Showing posts with label Houston. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Houston. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 21, 2019

A Trader Joe's Opens in the Alabama Theatre--in Houston

On November 2, 1939, an art deco movie house named the Alabama Theatre opened in Houston, Texas. The first film shown was The Man About Town with comedian Jack Benny. In December 1983 a final movie appeared on the screen, the low budget horror title Mortuary. The Alabama Bookstop opened in the theater the following year. That business, later acquired by Barnes and Noble, operated until September 2009. You can see photos of the bookstore interior at this site

Despite several proposals, the facility's future remained in doubt until 2011 when the Trader Joe's market chain announced plans to open its first store in the Houston area. The next year the chain opened that store in the former theater and preserved much of its exterior and interior architectural delights. 

The Alabama in Houston was built in the same year as the River Oaks Theatre; both were owned by the Interstate chain. That company, which operated from 1905 until 1976, had vaudeville houses and movie theaters in Texas, Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana. I have not found any mention of operations in Alabama. Perhaps founder Karl Hoblitzelle admired our own Alabama Theatre in Birmingham, which had opened in 1927.

The Trader Joe's at The Summit is nice, but we seldom shop on the 280 corridor. If only Joe's had chosen a historic building downtown to re-purpose...

UPDATE 4 May 2021

Erum Salam has written a fascinating article about shopping at this Trader Joe's that includes appreciation of the remaining Art Deco features. 




Source: Wikipedia