Gulfgate Center, also known as Gulfgate Shopping City or Gulfgate Center, is a shopping center located in the East End,

Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

.Map
."

East End Management District East End Houston, managed by the East End District (EED), is a district in eastern Houston, Texas, United States, located between the eastern edge of Downtown Houston, downtown to the Port of Houston and South to William P. Hobby Airport, Hobb ...

. Retrieved on March 8, 2010. The mall is located northwest of the intersection of the

Gulf Freeway Interstate 45 (I-45) is a major Interstate Highway located entirely within the U.S. state of Texas. While most primary Interstate routes which have numbers ending in "5" are cross-country north–south routes, I-45 is comparatively short, ...

and Interstate 610. This is not an indoor shopping mall, it is a center of individual retail stores.

History

It was the first regional mall in the Houston area, opening as Gulfgate Shopping Center on 20 September 1956 with

Joske's Joske's, founded by German immigrant Julius Joske in 1867, was a department store chain originally based in San Antonio, Texas, San Antonio, Texas. In December 1928, Hahn Department Stores acquired the company along with the Titche-Goettinger dep ...

Sakowitz Sakowitz was a men's clothing store which grew into a small chain of family-owned high-end department stores based in Houston, Texas. It operated from 1902 until 1990. Sakowitz was responsible for launching many of the now-famous European fashion ...

Weingarten's Weingarten's was a supermarket chain in the Southern United States until it was acquired by Safeway in 1983. J. Weingarten, Inc. had its headquarters in what is now the East End in Houston, Texas. History Hersch Harris Weingarten, a poor Jewi ...

, J. J. Newberry and W. T. Grant. The architects were

John Graham & Company John Graham & Company, or John Graham & Associates was the name of an architectural firm, founded in 1900 in Seattle, Washington, by English-born architect John Graham (1873–1955), and maintained by his son John Graham Jr. (1908–1991). The f ...

. Popularly known as Gulfgate Mall, many remember this being the first Air Conditioned mall in America Gulfgate Kiddieland opened in the mall on 21 March 1957. In the early-1960s, while the

Manned Spacecraft Center The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) is NASA's center for human spaceflight in Houston, Texas (originally named the Manned Spacecraft Center), where human spaceflight training, research, and flight control are conducted. It was renamed in ...

(MSC) was under construction in the

Clear Lake area Clear Lake, or the Clear Lake Area, is a region in parts of Harris and Galveston County in Texas, United States. It is part of the Galveston Bay Area, which itself is a section of the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan area.Kimb ...

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

personnel opened temporary offices in center in about of floor space donated for the purpose by the Gulfgate management. MSC had a continuing operation there until additional office, engineering and laboratory space could be leased and made ready for occupation. Operations at the Gulfgate offices were largely concerned with procurement, personnel and public affairs."JSC Origins" ''JSC at 40'' (NASA)
Retrieved March 25, 2011. The shopping center was enclosed around 1967 and, after years of decline and competition, shuttered in 2000. In 2001 the original mall and the former

Mervyn's Mervyn's was an American middle-scale department store chain based in Hayward, California, and founded by Mervin G. Morris (1920–2021). It carried national brands of clothing, footwear, bedding, bath products, furniture, jewelry, beauty product ...

(across Woodridge) were demolished and redeveloped into a

strip mall A strip mall, strip center, strip plaza or simply plaza is a type of shopping mall, shopping center common in North America and Australia where the stores are arranged in a row, with a footpath in front. Strip malls are typically developed as a ...

configuration, anchored by

H-E-B H-E-B Grocery Company, LP, is an American privately held company, privately held supermarket chain based in San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas, with more than 435 stores throughout Texas and Mexico. The company also operates Central Market (Texas) ...

Best Buy Best Buy Co., Inc. is an American multinational consumer electronics retailer headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota. Originally founded by Richard M. Schulze and James Wheeler in 1966 as an audio specialty store called Sound of Music, it was r ...

Office Depot The ODP Corporation is an American office supply retailer headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida. The company operates 922 retail stores in the United States under the Office Depot and OfficeMax brands, as well as e-commerce sites and a business ...

Marshalls Marshalls, Inc. is an American chain of discount store, off-price department stores owned by TJX Companies. Marshalls has over 1,000 American stores, including larger stores named Marshalls Mega Store (stores operating with HomeGoods combined), ...

, and

Lowe's Lowe's Companies, Inc. ( ) is an American retail company specializing in home improvement. Headquartered in Mooresville, North Carolina, the company operates a chain of retail stores in the United States. As of October 28, 2022, Lowe's and i ...

Anchors

Old Navy Old Navy is an American clothing and accessories retailing company owned by multinational corporation Gap Inc. It has corporate operations in the Mission Bay, San Francisco, Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco, California. The largest of t ...

Ross Dress for Less Ross Stores, Inc., operating under the brand name Ross Dress for Less, is an American chain of discount department stores headquartered in Dublin, California. It is the largest off-price retailer in the U.S.; as of July 2024, Ross operates 1,795 ...

* Staples *

(Gulfgate West across Woodridge) *

Claire's Claire's (formerly known as Claire's Boutiques, Claire's Boutique and Claire's Accessories) is an American retailer of accessories, jewelry, and toys primarily aimed towards tween and teen girls, and young women. It was founded in 1961 and i ...

Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational List of coffeehouse chains, chain of coffeehouses and Starbucks Reserve, roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1971 by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gor ...

Panda Express Panda Express is an American fast food restaurant chain that specializes in American Chinese cuisine. With over 2,400 locations, it is the largest Asian-segment restaurant chain in the United States, and is mainly located in North America and Asi ...

The Children's Place The Children’s Place is a retailer of clothing for children. It sells its products primarily under its proprietary brands The Children’s Place, Gymboree, Sugar & Jade, PJ Place and Crazy 8. The company has about 525 stores in the U.S., Canada ...

Wingstop Wingstop Inc. is an American international chain of restaurants that primarily sells buffalo wings. Wingstop locations are decorated with a 1930s and 1940s pre-jet aviation theme. The restaurant chain was founded in 1994 in Garland, Texas, a ...

Party City New AmScan PC LLC formerly, Party City Holdco Inc. is an American chain of party supply stores founded in 1986 by Steve Mandell in East Hanover, New Jersey. Party City's headquarters are in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey. Party City was the largest ...

* Cicis *

KFC KFC Corporation, doing business as KFC (an abbreviation of Kentucky Fried Chicken), is an American fast food restaurant chain specializing in fried chicken and chicken sandwiches. Headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, it is the world's se ...

* Chuck E. Cheese

Former mall anchors

All stores demolished in 2001 *

228,900 sq. ft. (became

Dillard's Dillard's, Inc. is an American department store chain with approximately 267 stores in 29 states and headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas. Currently, the largest number of stores are located in Texas with 57 and Florida with 42. The company a ...

Clearance Center in 1987) *

128,900 sq. ft. (closed in 1985, remained vacant) * J. J. Newberry 69,400 sq. ft. (became HJ Wilson Catalog Showroom on unknown date) * W. T. Grant (closed in 1976) *

(closed in 1983, became Pic 'N' Save, then MacFrugal's in 1991) * H. J. Wilson Co. (became

Service Merchandise Service Merchandise was a retail chain of catalog showrooms carrying jewelry, toys, sporting goods and electronics. The company, which first began in 1934 as a five-and-dime store, was in existence for 68 years before ceasing operations in 2002 ...

in 1985) *

Clearance Center (closed in 1997, remained vacant) *

(closed in 1999, remained vacant) * MacFrugal's (closed in 2000) *

Anna's Linens Anna's Linens was an American retailer. It was based in Costa Mesa, California. History The company was founded in 1987 by Alan Gladstone, who named the store after his mother. The first location opened in Los Angeles, California. In 1993, the c ...

(closed in 2015)

Former Gulfgate West anchors

* Globe Discount City (closed in 1978 and became

FedMart FedMart was a chain of discount department stores started by Sol Price, who later founded Price Club. Originally a discount department store open to government employees paying a $2 per family membership fee, FedMart earned four times more than i ...

) *

Membership Store (closed in 1981 and became

in 1984) *

(closed in 1989 and remained vacant for several years until it was demolished and rebuilt as

in 2001)

References

External links

*Barlow, Jim.
More to Gulfgate than meets the eye
" ''

Houston Chronicle The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. ...

''. Sunday July 10, 2001. Business 1. *Vaughn, Carol E.
Gulfgate demolition building up neighborhood
" ''

''. March 14, 2001. {{Houston Shopping Shopping malls in Houston Shopping malls established in 1956