Historic Houston Streets Read online

  » ALIEF O. MAGEE: Tombstone

  ALLEGRO: See sidebar It’s Music to My Ears, page 218.

  » ALLEN PARKWAY: Looking east on Allen Parkway when it was still known as Buffalo Drive

  » ALLEN PARKWAY: Portrait of Houston co-founder, John Kirby Allen

  THE BELLAIRE TREE STREET NAMES

  William W. Baldwin, the developer of Bellaire and Westmoreland Farms, was a man with a plan. It was no small plan either. His goal was to turn a treeless prairie southwest of Houston into “the future garden spot of the South.” He actively marketed his landscape plans and was soon talking with editors of magazines interested in gardening. He enlisted three important partners to help pull off this grandiose scheme. Frank L. Dormant was a civil engineer who worked for the City of Houston from 1902 to 1905. Edward Teas was the owner of Teas Nursery Company. He was hired to handle the planting of the greenery. Sid J. Hare was a landscape architect with the Kansas City firm of Hare & Hare. In order to convey the impression that Bellaire was a garden city, Hare decided to name many of the streets after trees. According to Perspective, for some unknown reason, Hare’s street names were not used but other tree names were substituted. For example, Hare’s Olive became Chestnut and Evergreen became Beech. Never-the-less Bellaire still has a number of streets named for trees and shrubs. They are as follows: Pin Oak, Elm, Palmetto, Beech, Locust, Spruce, Cedar, Live Oak, Acacia, Laurel, Magnolia, Willow, Oleander, Birch, Pine, Holly, Mimosa, Maple, Aspen, Jessamine, Palm, Azalea, Huisache, Wisteria, Fern, Linden and Mulberry. And finally Holt, an archaic Middle English word meaning a wood or grove. 1

  ALLEN PARKWAY: Our city’s laissez faire attitude has been part of our warp and woof from the beginning. In 1836 two New York real estate speculators, John Kirby Allen and his brother Augustus Chapman Allen, bought half a league of land on Buffalo Bayou, just north of the town of Harrisburg. As the Bayou was deep enough for navigation, they laid out a town and named it after General Sam Houston. The rest is history and an interesting story it is. John died of disease just two years after the city’s founding. Augustus lived until 1864 when he passed away from pneumonia. This beautiful parkway was called Buffalo Drive until its name was changed in 1961 to honor Houston’s Founding Fathers. (See photographs on page 13.) 27

  ALLEN STREET: There are two possible sources for this street. The most likely is Henry R. Allen, the brother of city founders John and Augustus Allen. He was an early landowner in the Sixth Ward where parts of this street are located. Allen was also a city alderman, helped organize the first Chamber of Commerce in 1840 and strongly backed the creation of a deep-water port in Houston. Next is Augustus C. Allen, a co-founder of Houston and the owner of a large tract of land north of where this street is located. The street first appeared on a city map in 1839. 28

  ALLEN: N. A. – Most likely this street is named for a well respected and long time black educator in Needville. In 1960 the elementary school was also given this person’s name. 29

  ALLISON: One of the two firms that developed Pearland was the Allison-Richey Suburban Garden Company. Why Allison got a street named for him in what was called “an agricultural Eden” and Richey did not remains a mystery. 30

  ALLSTON: Early investors in Houston Heights lived in this Boston suburb. It was named for Washington Allston, an artist from Cambridge, Massachusetts. One of his paintings, “Fields West of Boston” is of Allston. Originally a livestock and railroad town, today it is home for Harvard, M.I.T., Boston College and Boston University. Notable citizens include New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and members of the rock band Aerosmith. 31

  ALMEDA SCHOOL: This road leads to Almeda Elementary School. (See Almeda-Genoa.) 32

  ALMEDA-GENOA: This road runs between the southwestern Harris County towns of Almeda, named by Dr. Willis King for his daughter, to the town of Genoa (named for the Italian city by its founder J. H. Burnett). It ran along the Galveston, Houston & Henderson Railroad line. 33, 34

  ALTAIR: See sidebar Starry Night, page 111.

  ALTIC: Russell – See sidebar Houston Streets Named for Men Killed During World War I, page 22. 35

  ALUMNI: Located on the campus of Rice University this street near the football stadium recalls the graduates of this outstanding institution of higher learning. 36

  ALVIN-SUGAR LAND: In 1876 Alvin Morgan founded the town of Alvin as a station on the Houston Tap & Brazoria Railroad. Sugar Land is named for the sugar cane fields and sugar mill located there. Up until the mid-1940s the Imperial Sugar Company operated the world’s largest sugar refinery here. 37, 38

  ALYDAR: This thoroughbred may be the best racehorse to ever place second. In 1977 as a two-year-old colt Alydar began what was to become a legendary rivalry with Affirmed. These two horses captivated the racing public with their head to head duels for two years. For the fading Calumet Farms, the once mythic Kentucky thoroughbred stable, Alydar was a final burst of glory. Despite losing each Triple Crown race in 1978 to Affirmed, Alydar’s “never quit” resoluteness earned him a place in racing lore. (See Affirmed.) 39

  ALYSHEBA: This 1987 Kentucky Derby winner turned in one of the greatest racing performances of all time. Coming down the stretch Alysheba caught the rear hooves of race leader Bet Twice. He stumbled and it looked as if horse and jockey, Chris McCarron, were about to go head over heels. But somehow Alysheba regained his balance, took up the chase again and nipped Bet Twice at the wire to win by 3/4 of a length. Those who saw the race called McCarron’s ride the greatest of the 20th century. 40

  AMC: This short street leads to the AMC 20 Cineplex at Katy Mills. 41

  AMERICAN PETROLEUM: This early Texas oil company is credited with finding the massive Goose Creek Oilfield near Baytown. On August 23, 1916 drilling contractor Charles Mitchell hit pay dirt at 2,017 feet. That well came in at 10,000 barrels per day. Over its productive lifetime this field produced 140,644,377 barrels of crude oil. (See Galliard and Goose Creek.) 42

  AMHERST: This street is named for a liberal arts college founded in 1821 in the small Massachusetts town of the same name. 43

  ANACORTES: It is possible that this street is named for Anacortes, Washington where both Texaco and Shell Oil (both firms with close ties to Houston) constructed refineries in the 1950s. 44

  ANCHOR: Now a virtual ghost town, Anchor, was a thriving community from the 1850s until the 1920s when three rail lines passed it. First known as Fruitland, Jacob Whistler changed the name in 1895 to recall his hometown of Anchor, Illinois. It was a trading center for the many Brazoria County farmers who raised corn and cotton in the area. One of the more unusual businesses here was a large plant for processing frog legs. 45

  ANCLA: See sidebar Learn a Foreign Language on Your Morning Walk, page 125.

  ANDANTE: See sidebar It’s Music to My Ears, page 218.

  ANDRAU: Evert Willem Karel – This World War II veteran served in the U.S. Army Air Corps where he developed his affinity for flying. Born of Dutch parents in Sumatra, Indonesia, his family immigrated to California prior to the Japanese capture of Indonesia in the early 1940s. He joined Shell Oil Company as a geologist and moved to Houston following the close of the War. Andrau was nicknamed the “Flying Dutchman” as he used a private plane to visit many remote oil well locations. Andrau Airport was built on a rice farm he owned out Westheimer Road in 1946. He was killed in a plane crash in 1951 but his airfield continued to operate for another 47 years. It was sold to real estate developers in 1998 and is now a planned community. 46

  ANDREWS: John – Andrews came from Virginia in the late 1830s and settled in Houston. He was president of the Buffalo Bayou Company, a maritime services firm. He bought 10 acres of land in Freedman’s Town where this street is today. Active in local politics Andrews served as mayor in 1841-42. In return for granting the city the right of way to put a street through his property, the street was named for him in about 1890. 47

  ANDRUS: This is an old Fort Bend County family. William Andrus was among the first of Stephen F. Austin’s colo
nists. His son, Walter Andrus, was born here in 1830. They were farmers and cattlemen. 48

  ANGLETON: This Brazoria County community was founded in 1890 by Lewis R. Bryan Sr. and Faustino Kiber. It was named for the wife of the general manager of the Velasco Terminal Railroad that passed through Angleton. Confederate general Albert Sidney Johnson’s plantation, China Grove, was very near here. One odd and little known fact about this community is the last legal hanging in Texas took place here on August 31, 1923. (See China Grove.) 49

  ANITA: She was one of the daughters of Samuel K. McIlhenny, a wealthy merchant in early Houston. Anita, her sister Rosalie and their mother Eva made the fatal mistake of going to the family’s beach house in Galveston on the weekend of September 8, 1900. That was when the most devastating hurricane in history ripped into Galveston Island killing more than 7,000 persons, the three women among them. Their bodies were miraculously recovered and returned to Houston for burial in the family plot in Glenwood Cemetery. The streets Anita and Rosalie, just south of McIlhenny Street, first appear on the 1900 Houston map. They were cut between Tuam and Elgin that year. These streets were named in honor of these sisters, victims of the Great Storm of 1900. (See Mcilhenny.)50

  » ANITA: Anita Mary McIlhenny’s tombstome in Glenwood Cemetery

  ANNAPOLIS: Founded in 1845 the United States Naval Academy is located in Annapolis MD. The nickname of this military college is “Annapolis.” 51

  ANNUNCIATION: Under law there is a separation of church and state; but, Planning & Development may not disallow a street name unless it is repetitious, so developers are free to use religious references on their plats. This street is named for the Angel Gabriel’s announcement to the Virgin Mary that Jesus was conceived in the womb of Mary and he is the Son of God. In a possible fit of religious fervor the developer named the street just to the south Guadalupe, as in the Virgin of. 52

  ANTHA: Elbert Adkins, Sr. – He was the developer of Tidwell Timbers Addition and named this street after his daughter. The next street to the north of Antha is Rietta, his second daughter. 53

  ANTIETAM: On September 17, 1862 the bloodiest battle of the War Between the States occurred. On that morning General Robert E. Lee and 35,000 Confederate soldiers squared off against General George B. McClellan and his 95,000 Union troops. By sundown 4,808 men were dead, the most people ever to die in a battle on American soil. This place will always be remembered as “Bloody Antietam.” 54

  ANZIO: In January 1944 Allied troops landed at this Italian beach town to divert German forces away from Cassino. Because of the success of the attack here troops were able to the capture Rome in June of that year. Anzio also happens to be the birthplace of Roman emperors Nero and Caligula. 55

  APOLLO: See sidebar Space City U.S.A. or “Houston the Eagle Has Landed”, page 106.

  APPALOOSA: The developer of Saratoga Ranch Addition chose an equine theme for the streets. Appaloosa is a North American saddle horse noted for its spotted rump. Palomino is an Arabian horse with a golden or tan coat and a white or cream colored mane and tail. Bay is a reddish-brown horse with a black tail and mane. Sorrel horses have a brownish orange to light brown coat. Pinto, also called a Paint horse, has patchy markings of white with other darker colors. 56

  APPIAN WAY: This is the most famous of the Roman roads. Begun in 312 B.C. it extended more than 350 miles and was the main highway to Greece. It had connecting roads to Naples and Rome’s seaport. 57

  APPOMATTOX: This is a small town in south central Virginia where Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at the courthouse on April 9, 1865, thus ending the Civil War. 58

  ARCHER: This street recalls a ghost town that was located east of Old River. The settlement existed in the 1830s but was eventually absorbed by the community of Old River-Winfree, Texas. 59

  ARCHIBALD BLAIR: Williamsburg Colony Addition has many streets related to that historic Virginia community. Born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1665 he immigrated to Williamsburg in 1690 following graduation from medical school. He was one of the first doctors in the colony. He died in 1733. 60

  OUR CITY’S BIRTH CERTIFICATE

  Before we had our first map or our first street name we had to be declared a city. That happened on December 22, 1836.

  Laws of the Republic of Texas

  AN ACT

  Locating the Seat of Justice for County of Harrisburg, and other purposes.

  Sec. 1. Be it enacted, by the senate and house of representatives of the republic of Texas, in congress assembled, That the seat of justice for the county of Harrisburg be, and the same is hereby established at the town of Houston. Sec. 6. And be it further enacted, That the Island of Galveston, shall for the future be included within the limits of the county of Harrisburg, and be, and compose a part of said county.

  IRA INGRAM

  Speaker of the House of Representatives

  RICHARD ELLIS

  President pro tem. of the Senate

  Approved, Dec. 22, 1836

  SAM HOUSTON

  ARDENNES: Also known as the “Battle of the Bulge,” this audacious German attack on the Western front caught Allied forces by surprise in mid-December of 1944. It was the Nazis last offensive thrust and was the greatest pitched battle ever fought by American soldiers before or since. More than one million military personnel were involved in this gargantuan conflict. In this Allied victory the German Air Force was destroyed with the loss of more than 300 pilots. 61

  ARLINGTON: Houston Heights developer O. M. Carter named this street for Arlington Mills, a large cotton mill in Lawrence, Massachusetts. (See Lawrence.) 62

  ARMOUR: One of the earliest industrial ventures on the newly opened Houston Ship Channel in 1914 was the Armour Fertilizer Works. Due to the confluence of railroads, shipping lines and chemical plants, phosphate was readily available to be used in the production of fertilizer. This company is also remembered for the publication of Armour’s Farmers Almanac in the 1920s and 1930s. 63

  THE BELLAIRE STREETS NAMED FOR WOMEN

  Mary Catherine Farrington Miller verified this story for me. When developer Jim West went to file his plat for this section of Bellaire he did not have all of the street names filled in, a requirement for a plat to be accepted by the city. Not wanting to waste any more time he whipped out his pen and began furiously filling in the blank spaces on his map. He first named a street after himself. Then began to list the names of the wives of his partners and all of the women who worked in his office. This solved the problem and today we have streets in Bellaire remembering Jim West, Dorothy, Darsey, Mildred, Cynthia, Jane, Effie, Valerie, Betty, Lula, Edith, Bess and Vivian. However, prior to developing the property, West sold it to William Farrington, who would also create Tanglewood. He asked West the provenance of the female street names and was told the story. Farrington found the story amusing and left well enough alone even though he could have re-plated the neighborhood and given the streets new names. 2

  ARNOLD: Because of its location between Browning and Marlowe, both famous English authors, it is most likely that this street is named for Matthew Arnold, an English poet and literary critic. He is remembered for two volumes of his poetry, Narrative and Elegiac Poems (1869) and Dramatic And Lyric Poems (1869). There is an outside chance, however, since he is the least well-known of any writer for whom a West University Place street is named that the street might recall A. V. Arnold, vice president of Preston R. Plumb’s Realty Servicing Corporation. It was not unusual for developers in that neighborhood to name streets for themselves. (See Plumb and Jarrard.) 64

  ARNOT: See sidebar Texas Heroes’ Names for Houston Streets Urged in 72 Proposed Changes, page 96.

  ARROYO: See sidebar Learn a Foreign Language on Your Morning Walk, page 125.

  ARTESIAN: In the late 1880s Houston’s water supply was questionable. The city could not afford to build a water system so a private company dammed Buffalo Bayou and was selling water from the reservoir. Unfortunately it was not potable. However, in the early 1890s, it was d
iscovered that Houston was sitting on a huge supply of pure artesian water. This street is named for the early well drilled by Houston Water Works on the banks of the bayou. Old maps produced by the Sanford Insurance Company clearly show the location of the well, suction pipes, water pumps and water pipes. (See photograph on page 21.) 65

  ARTHUR: William – Arthur came to Texas in 1850 from Kentucky. He was a farmer and fought for the Confederacy in the War Between the States. In 1894 his son, Hugh, acquired a small Baytown cemetery where his father is buried. What makes this story interesting is the Arthur-Hale Cemetery is now inside the boundaries of the Exxon Mobil Refinery, the largest refinery in the United States and to my knowledge the only refinery in America with a cemetery. Six Texas pioneers are interred here in this 28’x28’ plot. Exxon Mobil and its predecessor, Humble Oil & Refining Company, have maintained the graveyard since 1919. 66

  » ARTESIAN: The original Waterworks, now the site of the Downtown Aquarium

  » ASHBEL: Old Red at University of Texas Medical Branch Galveston

  ASHBEL: Born in Connecticut in 1805, Ashbel Smith is one of Texas’ renaissance men. He arrived in Texas just after the Revolution in 1837. Smith held a medical degree from Yale and was appointed Surgeon General of the Texas Army. Also a great statesman, he served as Secretary of State of the Republic of Texas and was charge d’affaires to Great Britain, France, Belgium and Spain. Following Texas’ admission into the Union, Smith was elected to several terms in the State Legislature. He was a veteran of the Mexican War and the War Between the States. Smith was elected the first president of the Board of Regents of the University of Texas. It was due to his diligent efforts that the University’s medical branch was built in Galveston. Architect Nicholas Clayton’s beautiful building on that campus is named in his honor. Most people now know it by its nickname “Old Red.” 67