was a great old store, though less elegant in a way because they had kept their old Depression era infrastructure pretty well intact without much overt modernisation (they still had the wonderful subway line that brought customers from a free store parking lot north of downtown into the store itself). Stripling sold out to Dillards or one of those chains sometime around 1980. Same thing happened to Scarbrough's in Austin (a very elegant store) and of course Joske's headquartered in San Antonio. "There are places I'll remember..." It really is sad in that none of the successors have matched the original owners, and in the case of Lichtenstein's there's nothing there at all there now.

[wehotex]

Originally Posted by panthercityhorn

The Crain family owned and operated the Burger Chef chain. Dan Crain later moved to Fort Worth and had the Miller Beer distributorship until selling it to Andrews a couple of years ago.

The Everhart location was always a great hangout for students from Carroll, Ray, and King. And I remember getting ice there during the recovery from Celia as well. They were not selling it at inflated prices as some people did, just giving it away to help.

I'm so glad that someone else also remembers that! It's awfully funny and cool the things that we remember even when we were tiny tots. thanks for the education about the origination of burger chef. I was surprised to hear that they invented the first "happy meals". they came in a paper carton with burger, fries, small drink, cookie and of course, a prize! Man, I loved those things.

[wehotex]

Originally Posted by wehotex

I'm so glad that someone else also remembers that! It's awfully funny and cool the things that we remember even when we were tiny tots. thanks for the education about the origination of burger chef. I was surprised to hear that they invented the first "happy meals". they came in a paper carton with burger, fries, small drink, cookie and of course, a prize! Man, I loved those things.

I remembered the name "Doc McGregor" and googled it. I found this:


Corpus Christi Landmark Commission - About the Commission and its responsibilities

Doc McGregor took more pictures of CC than anyone. It is a catalog of CC for the ages.

[panthercityhorn]

[quote=doctorjef;15691355] all of them are closed now). By the same token, Striplings in Fort Worth was a great old store, though less elegant in a way because they had kept their old Depression era infrastructure pretty well intact without much overt modernisation (they still had the wonderful subway line that brought customers from a free store parking lot north of downtown into the store itself). Stripling sold out to Dillards or one of those chains sometime around 1980. quote]

The subway you mention was bought by Radio Shack to carry employees to the twin towers which used to house their corporate headquarters and were built where the original Leonard's Department Stores were located. A great link to a great part of FW retail history is found here:
History of Leonard’s (http://www.fwscreen.com/fwscreen.com/History.html - broken link)

Stripling's locations were primarily suburban and after merging to become Stripling/Cox, closed permanently in June of 2007.

[wehotex]

[quote=panthercityhorn;15701736]

Originally Posted by doctorjef

all of them are closed now). By the same token, Striplings in Fort Worth was a great old store, though less elegant in a way because they had kept their old Depression era infrastructure pretty well intact without much overt modernisation (they still had the wonderful subway line that brought customers from a free store parking lot north of downtown into the store itself). Stripling sold out to Dillards or one of those chains sometime around 1980. quote]

The subway you mention was bought by Radio Shack to carry employees to the twin towers which used to house their corporate headquarters and were built where the original Leonard's Department Stores were located. A great link to a great part of FW retail history is found here:
History of Leonard’s (http://www.fwscreen.com/fwscreen.com/History.html - broken link)

Stripling's locations were primarily suburban and after merging to become Stripling/Cox, closed permanently in June of 2007.

Lichtenstein's 1941 Store | Remembering Great American Department Stores | DSHistory.com (http://www.dshistory.com/stores/lichtensteins_corpus_christ/lichtensteins_1941_store.html#previous-photo - broken link)

Corpus Christi Online - / Lichtenstein's grew up with the city

Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi - Interior WideSmall

[tjet7109]

I was a bus boy at Buccaneer Bowl from 81 to 83. Lot's of stories, lot's of memories. I was sixteen, my buddy was the porter on the lanes, he was from Laos his name was THONG, pronounced "Tong". We both went to King. We would cut through Sharon Street to Alemeda to get to work. I'm 45 now, was in the first Desert Storm, on second marriage but Thank God I found her, I Love her very much and "No I'm not whipped LOL. Well if any of you remeber, lay down some lines, and I'll check back once in a while. Does anyone remember a ice cream parlor on Staples called Sugar Daddy's across from Mission Theatre. TJF