Houston Heights Days

Most people don’t know that the Heights was a city before 1919 when the city of Houston annexed it. Heights was established on July 1, 1896, and its first mayor was William G. Love. The city was called Heights because it was located on the other side of the bayou and its elevation was 23 feet higher. In 1900, the census shows that about 800 people lived there. In the early days, there was a streetcar line that could take you into the city of Houston to work. Most of the people that lived there did not want to live in the more dense areas of Houston or could not afford to. Houston Heights had its own schools, city hall, jail, fire department, and hospital. In 1918, residents of Houston Heights wanted more money for their schools. They agreed to be annexed to the City of Houston in order to access a broader tax base for school funding. As part of the annexation agreement, the Heights kept its “dry ordinance,” which banned the sale of alcoholic beverages in large portions of the neighborhood. The dry ordinance was passed in 1912, eight years before Prohibition became law across the United States.

Most of the businesses were on 19^th or Yale streets with the hospital on 20^th street. The Park was between the 19^th and 20^th streets where old men could be seen playing dominos. There was the Heights Theater, 5&10 Store, drug store, grocery store, barber shops, and several other stores with angled parking in front of the stores. On Saturdays, the theater would have double-features with a cartoon and the kids could get in for 9 cents. That was the coolest place in town. Everything was within walking distance and that was good because that was the only option.

My family moved to the Heights from Lufkin before I was born in 1943 and we lived there until we had to move in 1952 because the house we were renting had been sold to be torn down for a business building. We lived in a house at the corner of Lawrence and 23^rd street. Across Lawrence was the old textile building with a tower with a clock on it. I believe that building still stands today containing Loft apartments and some businesses. There were old train rails that ran to the textile mill that ran between 22^nd and 23^rd on the south side of our lot. Those tracks had not been used for many years, but they had never been removed. I don’t remember any fences, so people usually took short-cuts to get where they were going. There was no A/C in any homes and not much in stores. Windows and doors were open most of the time except during colder months.

In January 1950, there was a major ice storm that hit Houston and shut down everything. There was a water tower across the street on the textile mill property that had sprung a leak and there was an arch of ice from the tank up on the tall tower that went out into the intersection to the street. I still have that image of that sight all these years later even though I was not 7 yet. It took days for power to be restored and many people got sick from the cold.

I was sick with tonsillitis and bronchitis a lot during my first 7 years, but I have some really good memories of those years and the kids in the neighborhood. I remember playing baseball and I was so much smaller than my brother and most of the other kids. My brother had an old bat that had a crack in it, but my brother cut the end off of it so it would be short and light enough so I could swing it. I remember one time that I was the catcher behind the imagery plate and it was my job to chase the ball down if the batter missed it and throw it back to the pitcher. Once I step forward thinking I could catch the ball before it hit the ground and the batter swung back and hit me in the head and knocked me out. I woke up with kids screaming, thinking I was dead. Besides a big knot on my forehead, I was OK – but then again that might explain other things? I remember being sad during the time leading up to moving out of the only place I had lived. Most of my life had been just within a few blocks from that house, it was home. The 100-year-old tree that I climbed, the kids I played with, the old school, and the old men at the park.

Memories of the “Good Ole Days”.