Mid Main District x madpot

Our partnership and support of Houston cultural epicenter - Mid Main Houston is a timeless project resulting in lifetime friendships. It represents the mad potential of great connections and a cultural playground of art and creativity. Madpot also happens when a collective of people find inspiration from each other and together create something new and that energy pervades Houston’s Midtown neighborhood, Mid Main District. 

Our relationship began with Bianca volunteering for the Houston Parks Board Bayou Greenways Project which at that time, was a bond proposition with the campaign officing in the Mid Main district. In that role, Bianca got to be part of one of the early Mid Main First Thursdays and gained an introduction to Lane Schultz of RHS Interests from longtime friend and partner Aimee Woodall, principal at Black Sheep Agency. Luke had partnered with Aimee at this time and this was around the time that B+L first met and both were embedded in Houston projects focused on quality of life.

The home of The Continental Club, The Big Top, classic record store Sig’s Lagoon, and many other family owned hair shops, tattoo parlors, second hand clothing stores and great food and more, Mid Main sits along the blocks of 3500 to 3700 main street. Mid Main is an eclectic hub of great music, great food and has a timeless feel where Houstonians go to eat shop and rock. It’s the home of the original Alley Theater and Ensemble Theater and sits right next to the MATCH (Midtown Arts and Theater Center). 

The fruitful introduction resulted in Bianca supporting Lane Schultz, owner and community builder at the Mid Main District, with marketing and planning for a new blooming project; Mid Main First Thursdays. First Thursdays are a monthly block party supporting and honoring a different Houston non profit, where the businesses remain open and offer a night of giving and awareness building for the organization. The early days of First Thursdays were a total blast, where Bianca gained a lot of inspiration and know-how from partnering with and supporting Lane on how to meaningfully bring people together with little resources and a big imagination. Each month brought its own adventure, from extreme weather variations to getting nifty with power sources and so many behind the scenes memories. 

We built a small gathering of folks who would come monthly to enjoy the festivities, party, and build culture together month after month. The programming for each First Thursday at that time, included Beetle, Houston’s forever best Beatles cover band at The Continental Club, live music at the Big Top, the backyard of the Club and across the street in the block party hub, The Art Garden. A collective of artists called Main Street Projects launched new window displays each month along Mid main providing a visual art component. Concerts in the Art Garden provided fond memories with original partners of the art garden including Deep Eddy vodka and Saint Arnolds brewery. Shops like the Tinderbox owned by Ren Mitchell and Wayne Ayo would host monthly family crafts and Natachee's (now Winnie's) would be the family playground month after month. Every First Thursday, to today, is photographed by David DeHoyos, a great partner over time that has captured some of our top events. 

We had the great honor of capturing the essence and culture and people of Mid Main from this era with Luke producing promos and documentaries for events like the Rock Baby Rock It …. And by creating the Mid Main documentary. The Mid Main documentary is truly a special piece and timecapsule of the people of Mid Main. Both videos are madpot archival treasures, shared here for your enjoyment:

Mid Main Documentary

Rock Baby Rock It Promo

We go to Mid Main any time we can - while we like to look back, Mid Main is as current as ever now boasting Mid Main Lofts with a top notch art gallery and an expanded locally owned retail and food footprint. First Thursdays continue to gather community and is the most fun, family oriented, authentic monthly block parties in Houston with the same tenents of success from the early days- with Lane Schultz, month after month, year after year, gathering a collective of artists to create something new and authentic all while giving back.