Back in the 60's and 70's a lot of hippy types lived there because the rent was low, but that changed later on. In the 80's the neighborhood became more upscale and the property values went up, mainly due to upper class gays buying property and fixing it up and generally sprucing up the area. The neighborhood had just a little bit of everything, always another surprise-especially for me because I'd always lived in such conservative neighborhoods. A real busy Teen Challenge drug rehab place was down the street from my father's place, people constantly coming in and out. Also people frequently falling down and passing out on the sidewalk, either high on drugs or alcohol.
That neighborhood was the only place I had ever seen where gays and lesbians walked down the street holding hands and kissing. I used to live with him off and on for a few years-the neighborhood back then was a real bohemian mix of gays and hippies, as well as older residents that had lived there a long time. He lived there for about 20 years until he evenually sold it-I could strangle him for doing it because the house is now worth over half a million dollars, a tiny fraction of what he originally paid for it! He had his office/business on the ground floor and lived upstairs. It was a sturdily built brick house, around Sul Ross and Branard, that had an old radiator system to heat the house with a big boiler in the kitchen. My father moved to the Montrose area around 1967 when my parents got divorced-he bought a two story house that was built in the 1920's or 30's that really had a lot of character. I remember driving up to the Prince's on Westheimer and Montrose getting waited on by a bell hop.
You never knew if the elevator was going to make it. I remember the Palace Club in the old Montrose building. I remember Lydia Houston, a beauty school across the street from Art Wren's. I remember Tim Shaw's Modeling Agency on Westheimer. Alabama and Kiping was the Bayou Landing and the Old Plantation. We would go to the Farmhouse off of Westheimer on Joanel. I remember having to wait until 2:00AM to go to the clubs because that's when "after hours" started and I wasn't 21 just yet. She had Veronica Lake red hair and she was 150 years old. Wren, and a hostess by the name of Sammie. In those days, you could not be caught dead coming out of Art Wren's Silver Dollar Saloon.
The featured fashion for women was a pair of blue jean overalls. I remember when Tootsies first opened in lower Westheimer. I remember the Empanada House on Westheimer and Utter Delight Ice Cream. It later became a gay bookstore treehouse. I remember Los Troncos treehouse restaurant. Tijerina would yell at sales people and throw them out of the restaurant. I remember Frank the waiter who always did the math for the check at the table. I loved Hamburgers by Gourmet at the corner of Yoakum and West Alabama. Gay bars were everywhere, and adult bookstores too. The Bachannal restaurant, Alexanders, Lilians Maison de Crepes, you could actually eat outside! I remember Bev's Million Dollar City Dump, a dinner theatre which turned into Numbers later on. I also remember lower Westheimer on the week-ends. We saw a lot of rough women come out of that place. The Roaring Sixties was across the street.
I would wait on rich kids who bought a ton of plaid Pierre Cardin suits. I worked in the Red Hanger Department of Battlestein's River Oaks.