FOR PRESERVATION NEVVSLE I I ER OF TI-lE GREAlER HOUSTON PRESERVATION ALLIANCE
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PRESIDENTS COLUMN
HOUSTON'S NATIONAL REGISTER HISTORIC DISTRICTS
Among our city's historic neighborhoods, none can claim a stronger or more active civic association than the Houston Heights. It stands as a fine example of what the residents of a neighborhood can do to protect and preserve both their heritage and investments, and is testimony to significant grass roots support for historic preservation in Houston.
by Neva Dean and Nell Lindquist
Part IV. Houston Heights
In addition to encouraging renovation and preservation of historic homes and construction of compatible infiII, the Heights Association has sponsored tree plantings, neighborhood clean-ups, the establishment and maintenance of public parks and a very successful Main Street Program in its traditional commercial area. The annual Heights home tour is a highlight of the architectural and preservation calendar in Houston. However, a drive up Heights Boulevard is a reminder of significant losses suffered where incompatible fast food and commercial facilities have replaced the original structures. Volunteer neighborhood associations can't do the entire job alone. It is anyone's guess as to how much more effective organizations such as the Heights Association might be, ~re there additional legal tools, such as land use controls with preservation components and incentives, available to Houston neighborhoods.
Houston Heights, the first planned suburb in Houston, was founded in 1891. The Heights takes its name from its location--75 feet above sea level and 23 feet above downtown Houston. During our city's early years, before the Heights was founded, Houstonians had fled to this area in an effort to escape yellow fever epidemics. Houston Heights was developed on 1756 acres of land that was originally part of a grant of two leagues awarded to John Austin by the Mexican government in 1824. In 1836 the property was acquired from the Austin family by the Allen brothers for the town they would call Houston. J. K. Allen died in 1838, and A. C. Allen was forced by financial difficulties to sell part of the property in 1839. In 1891, the land passed into the possession of the Omaha and South Texas Land Company, which had been organized by company president Oscar Martin Carter of Omaha, Nebraska. Carter planned Houston Heights carefully, spending more than a half million dollars on such improvements as clearing and grading streets and building a steam railroad before offering any lots for sale. The sale of lots in the Heights began in 1892.
So, in saluting the Heights Association as a standard bearer of preservation and neighborhood integrity in Houston, let us hope that municipal policymakers will see in their dedication ample evidence of the political will to ensure that preservation and neighborhood integrity are recognized as valuable social goals and accorded suitable incentives and protections within any forthcoming land use regime.
One method employed by Carter to ensure the success of his new suburb was to provide transportation from Houston to the Heights. He bought out the mule-drawn cars in operation at the time and converted the city's streetcar system to electric streetcars. On April 29, 1893, a deed was recorded from the Omaha and South Texas Land Company to the Houston Heights Street Railway Company setting out the right-of-way for a single track on either side of the Heights Boulevard esplanade. The east side turned on the boulevard to run ~st on 19th Avenue to Mansfield-Truxillo House at 18th and Harvard. Built Railroad Street (now Nicholson), then turned about 1898, it is one of the grandest Victorian houses in Houston Heights. Margaret Culbertson has south on Railroad to 17th Avenue and back discovered that the design was based on one to the east side of the esplanad(~ on Heights illustrated in George F. Barber's catalogue, Cottage Boulevard. Cars sometimes ~llt out RailSouvenir No.2, published in 1891. (1986 drawing by road Street on the railroad tracks to the T. Mark Upe.) industries around 25th Avenue. Because the railroad sometimes left boxcars on the spur track, holding up the street cars, this route was changed so that street cars turned down Ashland from 19th to 17th, thus avoiding use of the railroad tracks. A shuttle was then added to run out to the industries.
Charles D. Maynard, IT.
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