Telephone Road - Burton Chapman

Telephone Road, Texas:  A History and Guide to Telephone Road and Southeast Houston.  By Burton Chapman.   Friendswood:  Baxter Press, 2007.  Paperback, 157 pages, many black and white photos.  $15.95  ISBN 978-1-888237-78-8  http://www.telephoneroadtexas.com

 Chapman's born and educated in Houston, but he's drifted south to Pearland which is at the south end of Telephone Road.

For those unaware of the world's major travelways, Telephone Road roughly parallels Houston's Gulf Freeway for a few miles both north and south of the 610 South Loop.  Folks living there go way back, even to the sparse ranching days of the 1800's.

Chapman's chapters suggest some of the major widely-known landmarks:  Christy Brothers Circus, Hobby Airport, Gulfgate Mall, and the Manned Spacecraft Center.  Some now fading from memory (but less so with this book) are the Sam Allen Ranch, Galveston-Houston Interurban, Christy Brothers Circus, and the Golfcrest Country Club, etc. 

From these and other chapters, Chapman selects for is final 11^th chapter 20 "Interesting Places."  Yes, he's got the Orange Show, Tel-Wink Grill, the Typewriter and Adding Machine Exchange, the Ukranian Orthodox Monastery of the Four Evangelists, and a good eatery Loma Linda's Mexican Restaurant.

He does more than point and identify, he gives history.  For example, the Santa Rosa Theater once was THE place to go, really a classy, family place, and then it declined until its screen displayed flailing body parts in unclassy settings.  It fell to demolition.

But thanks to Chapman, Telehphone Road lives and remembers.