Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Foley's Almeda-Genoa 1965 & 1966

New photos and info collected on my most recent trip to Houston and the UH Special Collections Foley's boxes yielded some fun stuff. This post combines those findings with past photographs that match up in the press coverage of the opening of Foley's 4th in 1966. It's a bit like a puzzle where I keep finding new pieces that add depth to the final picture.

This is what the building plans looked like when the store was announced in May 1965:


Note the same graphic used on the big board featured in the photo of the Foley's newsletter May 28, 1965.


But by early July, some 42 days later, with the same coverage on Northwest, Almeda's twin, the final form of the buildings are present with their unusual awnings. More on those in a few.


the larger mall in theory on the big board, not run in the coverage

Shortly after, the big sign went up on the property


looking north on the southbound Gulf Freeway Feeder at Almeda Genoa overpass

looking south from Almeda Genoa overpass 

That sign would be the backdrop for the Groundbreaking ceremonies:





more on the details of the groundbreaking are HERE in a former post



And by November 1965, things were starting to take shape.








From The Houston Chronicle, Sunday, May 29, 1966 (Page 2, section 10)






note that the artists rendering is not using the palm trees



A newly discovered aerial of Foley's, pre-Almeda Mall (or much of anything else around, for that matter)


I found my way into an oversized box I'd not previously discovered that was filled with full-page newspapers, torn by someone at Foley's tasked with keeping abreast of any media coverage and sales ads in The Houston Post and Houston Chronicle in the late-60s. 

They'd pulled and saved pieces not only on Foleys, but larger retail shopping concerns, such a desegregation and blue law changes in the South.

This was an exciting find, because the availability of these papers from this era is almost nil online, and entirely on microfiche at the Houston Public Library. Photos don't do well on microfiche scans, typically becoming impossible to make out. 

So here were the real things, slightly yellowed, but filled with viewable photographs!

I went a little crazy with the snaps. Enjoy!

Sunday, October 2, 1966 Houston Post special section:








Jet-age shopping for the busy Gulf Coast male!























 








found it interesting the choice of crop for the above, from Bailey's original:



 



























From the following week's Foley's Newsletter: 








More in this previous post HERE about grand opening festivities


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