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Forum: Places from our Past

TOPIC: 

Epsom Downs

Created on: 08/20/09 07:58 PM Views: 3678 Replies: 9
Epsom Downs 9716 Jensen Drive
Posted Thursday, August 20, 2009 02:58 PM

Opened in the 50's. More to come.

Connie Redden69
http://forums.delphiforums.com/tigers9975/start

 
RE: Epsom Downs 9716 Jensen Drive
Posted Friday, March 5, 2010 09:50 AM

I cannot belive someone remembers the Epsom Downs. I went there numerous times.

Brings back Old Memories

Donnie Moore

 
RE: Epsom Downs 9716 Jensen Drive
Posted Tuesday, March 30, 2010 02:55 PM

Actually Epsom Downs was originally a horse track in the 1920's-30's, before all the do-gooders outlawed parimutual betting the first time. That is where it got the name from..........................That little tid-bit and .85 cents will get you a cup of coffee in darn near any Mickey D's. you walk into.

 
Edited 03/30/10 02:59 PM
RE: Epsom Downs 9716 Jensen Drive
Posted Tuesday, March 30, 2010 03:24 PM

Your right, it was a horse track, but in the 60's it was a place were guy's could go and watch girls dance burlisque. I think I was 16 or 17 years old.

Donnie Moore

 

 
RE: Epsom Downs 9716 Jensen Drive
Posted Tuesday, March 30, 2010 03:36 PM

Yeah, it did get kinda "SEEDY". I believe it was repainted and spruced up in the late 70's or early 80's and several movie scenes were shot there. I don't remember the name of the movie, but seems like Dennis Quaid played in it. Maybe some one else has some input. 

 
RE: Epsom Downs 9716 Jensen Drive
Posted Monday, April 5, 2010 01:05 AM

Oh yes,  the old Epsom Downs Drive Inn Theatre.  I lived about 4 blocks from there and I can remember we would walk over to the road that ran along the theatre and watch the "bad" shows, lol

 
RE: Epsom Downs 9716 Jensen Drive
Posted Monday, April 5, 2010 02:27 PM

Is this the theater on Jensen that had the cowboy on the bucking bronc out front? If it is I remember going there in the mid 50's to what movie I can't remember, but I sure remember some of the images that followed in some trailer: There were these shots of women in various roles as homemakers in the newest of 50's suburban settings only the girls were only wearing full frontal aprons and high heels.  My father couldn't get us out of that place fast enough, though my brothers and I were to say the least curious enough to be rapt to the screen til it was out of sight. I still have that one fond memory of the blond kitchen maid's backside with nothing covering it but the apron bowstring. Ah, to be five again!

 
RE: Epsom Downs 9716 Jensen Drive
Posted Tuesday, June 29, 2010 05:34 PM

And now the Epsom Downs Drive In Theater is a Park and Ride for Houston Metro.

 
RE: Epsom Downs 9716 Jensen Drive
Posted Wednesday, June 30, 2010 04:01 PM

The Epson Downs movie theatre was great when I was a kid.  We use to go there on Monday which was $1.00 night.  Pack a truck or car full, pop some pop corn and take a bottle of coke and watch the movies.  They had swings up front where little kids could swing and play and watch the movie.  I watched many a movie there when I was a kid.  It was only later that it became a B movie place.  Then it just set there for a long time.  Now it is a Metro Bus stop.

Martha Stanley Maggard (Class of 1962). 

 
Edited 06/30/10 04:04 PM
RE: Epsom Downs
Posted Monday, December 1, 2014 01:47 PM

MORE INFO

This is the horse track that was on the northeast side of Harris County.

There aren't too many reminders of the old track, other than newspaper clippings, advertisements, postcards and a few photos.

Its opening on Thanksgiving Day 1933 drew 27,000 people, a figure the WPA Guide to Houston said was the largest gathering at any Houston sporting event.

The Houston Chronicle reported that some 3,000 people jammed the Southern Pacific Railroad Station that day to board trains heading to Epsom Downs and College Station for the annual UT-A&M game.

The station was a hub-bub of conversation and snatches of football dope mingled with the newer jargon of the race tracks as everyone excitedly discussed his or her choice of the football teams or the horses. It was a strange sound to hear the horse race chatter after many years of no racing in Texas as the conversation floated across the air in the old Southern Pacific Station, nestling behind the steel framework of the new depot now under construction.

Alas, Epsom Downs wasn't open very long and closed once the state abolished parimutuel betting in 1937.

Connie Redden69
http://forums.delphiforums.com/tigers9975/start

 
 



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