What Has Happened to Washington Avenue?

By Chris Gray Tue., Jan. 15 2013 at 10:00 AM

Photo by Son Lam

Several former Playboy Playmates visited Ei8ht Bar last August.

Chris Dunaway: "Answer: Washington Avenue has been terrible for a while now."

Joshua Justice: "Yes Jimi, if only they had more parking, it wouldn't ended up like every other Houston entertanment district ever."

Stanley Smith: "Washington has grown past the capability of the neighborhood(s) too many bars, not enough anything else."

Adam Castaneda: "Now THIS is what comptrolling is really all about. Thumbs up."

Stanley Smith: "You'd think with all the additional tax revenue generated by the Washington Ave businesses the city would encourage improvement."

Photo by Son Lam

The scene at Hughes Hangar, one of Washington's most opulent nightclubs, in June 2012.

NewRider Ivan: "Wonder what took so long. That part of Washington has been dying since The Lot started slowing down. Sucks, I used to really like the Lot, before all the ghetto people started going in. The staff was freaking great there too. Pearl Bar, I always thought it sucked. Was cool when they had the music awards shows up and down those bars, though."

Austin Cooley: "The place used to be Mary Jane's, the site of many a cool show. There was a time when that stretch of Washington had a number of great music venues -- not anymore. Don't worry, when the douchebags finally completely abandon that area, those sorts of venues will return."

Roland Gonzalez: "Where are all the HOUSTON DOUCHEBAGS going to be at on weekends?? hopefully not on the Westheimer / Montrose area..... WE DONT WANT THEM THERE !!!"

Follow @hprocksoff

Tags:

nightlife, Washington Avenue

We Recommend

timebombtina

I agree with @binaural42. And whose bright idea was it to try to change Montrose to dumb ass Neartown? It will always be Montrose!

Alfonse

I bet the next in line is Upper Heights. There are some clubs that are beginning to show the strain of the hipster crowd. It's time to also ruin the place around Fitzgerald's.

iMidget

1 Like

I've mentioned this before, but it would be interesting to see a socioeconomic study done throughout lifecycle of the Houston bar/club areas.

Anse

1 Like

Of all the trendy party scenes this town has had, the worst has to be Richmond Ave. That area flamed out at a time when Houstonians were still moving to the suburbs/exurbs in droves and nobody really cared about living in the city proper. So Richmond turned into Stripper Alley, and who, besides sleazeballs, really wants to hang out in a neighborhood like that? Midtown and Washington Ave have too much residential development to just dry up and die. I can only hope that the douchebags don't end up on North Shepherd. I'm worried about it a little bit. I just moved to Oak Forest, and the last time I went to Cottonwood, there was a yacht rock cover band playing and the crowd had ominous douchey overtones.

texmex01 topcommenter

@Anse Richmond Ave was pretty nice during the late 80s-early 90s, befor the gangbangers showed up....

Anse

I wouldn't doubt it if Richmond Avenue comes back around eventually. But probably not as long as the strip clubs are there.

basshole

The reason the area's popularity is fading is because it was reliant on hip young folks to create the scene. Well guess what, people don't stay young forever and the new generation wants something new for themselves. Trends are by definition fleeting, so if you cater to people who care about the "scene," expect to have a short shelf life.

binaural42

5 Like

Just please, keep your Washington out of my Montrose.

JacobD

Just because Pearl Bar owed some money to the comptroller, doesn't mean all the clubs on Washington are going down and won't continue to pack house every weekend.. I know you hipsters were hoping the people who don't give you a time of day would disappear, wishful thinking.

J.A.Justice topcommenter

1 Like

@JacobD Washington Avenue has been crumbling for well over a year. The list of shuttered/turned over bars is in double digits. This is just another nail in the coffin. Those of us who have been around long enough to watch people flee Downtown and Richmond Strip recognize it when we see it.

I feel sorry that you take the demise of places like Kobain and Pearl as a personal attack on your homestead. It's kind of like someone defending their clap infection when the penicillin comes calling.

Eric McPhail

2 Like

I miss the venues. Explosions in the Sky at Mary Jane's was brilliant.

forsidney

I wonder if this is good or bad for my home value??!! hmmm

H_e_x

And to think that people living in those new condos behind walters blamed the venue for their problems. The problem wasn't the clientele at walters, but from the people going to these new douche-bars.

Robert Medlin

*Paula Cole voice* "Where have all the douchebags gone-oooone??"

Holla Atchyamomma

2 Like

My apartment complex is a nexxus of brotastic activity--and during the Summer, the pool has a lovely oily sheen to it.

gossamersixteen topcommenter

@Holla Atchyamomma Haha you must live on the WOW or in or around archstone..

Amanda Lewis

1 Like

Good riddance. It has gone from borderline blight to over-developed. I live in the area and my daily douchebag encounters have quadrupled. Time to ease back

gossamersixteen topcommenter

6 Like

I moved away from Rice Military for these reasons, it was invaded in the evenings and more so on the weekends by horribly inconsiderate 30k millionaires from the burbs, replete with trite mall fashion and Kardashian-esque sensibilities. They had no problem running bicyclists off of the road, in a rush to get their used BMW's parked, and to sample some obscure awful tasting microbrew whilst sampling some head to tail locally sourced offal. Some of the original places are missed, like walters, the old fat cats, even cahill's had a good Vienna beef Chicago dog this was all paved over for trendy glitzy non-sense, for people with more money than common sense. I much preferred when it was factories and run down places when going to places like the vatican to see shows was an adventure, eating decent mexican food across the street with the band playing that night (now candelari's). Oh well time keeps moving on..

cityandcountry

2 Like

Now while I hate douchebags..I dont like stupid hispters like yourself as well.... who thinks you are the author of cool...everything you do is obviosuly so cool trendy and non-douchy...haha..idiot

gossamersixteen topcommenter

@cityandcountry Capitalizing letters is obviously not cool, but insulting people at random is. Hypocrisy at it's finest/worst your call (dot dot dot)..