🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <C1Gz76.3wK@rice.edu> skadron@owlnet.rice.edu (Kevin Skadron) writes:
>I don't think the Village cinema will be torn down; there was an oblique
>reference in the Chronicle to a desire to have it placed on the National
>Historical Register.

Don't bet on it.  Market Square downtown (by the bayou) is a National
Historical District, but in danger of losing that status as old
buildings bite the dust.  Just in the last year, two or three of the
oldest buildings in town were demolished.  Kennedy Corner was the
oldest, from around 1860, and the owner just let it rot until it
almost fell down on its own.  The Pappas family (you know, the ones
that have those fake old restaurants) tore down another, after
"accidentally" getting a demolition permit they weren't entitled to.

And the Rice/Weingarten Realty partnership has already told World Toy
(next door to the Village Theater) that they will be kicked out.  The
owner (one of the two old ladies) didn't take it too well, and has
since died -- her nephew says of a broken heart.

The Shamrock Hotel was a lot more historic and had a lot more popular
support than the Village Theater, and it's *gone*.

--paco
--
Paul Havlak			Dept. of Computer Science
Graduate Student		Rice University, Houston TX 77251-1892
PFC/ParaScope projects		(713) 527-8101 x2738 	paco@cs.rice.edu