Walter's
The Houston rock room that ran for eighteen years across two addresses — Washington Avenue, then 1120 Naylor Street — and closed on February 4, 2018.
Walter's operated first at 4215 Washington Avenue, as Walter's on Washington, and then at 1120 Naylor Street on the near Northside, as Walter's Downtown. The published venue record gives the earlier name as Walter's on Washington, 2000 to 2011, and the Naylor Street room as opening on December 25, 2011 and closing on February 4, 2018.
The Washington Avenue room shut in June 2011 after owner Pam Robinson gave her landlord sixty days' notice. Her son Zack Palmer, who had worked at the club since he was fourteen, ran the Naylor Street venue until the closing announcement in January 2018.
Quick reference
- Where was Walter's?
- 4215 Washington Avenue, then 1120 Naylor Street, Houston
- When did Walter's close?
- February 4, 2018
- What was Walter's's capacity?
- 190 at the Naylor Street room, per the published venue record and the Houston Press report of the move. Free Press Houston's own pages describe a 500-capacity room; the two figures disagree and are held side by side rather than reconciled.
- Who operated Walter's?
- Pam Robinson, then Zack Palmer
Identity
At a glance
- Walter's
- 4215 Washington Avenue, then 1120 Naylor Street, Houston
- 2000—2018, across two locations
- 190 at the Naylor Street room, per the published venue record and the Houston Press report of the move. Free Press Houston's own pages describe a 500-capacity room; the two figures disagree and are held side by side rather than reconciled.
- Pam Robinson, then Zack Palmer
- February 4, 2018
History
What the sources establish
Walter's on Washington was part of the Washington Avenue music corridor, a strip of converted properties that carried much of Houston's independent booking through the 2000s. It was one of three rooms associated with Pam Robinson, alongside Silky's and Mary Jane's Fat Cat.
After nearly two years of relocation talk, the Washington Avenue room closed in June 2011 following a sixty-day notice given on March 1 that year. The venue reopened downtown, at the corner of Naylor and Vine, on December 25, 2011.
Free Press Houston covered the club throughout both eras. Its own pages describe the Naylor Street venue as the mid-sized room the city lacked and record the club's reputation for taking care of touring bands; those are the paper's statements, kept as written rather than adopted as the archive's assessment.
The closing was announced abruptly on the venue's own Facebook page at the end of January 2018. The final show was held on February 4, 2018, ending an eighteen-year run across the two addresses.
Address lineage
4215 Washington Avenue, and 4216 across the street
Walter's first room stood at 4215 Washington Avenue from 2000 until June 2011. The Houston Press and the Houston Chronicle give the street number independently.
Directly across the street, 4216 Washington Avenue held Mary Jane's Fat Cat from 1994 to 2006, a room that had earlier operated as the Bon Ton Room and the Shimmy Shack and that Pam Robinson also ran. The archive keeps that address as a single record under its successive names.
The final Walter's, at 1120 Naylor Street, is a different building on the near Northside and shares no lineage with either Washington Avenue address.
Archival views
Held photographs
Chronology
Dated record
- Walter's on Washington opens
- Sixty-day notice given
- The Washington Avenue room closes
- Walter's Downtown opens at 1120 Naylor Street
- Closing announced
- Final show
Held records
25 recovered Free Press Houston pages name this venue
- Different Times: An Interview with eyeagainst
- Crazy To Think About: An Interview with White Reaper
- Priests: The Rhythm, The Rebel
- An Interview with House of Kenzo and Santa Muerte
- Always Transforming: An Interview with Big Thief
- It All Begins With a Fairy Tale: An Interview with Tele Novella
- Pop Music Has a Sense of Urgency: An Interview with Japanese Breakfast
- Everything Exists At The Same Time: An Interview with Mitski
- Houstonian Tales: John Baldwin
- Local Love: Another Run
- Help Save Local Music By Saving Walter’s
- Fuck Yeah, Let’s Go
Related
Elsewhere in the archive
Walter's sits alongside Fitzgerald's, Jet Lounge, the Engine Room and Mary Jane's Fat Cat in the archive's directory of lost Houston music venues, which records the rooms the paper covered and, in Fitzgerald's case, booked.
Location
1120 Naylor Street
1120 Naylor Street
Houston, TX
Sources
What this record is built from