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    Houston Heights
    Houston Heights
    Houston Heights
    Ebook182 pages55 minutes

    Houston Heights

    By Anne Sloan

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    About this ebook

    Founded in 1891, Houston Heights, one of the earliest and largest planned communities in the state of Texas, weathered the national decline of urban neighborhoods and has entered an era of growth, new construction, and a denser use of its space. Located approximately three miles from downtown Houston (the fourth-largest city in the nation), Houston Heights is now prime real estate. As townhomes, condos, and large apartment complexes continue to be built, the area's "small-town feel" has become diluted. Houston Heights is struggling to maintain its walkability, residents are trying to remain connected to their neighbors, and preservationists are striving to save its history. Almost everyone who lives here appreciates the quirkiness of the neighborhood, the visual impact of art that is part of their daily lives, the ethnic diversity, and the respect that residents show toward young and the old. Three City of Houston historic districts preserve portions of the neighborhood's traditional fabric.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateOct 31, 2016
    ISBN9781439658079
    Houston Heights
    Author

    Anne Sloan

    Anne Sloan, an avid Houston Heights historian, has written five books set in Houston Heights. She credits her school days at Reagan High School for her interest in the neighborhood. The Houston Heights Association furnished many of photographs included in this book, along with countless families who generously provided details and images.

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      Book preview

      Houston Heights - Anne Sloan

      (RHS).

      INTRODUCTION

      Houston Heights, named because it is 23 feet higher than downtown, sits on 1,796 acres three miles from Houston. Founded in 1891 by out-of-state investors and incorporated in 1896, the community flourished as an independent entity for 27 years before being annexed to the city of Houston in 1918. Though Victorian mansions were built by the investors, O.M. Carter, the self-made millionaire who designed the community, never intended for his new development to be for the elite. Promotional brochures stressed affordability, and 50-by-100-foot lots sold for as little as $250. Carter laid out the city in accordance with the points on a compass. Heights Boulevard, which he patterned after Commonwealth Avenue in Boston, Massachusetts, runs true north and south, and the numbered streets run east and west. Twenty years after its founding, the community had 6,000 residents, an artesian water works, 25 miles of graded streets, electricity, natural gas, six schools, nine churches, a library, a hospital, and a newspaper. Heights residents rode to downtown Houston and back on the trolleys that Carter had electrified, paying 5¢ for the round trip.

      Carefully planned and generously funded, the community quickly attracted buyers from all over the United States and abroad. The congeniality of the neighborhood resulted, in part, from whole families settling on entire blocks, building homes for themselves, their children, and other relatives who continued to immigrate. Houston Heights has one of the state’s largest clusters of historic churches, and the morally upright character of its residents is indicated by their vote in 1912 to prohibit the sale or serving of alcohol within a large portion of its incorporated boundaries. Four years later, when voters agreed to annexation by the city of Houston, they insisted this law remain in effect, and Houston Heights is one of two communities in Houston classified as dry. Liquor is still not sold in grocery stores, but in recent years, many of the restaurants have obtained private club permits for alcohol.

      Houston Heights continued to prosper, as did the city of Houston, and until the 1950s, residents remained a tight-knit group. Neighbors knew one another, and kids prowled the large expanses of vacant land that still bordered their neighborhood. Mirroring other small towns in America, Houston Heights was socially conforming and politically conservative. By the end of the 1960s, changes began, here and across the nation. The large Victorian homes and 1,200-square-foot bungalows were abandoned for modern tract homes being built in suburbs like Garden Oaks, Oak Forest, and Timbergrove Manor. The ranch style homes, a direct descendant of the bungalow, were built on concrete slabs with eight- or nine-foot ceilings and aluminum windows. Heights homes looked dowdy when compared to the crisp, low-slung, cookie-cutter suburban homes.

      Most of the Victorian homes in the Heights were demolished or divided into apartments and the bungalows rented or left standing empty. By 1970, only 50 percent of the neighborhood was owner-occupied. A Houston newspaper described Heights residents as poverty-level.

      In 1973, the deterioration of the neighborhood was spotlighted when a trio of murderers, many of whose victims were from the Heights, made national news. This notoriety threatened to permanently brand the Heights as dangerous, unsavory, and undesirable in addition to poor. Instead, this bleak moment became a rallying point for those who had remained in the community. By the year’s end, 100 Heights merchants and residents, led by Marcella Perry, Harold and Milton Wiesenthal, Martin Kaplan, and Carl and Melvalene Cohen, gathered at the office of Heights Savings and Loan to create an association to encourage and promote the enhancement of the community. Carl Cohen signed the incorporation papers on April 9, 1974, and in 1977, the group was designated as nonprofit by the Internal Revenue Service. These leaders formed the nucleus of the Houston Heights Association, which for 42 years has worked for the betterment of Houston Heights. Much of modern Houston Heights history involves this organization and its monumental accomplishments.

      The 1975 G.W. Hawkins Day was the HHA’s first event. Renamed the Heights Festival, it was held on Heights Boulevard for the next 29 years, bringing thousands of visitors to the neighborhood and financial stability to HHA.

      With a grant from Houston Endowment in 1979, HHA purchased the land at 1802 Heights Boulevard and the land at Seventh Street and Heights Boulevard to create two new and important parks, Marmion and Donovan, named for early Heights leaders. In 1980, when the City of Houston planned demolition of the historic 1926 Heights Public Library building, HHA stepped in and convinced the city to let it remain in place. Because of these actions, Houston Heights was designated a Historic Multiple Resource Area by the National Park Service. The documentation prepared by HHA volunteers resulted in more than 100 structures being listed in the National Register.

      When Marmion and Donovan

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