Houston Heights Homes Make Old New Again
Posted by Sam Houston History on Saturday, January 8th, 2011 at 10:50am.share the Houston Real Estate Blog!
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Take a stroll through the Houston Heights neighborhood and you’ll find home after home built at the turn of the 20th century - Greek revival homes with expansive porches and Victorian mansions with soaring turrets and gabled roofs. Given that some 116 properties in the Heights are on the National Registry of Historic Places, it’s no surprise that this area is steeped in history - one of the few parts of Houston where original structures remain and the past easily mingles with the present.
The Heights - like the rest of Houston - owes its origins to (gasp) northerners. The famed Allen brothers bought the league of land upon which the Heights sits for $1 an acre in 1836, but quickly had to sell it to settle debts. The land changed hands several more times before Oscar Carter, a Nebraska banker and self-made millionaire, bought it for 50 times that price in 1891 as part of his new Omaha and South Texas Land Company.
His busy business dealings, though, dictated that he have someone “on the ground” in Houston to manage the development, and that lucky man was Daniel Denton Cooley - a cashier at Carter’s Omaha bank who was promoted to treasurer of the new land company, and became resident #1 of the new Heights neighborhood.
The Heights has the distinction of being 23 feet in elevation above downtown Houston, making it a pleasant perch upon which to catch summer breezes - and interestingly, providing a safe haven from town during the yellow fever outbreaks that plagued Houston in its early years. At the time, the Heights was truly in the countryside, surrounded by White Oak Bayou to the south and west, where children could freely pick wild grapes and berries by the bucketful.
While the distance from Houston’s bustling fray was what many of the Heights’ early residents sought, they still wanted occasional access to the city. Carter had the foresight to purchase the Houston and Bayou City Street Railway Companies, thus ensuring rail lines would be built to serve his new municipality, and creating Houston’s first “streetcar suburb.”
Lots started selling in the Heights around 1893, and within a few years, the area was a bustling development. Streets and homes started to fill the wooded environs, and 20th-century progress made its presence felt. Residents living near the trolley route could get electricity from its lines - though they did note that the lights would dim as the streetcars passed - until the fall of 1905, when the Houston Heights Electric Company brought electricity to all.
That same year, one Mrs. George Hawkins surprised local ladies at a tea with their first automobile ride - likely one of the first to arrive in the neighborhood. And Charles Caplan was said to have been one of the first residents to own a phone, and was kind enough to leave it on his porch for others to use while he was at work. Residents of the Heights were so modern, in fact, that they beat the rest of the country to the punch by declaring themselves a “dry” town seven years before Prohibition - an ordinance which is in effect to this day.
Of course, a number of things have changed since those early days. The area was annexed by Houston in 1918, ending its short run as its own municipality. After World War II, as more Houstonians moved to the suburbs, the Heights saw more industrial businesses move in. The ensuing change saw old residents move away, and the neighborhood took on a more tired feel. When D.D. Cooley’s grandson - the world-famous cardiovascular surgeon Dr. Denton Cooley - tried to sell the family’s home in the 1960’s, he couldn’t find a buyer, and it was eventually demolished.
By the 1970’s, residents sensed what was being lost and formed the Houston Heights Association to help bring the neighborhood back from the brink. Historic properties, such as the Cooley lot, were bought up and turned into parks or other public facilities. Trees were planted, sidewalks built, and gazebos and pavilions constructed to mirror the turreted, Victorian style of old. Efforts to protect historic homes were stepped up, and detailed architectural guidelines were drawn up to help residents preserve homes’ traditional character.
Today, the neighborhood is home to many young professionals and artists, and most of those historic homes, no doubt, have wi-fi access and flat screen TV’s. But although technology’s progress has continued and Houston’s city bustle has spread to surround it, the Heights still feels as though a part of those early days has never left.
About the Author:
Samuel Houston was a 19th century statesman, politician, and soldier. He was a key figure in the history of Texas, including serving as the first and third President of the Republic of Texas. Although Sam has long since departed the terra firma, Sam's Houston history is being rediscovered through periodic articles in the 2M Realty blog. These articles are contributed from staff members, agents, and affiliates.
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Posted on Saturday, January 8th, 2011 at 12:46 PM.