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.
Continued on pa~ 2
III'
In order to attract new businesses to the Heights, Carter offered one couple six months free rent to open and maintain a store. It opened in 1893, the first store in the Heights. In 1896 this store was the site of the election in which residents voted to incorporate the Heights as a village. In 1918, Houston Heights was annexed by the City of Houston.
house for a natural setting, removed from the central city. The bungalow achieved its American form in southern California and spread from west to east. The house form is perhaps most closely associated with the Craftsman style. The most common exterior surfacing material is wood clapboard, but brick, stone and stucco were also used.
The first two lots sold in the Heights were bought by S. D. Wilkins, a carpenter for Cart路 er's realty company. Wilkins built his house on the lots located at the southwest comer of 16th and Ashland. The first house built by the Omaha and South Texas Land Company was at 1802 Heights Boulevard in 1893. It was not until his second marriage in 1920 that O. M. Carter made a home for himself in the Heights, at 1316 Heights Boulevard.
Also common in the Houston Heights is the American Foursquare house form, popular from about 1900 to 1920. This is a two-story box with a front dormer and a front porch. The floor plan of the American Foursquare does not vary much, with two or three bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs positioned around a central hall and stairway. The first floor contains a kitchen, dining room, parlor and an entry foyer with the stairwell. The entry was usually offset from the center. Builders have applied a number of stylistic variations to exteriors of four-square plan houses, including Colonial Revival and Craftsman.
The houses in Houston Heights built during the late nineteenth century clearly reflect the late Victorian architecture popular at the time. There are many examples of Victorian vernacular. Predominant is the Queen Anne style, the dominant style of domestic building during the period from about 1880 until 1900; it continued with decreasing popularity until about 1910. Bi far, the most common residential type in the Heights is the bungalow. The unpretentious one-story bungalow was the perfect speculative house and between 1905 and 1925 it became the predominant house form in Houston's suburban neighborhoods. The bungalow was touted as the appropriate small
Houston Heights was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 as a Multiple Resource Group. There are approximately 120 individual properties in the Heights listed in the National Register and another eleven are currently under review by the National Park Service for addition. A number of planning activities are underway to address a variety of issues facing the Heights. Over the past few decades, intrusive
CALENDAR Sepl 10
GHPA Executive Committee
Sept 16
GHPA Walking Tour, Main StreeVMarket Sq. Historic District, 2:00 p.m.
Sept 17
GHPA Board Meeting
Sept 19
GHPA Walking Tour, Main StreeVMarket Sq. Historic District, 12:00 noon
Sept 22-29
National Trust's Preservation Leadership Workshop, San Antonio
Ocl3
Preservation Texas Alliance's Preservation Day Workshop, Austin
Ocl5-6
GHPA Board P1anning Workshop
Oct 7
Houston Heights Festival, on Heights Boulevard, 12:00 noon til 6 pm, parade at 1:30, live entertainment on 5 stages, call 864.,'!960
Oct 8
GHPA Executive Committee
Oct 17
GHPA Walking Tour, Main StreeVMarket Sq. Historic District, 12:00 noon
Ocl17-21
National Trust 44th Preservation Conference, Charleston, S.C.
Ocl21
GHPA Walking Tour, Main StreeVMarket Sq. Historic District, 2:00 p.m.
Ocl26-28
Texas Archeological Society Annual Meeting. Dallas
land uses, changes in housing mix, and social changes have occurred. Community-based plans, assisted by city and state programs, are being developed to begin correcting problems. The Houston Heights neighborhood has a variety of organizations working to rehabilitate the area. The Houston Heights Association is an active civic group currently working to obtain deed restrictions for the neighborhood, with an emphasis on the historical blocks. The Houston Heights Association, in conjunction with the Greater Heights Area Chamber of Commerce and the Heights Main Street Project, has formed the Houston Heights Planning Task Force. The Task Force is currently evaluating the City's Land Use Strategy Committee and Councilmember Greenwood's Task Force, which is investigating planning and zoning in Houston. The Task Force has published a set of major thoroughfare and land use redevelopment guidelines. In 1988, the Texas Historical Commission established the Heights Main Street Project in the West 19th Avenue commercial district of the Heights. The Main Street Program's primary goal is to preserve historically or architecturally significant buildings while encouraging economic development within the district. The Heights Main Street Project contracted to have the Heights NOW! plan developed. This plan proposes improvements in the project area. The Heights Main Street Project has a design committee that is working on guidelines for improvements in the project area. The design commission reviews plans for building improvements that have been submitted to the project's revolving loan pool. The Heights has recently formed a Community Development Corporation. The CDC is analyzing the feasibility of purchasing several properties to rehabilitate and sell to low- and moderate-income persons. Houston Heights is also home to the Heights/Shady Acres Community Task Force. The CTF works with the City to rehabilitate the area using Community Development Block Grant programs.
All documents, photographs and data will be preserved in the Bellaire Historical Society's archival collection.
BELLAIRE HISTORICAL SOCIETY ANNOUNCES 1990 HISTORIC HOME SURVEY The Bellaire Historical Society has announced the formation of a Bellaire Historic Home Survey Committee to identify, photograph and collect data on every existing pre1940 home in Bellaire. The survey is the first of its kind to be conducted in Bellaire, said Jeff Dunn, president of the Society. Bellaire was founded in 1908 as a planned community in treeless west Harris County. The development was located over six miles from Houston on open prairie. Bellaire'S promoters linked the town to Houston with an electric streetcar line which operated from 1910 to 1927 along Bellaire Boulevard. In 1918 Bellaire became an incorporated municipality, but its lifestyle was still rural in 1940 with only 330 homes and 1,124 residents. Following World War II the city of Houston's rapid expansion on the southwest side transformed Bellaire into a growing Houston suburb. By 1950 Houston had completely surrounded Bellaire, which then had a population in excess of 10,000. Today Bellaire has over 16,000 residents and 6,300 homes. The Survey Committee is composed of Barbara Berryhill, Don McDaniel, Sherrie McDaniel and Jeff Dunn. Potential spin-off projects being considered include publications, historic home tours, historical markers and preservation awards. The Committee is hopeful that the survey will encourage residents to recognize the historic significance of the 1910-1940 period homes and that the owners of these homes will consider restoration as the structures age. "Our goal is to publicize the simplistic beauty of these early homes as part of Bellaire's architectural heritage," said Don McDaniel.
Individuals or businesses with information, records or old photographs relating to early Bellaire and its pre-1940 homes are urged to contact the Survey Committee at 664-8317 or write the Bellaire Historical Society at P. O. Box 854, Bellaire, Texas 77402. Additional volunteers for this project are needed and encouraged. The Bellaire Historical Society, founded in 1974, is a non-profit tax-exempt corporation. Contributions and donations are tax deductible.
PRESERVATION TEXAS ALLIANCE NEWS Preservation Texas Alliance is sponsoring a preservation workshop October 3 in Austin. Preservationists from around the state will review issues that are expected to be addressed in the 1991 session of the Texas Legislature. Several items are (1) funding for the Texas Preservation Trust Fund, created but not funded in the 1989 regular session; (2) reintroduction of a human remains bill, and (3) elimination of the state sales tax on rehabilitation. Cemetery preservation will also probably be discussed in light of the outstanding response to the July 12 special hearing the Texas Historical Commission held on this topic. Architect of the Capitol Allen McCree has presented Preservation Texas Alliance a special award from the State Preservation Board in recognition of PTA's work during the past several months to help secure and protect funding for the restoration of the Texas State Capitol Building. The Texas Capitol, which was built in 1888, is a National Historic Landmark and is considered the finest state capitol building in the country.
FROM THE DIRECTOR
A
fter many months of work by a lot of people, we've finally reached a milestone of sorts in our preservation efforts for the Main Street/Market Square Historic An application for official District. designation as a Texas Urban Main Street Project, sponsored by the Downtown Houston Association, co-sponsored by the Greater Houston Preservation Alliance, endorsed by the City of Houston, and signed by Mayor Whitmire, was submitted to the Texas Historical Commission July 31. Applications will be reviewed by the THe selection committee during the next few months, and the announcement of the cities selected as 1991 Texas Urban Main Street Projects will be made in November. Keep your fingers crossed for Houston. Thanks to everyone who has worked so hard on this effort, especially to Minnette Boesel who has so ably chaired this task force and to Kim Watson who volunteered for the impressive task of assembling the application. Summer heat has not detracted from public interest in Houston history. In fact, so far as I can determine, attendance at our July walking tours of the Main Street/Market Square Historic District broke all records. Twenty-two people showed up for our Sunday tour in July, and 34 turned out for the Wednesday tour. On top of that, we arranged a special tour for a group of 40 parents and children from CypressFairbanks. Thanks very much to our two dedicated July docents, Bart Truxillo and Helen Peter. Thanks also to Doug Milburn for giving our tour a nice plug in the June issue of Texas Highways. And finally, thanks to everyone who has responded to our recent dues reminders by sending in your checks. If you know someone else you think might be interested in preservation in the Houston area, call and let me know and we'll send her /him/them an invitation to get involVed. Margie Elliott
NEWS CLIPS The Harris County Historical Commission and Friends of the Courthouse Dome, chaired by former Commissioner Liz Ghrist, are seeking to raise $400,000 to restore the dome of the Harris County Courthouse. Funds raised will be used to clean, patch, and seal the concrete dome, replace windows, and creatively light the dome. A replica of the original copper ornament which capped the dome will be placed back on top. The present courthouse structure was dedicated on March 2, 1911 and is the fifth courthouse to stand on Courthouse Square, land donated by the Allen brothers. The historic courthouse was entered on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981 and was designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1983.
~ The Center for Historic Resources, Texas A&M University announces the publication of the first ~tional refereed journal devoted to historic preservation. This is appearing as the Summer issue of Heritage. which is the official quarterly publication of the Texas Historical Foundation.
historic preservation professionals. If the response to this journal is positive, the Center will consider publication on a regular basis. If you would like to receive a free copy of this journal, please write the Center for Historic Resources, College .of Architecture, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 778433137, or telephone 409/845-1886.
~ Masonry and brick work is nearing completion on the Pillot Building reconstruction, across from Houston's Harris County Courthouse. The building will open October 1. On the first floor will be the Pillot Cafe, which will be open Monday through Friday serving a selection of Texas and Southwest cuisine. The second and third floor are being leased for office space.
~ The AlA/Historic Resources Committee has invited GHPA members to participate in their tour of painted churches in the La Grange area on October 27. Cost is $25 per person and participants are responsible for their own transportation. For reservations and more information, call Michelle at the AlA office, 622-2081.
It is the conviction of the Center that there has long been a need for a journal devoted to discussions of the serious issues faced by
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