Those Places Thursday: The Store at 1809 Hemphill, Houston, Texas, ABT 1939-40

My mother, Geraldine Margaret Guokas Pape, has this cute photo in her collection of old photos.  On the back was written "Ruth Roy and Shakespeare [the cat] at store on Hemphill."  I'd also added some notes when I talked with her about the picture a few years back - it was on a side street off Shearn, where she lived, and [back then] across the street from Crockett Elementary (which she attended in the 1935-36 school year).  The photo was taken during her elementary school years (so between 1935 and 1941).



I decided to search for this two ways.  First, I looked for a Ruth Roy in Houston in the census in 1930 and 1940.  I found her in 1940, living at 1809 Hemphill - on the same census page as my mother and her family, who lived around the corner at 2215 Shearn.  Ruth's father, James William Roy (1890-1963), is listed in that census as "store owner" of a "retail grocery."  The 1939 (page 2530) and 1940 (page 1320) Houston city directories also show him as a retail grocer at that address.  According to the 1940 Census, the Roy family was living in Muskegee, Oklahoma, in April 1935, so this picture likely is 1938-1941.  This is because other city directories showed an Otis L. Bell operating the grocery at this address in 1937, and a Jesse L. Fowler in 1942.

Neither 1809 Hemphill nor 2215 Shearn exist today - the block they are on is now part of Crockett Elementary - but here is where they were located on this composite of two 1924 Sanborn maps (click on the image to make it bigger):

Above: Intersection of Shearn and Hemphill, 1924 Sanborn map composite of portions of http://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/maps/sanborn/g-i/txu-sanborn-houston-1924-vol02-227.jpg and http://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/maps/sanborn/g-i/txu-sanborn-houston-1924-vol02-228.jpg

Below:  Google Map street view of 1809 Hemphill in October 2007.  The back side of 2204 Crockett can be seen in the background - see how the upstairs window matches up with the building to the left in the photo of Ruth and Shakespeare?

You'll note that 1809 Hemphill is marked with an S, indicating a store, on the 1924 Sanborn map.  This address does not appear on the 1907 Sanborn map, and the criss-cross directories indicate it was built sometime between 1920 and 1924.  The 1925 Houston city directory is the first to show a grocer there,  L[ouis] A. Cramer (1869-1933).

The December 1950 Sanborn map for this area (which is still under copyright, so I cannot show an image) shows the building just behind Ruth and Shakespeare, with the garage on the lower level, with an address of 1807 Hemphill.  That address shows up in criss-cross directories for the relevant time period (1935-1942).   Therefore, I feel confident I have the right location for the photo at the beginning of this post.

My mother's former address of 2215 Shearn was declared dangerous in October 1993 and was ordered to be demolished within 30 days.  That had definitely happened by February 2008, as it does not appear in a Google Map street view of that date.  In early October 2009, demolition permits were issued for the old store at 1809 Hickory as well as the three remaining buildings on the 2200 block of Shearn, as well as for the five remaining buildings in the 2200 block of Crockett.  All of this property had been acquired a few years earlier by the Houston Independent School District to expand Crockett Elementary School.

Lydia Ruth Roy was born November 5, 1926, in Detroit, Michigan.  She married Dr. Thomas Robert Scott on December 24, 1952, at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Houston.  They had a daughter, Alison Louise Scott, who tragically died in a bathtub drowning just short of her first birthday in 1957, and is buried in Columbia, South Carolina.  Ruth died December 5, 2003, and is also buried in that city.


© Amanda Pape - 2019 - e-mail me!