Beamer, the HFD Firehouse Dog

In spring 1985, the Leader ran this photo on its front page.

The puppy was later named Beamer.

He served the firehouse as mascot for 14 years before his passing.

1987 Texas Science Olympiad

1987 Tort Reforms and Leukemia Benefit

1964 South Belt

The other aerials from the University of Houston Foley's Files of the coming Almeda Mall area were taken in March and September 1964 from slightly different angles.

Since the 1961 aerial, the turn-abouts at Fuqua have been completed but no road yet.

here's a more zoomed in section of the aerial of Beverly Hills homes and schools

Had the aerial been a bit more wide, we likely would have seen the earlier construction of the first homes in Sagemont, as this memo dated in June of that year reports 48 homes already completed with another 9 being sold each week.

The September 1964 flyover shot was further south so we can account for Sagewood, Sageville, Sageway, and Sagedowne which was the first section, as well as the next phase (on the other side of the ditch) getting started on Sageoak and what appears to be the first home at the corner of Sageland and Sagedowne completed. 


The only connecting road between Beverly Hills and Sagemont was the Gulf Freeway.

Note that they were not building home sites up to the South Belt road itself. Those homes would be added later. The first home built, on Sageville, was at the southwest corner of Sageville and Sageway. A blog post about that home's first owners is here. 

That piece recounted a move in date of July 1964, so this September aerial would be  just a couple of months after the first owners were able to move in. I count about 75 driveways in the photo, which means sales were picking up between July and September if they are selling 9 a week.

Three years later, and it appears all the homes on Sagehaven and Sagearbor, up to where the Texas Commerce Bank will be built in 1979, are visible.

by permission, Bob Bailey Studios Photographic Archive, e_bb_6429

The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin

from the September 1967 Ayreshire files, here's what those first streets looked like with 3 year old trees: 

1987 Art and Math

1987 Dobie High Swim Team

August 1961 Pre-South Belt Aerial

One of the aerials among the University of Houston Foley Files, taken in August of 1961. 

The Gulfway Drive-In Theater is far right. There is no Fuqua or South Belt to exit from the Gulf Freeway. What will be the Beltway runs across the very bottom of the photo.

The clover leaf exchange further north is Almeda-Genoa. Someone marked the area that would become the Almeda Mall property in ball point pen.

Hobby Airport runways are visible top left.

1987 Principal Jerry Speer Portrait

1987 Dobie JV Cheerleaders

1987 Frazier Elementary Students of the Month

1987 Get Well Soon Charlene Terry

1987 Bettie J. Holt

1987 Ready for Rodeo and Thompson Pentathlon

1987 Lead in the School Desks

1987 Sagemont Stars E-8

1987 Coach Scott Talton

1987 Dentist J.R. Mellard

1987 100 Days of School at Weber

1987 Sabo Townhome Fire

1987 National Science League

1987 Academic Decathlon Team

1987 Beverly Hills Arbor Day

1987 Thompson African Safari Art

1987 Sagemont Spurs U16

1987 Remember When . . . there was only 10 years of history?

1987 Annie Rehearsal

1987 Auto Body Class Project

1987 Dobie Runners Compete

UH Foley's Archives: Almeda-Genoa and Almeda Mall

The University of Houston Special Collections people were such a pleasure to work with! 

And their scads of boxes of Foley's documents, ephemera, and photographs were a treasure trove of discoveries. 

Herewith, what I found on my first pass through their holdings regarding Foley's Almeda Genoa, generally in as much chronology as I can piece together across so many boxes from the first mentions in 1961 through 1976. I've also added the few photos purchased from UT and HPL (watermarked) that fit into this chronology as well as a couple of newspaper clippings.

1961

(awaiting a high resolution photograph of this one currently)

What you see above was an early aerial of one land option Foley's was considering for its fourth satellite store. 

The South Belt/Beltway would be at the very bottom of this photo.

There is no Fuqua at all, only the strip off of I-45 where the Breezeway held court. 

The clover leaf at the top center was Almeda Genoa.

The Gulway Drive-In Theater is visible far right, down the Shaver side of the road.

The Sand pits are at left on the Almeda Genoa side.

Hobby Airport runways are visible, top left

Only the very first Beverly Hills homes were built. There is no Sagemont or Kirkmont at all.

1962

But this space wasn't their first choice. There are quite a lot of memos discussing the first choice, at FM 528. Del Webb's Clear Lake development, though, wasn't forthcoming with information and that appeared to finally cool their interest.

They also looked at Airport Blvd. but the costs ended up prohibitive.

Some of the meetings apparently had plenty of naysayers, unable to wrap their heads around how any store that far out on the prairie was economically viable.

1963/64

Aerial of the area in 1964, with the first streets of Sagemont visible at the bottom. 

Fuqua does not yet exist, but the turn-arounds have been set into place on the Gulf Freeway there.

Beverly Hills has expanded. Sand Pits and Gulfway still visible.

Closer-in with the Almeda Genoa property outlined in red.

 1965

taken standing atop the cloverleaf overpass at the time, looking southward to the land where Almeda Mall would take shape. The billboard at the left announces the coming Foleys.

looking north

stamped on the back of the above photograph

Taped to some paper in one of the files were two blurry photographs of the start of construction in November 1965:

The Rouse company put out this brochure with artistic mock-ups of Almeda and Northwest construction

They already had a list of prospective tenants for the mall, still 3 years away:

The Ground Breaking for the store was November 23, 1965, with all the nearby communities' mayors included in the guest list

1966

February

As early as 1965 businesses were vying for retail space in the coming 1968 mall plans:

I could not resist a copy of the Community and Research Development memo about 90° parking spaces, particularly for the "woman driver" who needs all the flexibility she can get:

June

From the Port-Foley-O newsletter, photos of Almeda-Genoa's construction progress:

August 1966:

The map outlining where the building would be located made it seem so large, there couldn't be room enough for a mall to follow:

September

all by itself . . . for now.

September 28 at the Preview Party, by invitation only

punch and cookies upstairs in Piece Goods

and from inside the Terrace, smoke break!

 October

October 3 was the Grand Opening to the public with 

Strangely, the same month Foley's Almeda-Genoa opened, some behind the scenes memos were questioning what to name the Mall itself in the coming year. Penney's had entered into an agreement that allowed them some input on the name and they wanted Almeda and Northwest to be named Kingswood and Queenswood, like a matched pair.

Two weeks later, Bill Shiffick seemed to put an end to the name game:

November

Work is already underway to prep the site for the Mall and fill it with tenants.

And a few days later, the Postal Center was opened to some fanfare.

1968: Almeda Mall opens

a list of the original tenants of Almeda Mall, 1968

This photo I was able to match up with a piece run in the Houston Chronicle on New Years Day, 1969

also from 1969

Some additional photos from the last of the sixties and early seventies Port-Foley-O newsletter:

In 1974, Foley's was expanding again, with plans announced in the last newsletter of 1973

and not finished until March of 1975

I stopped going through the newsletters this trip at end the of 1976 because I was running out of time, and because in 1977 they moved to a different format, with a lot of fold-out pages that would have been a lot more time consuming to pour over. Next time!

the 1976 Almeda Mall tenants

But, since we stopped at 1976, I have to include the 1976 Christmas photos of the mall to close out!