Main at Preston - Foley Brothers
3 December 1934: 1. 403 Main: Scanlan Building, 12 floors, 1909; 2. 407-9
Main: Marquee: "Foley Bros." Dry Goods, 9 floors, by this time the largest mercantile establishment in Houston. The floor plan was T-shaped, with wings at the back that gave access onto Preston Street to the north and Prairie Street to the south; 3. 415 Main: Marquee: "Franklin's" Ladies' Clothing Store; 4. 513-19 Main: The Binz Bldg, 6 floors, 1895; 5. 914 Main: Chamber of Commerce Building, 24 floors, 1929; 6. 802-808 Main: Second National Bank Building (Carter Building), 17 floors, 1917, 6 added floors 1923-25; 7. 710-724 Main: Gulf Building, 37 floors, 1929; 8. 708 Main: Bankers Mortgage Building, 10 floors, 1908, (1921 north building expansion to Capitol); 9. 518 Main (909 Texas): Rice Hotel, 17 floors, opened 1913, 3rd wing added in 1925; 10. 420 Main: Title Guaranty Building (Second National Bank, Lumberman's Bank), 3 floors, 1908; 11. 412 Main: State National Bank Building, 15 floors, 1923. For one of the earliest locations of the Foley Brothers, see the 1906 postcard of The Cotton Exchange, where the William L. Foley store can be seen at left advertising Dry Goods, Carpets, Etc.. |
3 August 2012: Placement of the camera is a few feet off, but standing on the tracks would have been dangerous, and might have earned a ticket from the lurking police. 1. 403 Main: Scanlan Building, 12 floors, 1909; 2. 501 Main: McCrory Building (included Isis Theatre 1913-1929, once a silent movie theater), 3 floors, 1912; 3. Texas 1001: Binz Building, 13 floors, 1982; 4. 705 Main: St. Germain Lofts (S. H. Kress Five and Dime department store), 8 floors, 1913 (renovated 1999 to apartments); 5. 811 Main: BG Group Place (Main Place, Block 93), 46 floors, 2011; 6. 1021 Main: One City Centre (First National Bank), 32 floors, 1961; 7. 1000 Main: Reliant Energy Plaza, 36 floors, 2003; 8. 712 Main: Gulf Building, 36 floors, 1929; 9. 601 Travis (901 Capitol, 600 Main, 900 Texas): JPMorgan Chase Center, 20 floors, 1982; 10. 909 Texas: Rice Hotel, 17 floors, opened 1913, 3rd wing added in 1925, 18th floor added 1951; 11. 420 Main: Byrd's Lofts (Byrd's Department Store), 4 floors, 1934 {built on the site of Lumberman's Bank}; 12. 412 Main: Moxy Hotel (State National Bank Building), 15 floors, 1923.
The Foley Brothers building was demolished after it was moved into its new modern building at 1110 Main in 1947 where Foley's occupied the entire block. That iconic store itself was imploded on September 22, 2013 to be replaced by 23 floor Hilcorp Energy Tower facing Travis at #1111 in 2016, |
To: Mrs Bessie Kaiser
3217 Phoenix Ave Cincinnati Ohio Postmarked: December 3, 1934 Houston, Texas 2 Stamp: 1c Deep Green Ben Franklin #552 Message: Dear Ma., Arrived here today & am leaving tomorrow for Mobile. sure is nice down here, warm weather & everything answer to ship a New Orleans Ted |
` Theodore Harry Kaiser was a 22-year-old sailor in the merchant marine when he wrote this card to his mother in Cheviot, a suburb just northwest of Cincinnati, Ohio. He was visiting Houston only briefly on his way to New Orleans, LA, a striking young man, rather tall at six feet two inches, with blue eyes and brown hair. He had left home as a young man and struck out on his own, leaving behind a family of 13 younger siblings: Bessie (1913), Lawrence Price (1915), Albert Victor (1918), Frank Woerner (1921), Mary Jane (1923), Walter (1926), Richard Calvin (1927), Grace (1930), James (1932). In addition, his mother lost twins in 1916, and a daughter in 1920. As the wife of a plumber with 14 children, Bessie faced many challenges, and Ted must have wanted to reassure her that he was all right.
Ted was the third in his line to be called Theodore Kaiser. The first was his grandfather, Theodore Conrad Kaiser, born in 1863 in Ohio, son of Conrad Kaiser and Barbara Schneider from Germany and Switzerland. Ted’s father was Theodore Charles Kaiser, his mother Bessie Price, daughter of Newton P. Price and Sedora Jane Blackburn. A few years later in 1937 in Ohio he married Gladys Juanita Richardson, daughter of Samuel Richardson and Rosa King of Chattanooga, TN. During WWII Ted served in the Merchant Marine Service from 7 April 1944 until 15 August 1945. Ted and Gladys had two daughters, Delores (1939) and Jacqueline (1940), Ted worked as a machinist in Cincinnati. The marriage came to an end and in 1946 at Manhattan, NY Ted married Crystalia Demetra Macris, whose parents Peter and Evangeline were refugees from the Greco-Turkish War. Peter operated a delicatessen in Queens, NY. In 1952 Gladys married George Price Ball, owner of Ball Metals in Albuquerque, but by 1957 she had ended the marriage and married a third time to Norman Judkins East. Gladys died in 2005 and Norman in 2012; they are buried in Willamette National Cemetery in Clark County, WA. Ted Kaiser died 24 April 1990 in Orange County, CA, and Crystalia died in 2008. They are buried in Fair Haven Memorial Park, Santa Ana, Orange County, CA. |