Program of Events

Transcription

Program of Events

2The Sunset Heights Centennial Celebration
It only happens once
every 100 years
This September marks the 100 year anniversary for the Sunset
Heights. As representatives for the community the two civic clubs of
the Sunset Heights, the Sunset Heights Civic Club and the East Sunset
Heights Association, want to mark the event with some flair. Promoting
our celebration was a large undertaking for our entirely volunteer
organization supported only through membership funds. We are proud of
all the work that we have accomplished together.
The real success of our event depends on you. Our goal is to reach out
to you and involve you in celebrating this community of which you are
a vital member. If along the way, we have taught you something about
being from Sunset Heights, our history, our local businesses, or our civic
goals, then we have really made it.
In this book you will find details to join us in celebrating the
centennial. As the celebration on 9/25/10 comes closer, stay tuned to
our website for the most current updates: www.SunsetHeightsHouston.
org/100years.
We have also included information about our civic clubs. We look
forward to meeting you at our next meeting. If you are new to the
area or a long time resident, we hope you enjoy the history of this
neighborhood that we have put together. If you know something we don’t
know, come see us at the Halbert Park festival, and tell us your story. We
would love to hear more.
Before we sign off, a special thanks goes out to the supporters of our
celebration whose advertisements grace these pages. We made a point
to find close-to-home truly local businesses that have invested in the
Sunset Heights. Frequent them and tell them you love this place!
facebook.com/sunsetheightshouston
The Sunset Heights Centennial Celebration 3
Sunset Heights Centennial Festival
Program of Events
September 25th, 2010
10 AM Community Parade
Parade Grand Master, Ed Gonzalez District H
The Sunset Heights welcome the Reagan High School Marching
Band, Homeless Animal Partnership Initiative, and more
11 AM - 2 PM Festival at Halbert Park
Be there at Halbert Park for a good time with games & food
Free parking provided by Prosperity Bank 2310 Yale
3PM -5 PM Cookout at the Rose Garden
Meet your neighbors at 2621 Link Road
7PM Live Music at Dan Electro’s
1031 E 24th
SunsetHeightsHouston.org/100years
A letter of sincere thanks
Events like this come along only once in a while, every 100 years in
fact. When the civic clubs of the Sunset Heights decided to host an event
for the occasion they had no idea what it might become. They could
only imagine what the process might be and how it would unfold. Our
community has made this a reality for everyone. We want to take this
opportunity to thank the people and businesses that supported our dream
before we even knew what it was.
Thanks to Anna Eastman, HISD trustee, for helping us put together
our community parade and arrange a band. Thanks go out to Master Car
Care, 2305 Yale for photos provided throughout our history. For our festival at Halbert Park we couldn’t have made it happen without Staging
Solutions who donated our stage and Brian Albritton of Albritton Audio
who supplied the public address system.
A most warm thanks goes out to the volunteers from the civic clubs
who worked so hard to make this happen. We look forward to celebrating with you and our community. See you there!
Lady Cocchia
Jaclyn Cribley
Jason Frank
Bob Gaspard
Dorothy Hester
Buster Pendley
Sharon Pendley
John Ridgway
Sean Young
Chuck Shoults
History of Sunset Heights
By: John Ridgway
Before the beginning
The 240 acre area that is now known as the Sunset Heights started
out as a part of the much larger 8,856 acre John Austin land grant when
this area was still part of Mexico. The name Austin is still well known
in Texas today. In fact, John Austin was a friend of the more famous
Stephen F. Austin. John Austin asked for land and it was granted to him
by the Mexican government in 1824. John Austin died in 1833 during a
wide spread cholera epidemic leaving the land to his wife. In 1836 his
This map demonstrates the size of the John Austin land grant. The South
East corner is marked by Minute Maid stadium. The North West corner is
near Shepherd and 610.
widow sold the land to the Allen brothers, who used it to create Houston in 1836. They paid her close to a dollar per acre for all 8,856 acres
of land, which was still part of Mexico at the time. The battle of the
Alamo was fought that same year, 1836. When Texas became a new
republic in 1839, soldiers who fought for Texas and survived the war
were given land grants as rewards, and previous ownership of the land
was often not recognized. But the John Austin grant was recognized
by the new government which included John Austin’s friend Stephen
F. Austin.
The Allen brothers had been working on their new city, Houston,
for 5 years. But it was an unfortunate time to be creating a new city; the
war with Mexico had raged on during 3 of those years and the Allen
brothers were deeply in debt by 1841. By order of the Sheriff they were
forced to sell several hundred acres of land to cover those debts. This
Above is a copy of the Sheriff’s deed ordering the Allen brothers
to sell land to cover debts. The description of the land did not use
measurements or degrees like a surveyor would use today. Instead the
documentation used descriptions of trees (i.e. the big red oak) and
bayous and fences to identify the land.
transaction was called a Sheriff’s deed.
In 1851, a 430 acre portion of the John Austin land grant was sold
to J. W. Cruger and F. Moore Jr. for $1,200 or about $2.80 per acre. The
firm Cruger and Moore sold the land on June 18, 1855 for $1 to James
Cruger. That sounds like an amazing deal for Cruger but in buying out
Moore he also assumed the debt of the company.
On May 12, 1859 that same 430 acres was sold to the Houston
& Texas Central Railroad for $5,000. They never built on the land, but
they did use it as an asset for bond collateral. The Civil War started in
1861 stopping construction of the railroad until 1867. This lost time
was cited years later as the beginning of the railroad’s demise. The cost
for construction of one mile of rail line in 1857 was $6000. That price
also included bridges and crossings on the route. By 1860, the rate had
risen to $16,000 per mile. By 1866 it was even higher at $20,000 per
mile. And by 1872 it was a staggering $30,000 per mile. With the costs
rising faster than income, the railroad’s debt continued to mount.
Bond holders with investments of over $23 million found out there
were problems
in early 1885
when the railroad failed to
make its bond
payments. Law
suits against the
railroad called
for
investigations and seizure of control.
This financial crisis impacted Houston but also investors along the east
coast especially the financial hub of New York. For years the railroad
sued the state of Texas for back payment, the bond holders sued the
railroad for assets, and the trustees sued for control. This litigation tied
up the assets of the railroad making it impossible to sell any of them
until everything was settled.
Finally, Fred P. Olcott took control of the railroad in 1888 as a
receiver. He restructured the company and sold it to the Central Trust
Company for use by the Southern Pacific railroad. The Houston and
Texas railroad was mortgaged.
To the South, the Omaha and South Texas Land Company had
been working on a new neighborhood called the Houston Heights
which was officially formed in 1891. The Heights became a well established neighborhood and later its own city. Most of the lots in the
Heights were platted at 5,500 square feet. To the North, Independence
Heights was created in 1908 by the Wright Company. Most of the lots
in Independence Heights were platted at 3,000 square feet. The area in
between, Sunset Heights, was still undeveloped.
The Beginning
On March 28, 1910 the Houston and Texas Central railroad was
allowed to retire bonds which it had issued in 1881. The railroad had
not made enough profits to pay off those bonds, so the railroad began
selling land assets that had been used as collateral. This is the land at
the center of so much controversy. The land had been used as collateral
more than once causing lawsuits over ownership. Richard Rodgers purchased 100 acres of this land on June 9, 1910 for $18,750 or about $13
for each 3,000 square foot lot in his new Sunset Heights neighborhood.
He also worked
out a deal with
the trustees of
the
Houston
and Texas railroad to give
him a 3 year
loan at a rate of
6%. Clear title
to this land was
challenged several times. The Sheriff’s deed from 1841 was used to
challenge ownership. For example, the estate of Alfred Watson used it
to make a claim in July 1910 and Rodgers had to pay the estate $250.
The Second Presbyterian church made a challenge as late as 1914.
They claimed rights from the estate of A.C. Allen even though the property had been sold at least twice by that time. The church agreed to
back down on its claim but with so much uncertainty over ownership
no title company would back Richard Rodgers so he had to bond the
land himself. Acting as his own title company, Rodgers had to create a
$100,000 bond for Sunset Heights. This bond was the insurance policy
to protect purchasers of land in his new neighborhood if more challenges to the title arose.
So who was Richard Rodgers? He was born in 1868 in Ireland and
immigrated to the United States in 1893. He built his fortune by run-
Top is an advertisement for the Capitol Hotel run by Rodgers. Middle
left is an advertisement for train service from 1910 showing the use of
the name Sunset. Right is an advertisement for Hardin Lumber who was
a partner in the Sunset realty company. Note the old fashioned phone
number.
ning Houston hotels. Two of his larger hotels were the Windsor at 314
Louisiana where Kim Son restaurant stands now and the Capitol Hotel
which was located at 614 Main. The Capitol Hotel was demolished in
1911 and the Rice Hotel was built in its place. The Rice Hotel was later
converted into the Rice Lofts.
By August 15th 1910, Richard Rodgers created the Sunset Realty
Company along with George W. Cater, W. B. Courtney, and Benjamin
R Hardin. This was not Rodgers first attempt at developing an area. He
had done smaller projects like the Rodgers addition for the Woodland
Heights. That project added a few dozen lots; his Sunset Heights project
was going to be
much grander
in scale. One of
Rodger’s partners in the endeavor owned
a lumber company and offered loans for
homes.
Why did
The Sunset Heights Centennial Celebration The original plat of the Sunset Heights accepted by city engineers on
September 8th, 1910, the birth of the Sunset Heights. As seen in the
diagram, the original end of Sunset Heights was at Link road, but the
neighborhood was quickly expanded to Airline by the Sunset Heights
Extension.
11
Rodgers use the name Sunset? If you picked up a newspaper from 1910
you would read that Sunset was a very popular name for everything
from coffee to train lines to the new railroad hospital that opened in
1911. Rodgers was right in step with popular culture when he named
his company Sunset Realty and his neighborhood Sunset Heights.
On September 8th, 1910, the documents for the creation of the
Sunset Heights were accepted by T.C. Edminster civil engineer for the
City of Houston, creator of the 1936 Edminster Engineering Company
which still exists today. People frequently wonder why the developer
of Sunset Heights platted the subdivision at 3,000 square feet but sold
the land as 6,000 and 9,000 square foot lots. This was Rodgers way
of playing it safe in the housing market. The Heights which had been
platted twenty years before had 5,500 square foot lots and Independence Heights had 3,000 square foot lots. Rodgers was not sure what
Left and above are
newspaper ads from
1910 showing other
nearby areas under
development with land
for sale.
home buyers would be able to afford. The 3,000 square foot platting
gave home buyers options. Someone who was interested in buying two
lots could be offered a third at a discount during negotiations. The few
3,000 square foot lots that were sold
were on E 29th street, which bordered
Independence Heights before the 610
interstate separated the two neighborhoods.
According to neighborhood platting standards, developers had to
design in alleys for the homes. This
standard was changed in 1911 to not
require alleys. This is why areas like
Milroy, Gostic, and the Sunset Heights
Extension which came about after
1911 do not have alley ways.
The Houston area experienced
a population explosion in 1910. In a
very short time a large number people
settled in the Sunset Heights area. The
people came from all over the United
States and other countries like Poland,
Germany, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia, Australia, and England. On
January 4, 1916 Mrs. Irene McBride purchased 3 lots totaling 9,000
square feet for $400 or $133 per each 3,000 square foot lot. This property is at the intersection of Aurora and Oxford. In 1947 it was sold for
$7,000. Today that same land has three homes on it and is worth over
one million dollars. Compare that increase with the cost of a gallon of
gas which rose from 7 cents in 1910 to $2.80, a loaf of bread which
sold for 3 cents and now sells for $1.50, and a quart of milk at 3 cents
which is now 90 cents in 2010.
Sunset Heights had enough resources that in January 1911 it was
able to successfully fight annexation by the Houston Heights with the
help of Senator Hume and members of the legislature. The Houston
Heights was attempting to annex unincorporated areas around it to
become so large that Houston would be unable to annex it. The efforts
were futile. Houston Heights was eventually annexed in 1918. Richard Rodgers died in 1922, and his wife Blanche
took over the Sunset Realty Company.
The drive to make the neighborhood
a full fledge city seemed to have died
with him as Sunset Heights was annexed by Houston in 1927.
Infrastructure
Two water wells fed a large concrete water tank that supplied the
neighborhood’s homes with water.
This was also the location of the satellite land office. The main land office
was located on Franklin on the fifth
floor of the Commercial Bank Building. The area did not get sewer lines
until a major project was undertaken
by the City of Houston in 1933.
The civic club convinced the
Houston Electric Company to extend its
street car lines into the Sunset Heights
neighborhood. In 1914, the lines were
completed. A line ran up Main, turned
west onto E 27th to Columbia. At Columbia the line turned north to 31st.
At 31st it headed back east to Main
to complete its
loop. However,
the growth of
street cars in
Houston was
coming to a
close in 1914.
That same year
saw the start of
bus lines and
jitney services
The Sunset Heights Water Works
and Power station. The tank
is over ten feet deep and has
trees growing up through the
bottom of it. The remains are
located at 714 E 27th St.
This is a street car token from
the Houston Electric Company
good for one fare on the street
car, which came to the Sunset
Heights in 1914.
which would eventually replace street cars. In 1930’s the city started
to pave many of its streets. Street car companies were required to pay
for the street paving where their rails ran. Many decided it was cheaper
to give up the lines and instead concentrate on buses. Almost all the
street cars were gone by 1935.
Even though Sunset Heights is at a higher elevation, it had its share
of flooding. For example in 1919 the county performed drainage work
after it received complaints that students and teachers were wading
through knee deep water to get to class. One of the more amusing
stories was that of Dan O’Hara who caught a two foot alligator in the
ditch in front of his home in the 800 block of E 25th in 1929. A group of
Sunset Heights residents with the alligator in tow went to city hall and
demanded that something be done about
the drainage.
Post Offices
The first location
of the post office was
at E 27th and Main on
the southwest corner
and the postmaster
was H. Davis. By the
1920’s the post office
had moved down the
street to 417 E 27th.
The building of the satellite post office at
Mrs. Mamie Pridgeon Baylor and E 26th still stands.
was the postmistress
at that time.
The post office
had a rating of
fourth class until 1927 when
it got upgraded
to
presidential grade. The
post office was
used until 1951
along with the
cancellation stamp for the Sunset Heights. After that the building was
used as a barber shop until it was demolished in the 1990’s. A small
satellite post office existed at the corner of Baylor and E 26th. Some of
the local residents still remember getting their mail there. It was shutdown sometime before 1948.
Schools
The two-story red brick building rests on a raised basement and features
Romanesque arches and an inset vestibule. The building mass is sheltered
beneath a low hipped roof with broad eaves typical of the Prairie School
of architecture. The school still retains its four-over-four wooden sash
windows.
Harris County had been looking for potential school sites before
Sunset Heights was even built. County Judge A. Amerman had land
purchased within Sunset Heights in August of 1910 before the area was
fully platted. Sunset Heights School was located in School District 25,
which encompassed much of the area between the Buffalo and White
Oak
bayous
west of downtown Houston.
It was one of
approximately 40 suburban and rural
school districts
established by
Harris County
in 1884. In
1911, taxpayers in
School District 25
petitioned to raise
$20,000 for building
and equipping a new
school. The referendum passed in 1912
and construction of
Sunset Heights School
began that same year.
The school building
still stands at Harvard Sunset Heights School: Back – Miss Ford, Mr,
and E 27th and cur- Philipps, Mrs Welling, Front – Miss White, Miss
rently owned by HISD Kibbi
Hamilton middle school
built in 1919 straddled
Heights Boulevard. It
was originally named
Heights Senior High
School. The name was
changed to Alexander
Hamilton Senior High
in 1925. It became
Hamilton Junior High in
1926 when Reagan High
School opened. It is
now a middle school.
and used as a storage facility. The property is currently for sale and
listed by the Preservation Texas organization in 2009 as an endangered
historic site.
In its first year, 1912-13, the teaching staff for the Sunset Heights
School consisted of Mrs. Anna Kinsman, Miss Mabel Bouldin and Miss
Irene Hartt. Robert Bunting was the principal. Sunset Heights School
remained in use until 1926 when it was replaced by the newer Alamo
Heights School. Long-time principal John C. Bennett remained at the
school from 1923 to 1933, making the switch from the original Sunset
Heights School to its replacement, Alamo.
Churches
The oldest standing example of the first churches in Sunset Heights
is still located at 800 Aurora. It was the former home of the Aurora Picture show and is now home to 14 Pews. The structure is almost completely original. Most of the other churches followed this same design
however by the 1950’s the other churches had all replaced their small
Clockwise from top left: The first Baptist church, The Brethren Church,
The building at 800 Aurora, the Baptist Church Sunday School building.
wooden structures with larger stone or brick buildings.
The Sunset Heights Baptist Church at one time was one of the largest churches in the area. It had grown to three buildings before closing
in 1998. The original church was similar in construction to the Aurora
church. A stone Sunday School building that was built in 1951 stands
where the original wooden church stood. The brick church to the side
was built in 1945. To the north there is another more modern sanctuary
that was built in 1961.
For a short period of time in the 1920’s, the Bertie Fulbright Methodist Church existed at 515 E 25th. Sunset Heights Christian Church
at E 28th and Harvard existed during the 1920’s but by the 1950’s ap-
peared to have been demolished. The Bethel Temple Assembly of God
Church located at 300 Aurora was first built in the 1940’s and is still in
operation. St. Anne De Beaupre located at 2810 Link was established
in 1948.
The Brethren Church was attended by many Czechs who immigrated to the United States after the 1850’s. In 1903, representatives
of several of the area’s congregations
gathered to create the Unity of the
Brethren in Texas in the effort to resurrect the Brethren Church which had
been suppressed for many years in
their homeland. The Brethren Church
located at Main and E 23rd was built
in 1954.
Businesses
Top, the building that was
The Sunset Heights Drug Store originally the Sunset Heights
was located at 505 E 27th . It was op- Drugstore. Bottom, an old
erated by Jas Cunningham. The brick map showing the layout of the
building still stands and has been original Grogan Building Supply.
converted into a beautiful residence.
The Yates Grocery store was located on the corner of Harvard and E
23rd. Mr. and Mrs. Yates lived on the
same street as their store and moved
to the neighborhood in 1938. A story
is told that Mr. Yates won a sum of
money gambling and Mrs. Yates insisted they purchase a house with the
winnings.
Grogan Building Supply is in
business on the west side of Yale.
Grogan Building Supply was originally on the east side of Yale at the corner
of E 25th Street. Just South of Grogan
Building Supply is Master Auto Service.
There were two pickle factories
located near the neighborhood. One
was the Price-Booker Pickle Manufacturing Company which was lo-
Top Left: The former PriceBooker Pickle Manufacturing
Company
Top Right: Master Car Care circa
1950. Photo courtesy of Master
Car Care.
Bottom Left: The K&K Food Mart
near N. Main and Cavalcade
before it was rented to
Blockbuster Video.
cated at W 24th and Nicholson which was a larger facility. The building still stands today but has not
produced pickles in years.
The other pickle factory
was the smaller Adam Brothers
Pickle Manufacturing Company.
The Adam Brothers Company
went out of business abruptly
during the 1929 crash on Wall
Street. The owners just walked
away leaving the building full
of pickles. People who remember growing up in the Sunset
Heights recalled going to the
vacated pickle factory and getting pickles for months after it
was abandoned.
The K & K Food Market was
located at Main and Cavalcade.
The store was run by the Kowis
family. They have owned the
building since 1934 and now rent it to Blockbuster Video.
Residential
Treasurer of Sunset Heights Civic Club Sylvia
Varva tells the following 1920’s story about her grandfather in a 1992 civic club newsletter .
“When I was a child I lived over ninety miles from
Houston. In those days ninety miles was a long way to
travel in model T’s over rough and muddy roads. So
all I knew about Houston was what I learned in school
and heard from others. My grandfather used to travel
a lot, so when he would come over, he would tell us
about the different parts of Texas including Houston
and the surrounding area. I remember hearing about
his distant kin, they had the same family name (Hruska) as my grandfather, moving into or near Houston.
Later grandfather was telling us that he stopped by Above: This
bottle is from
the Sunset
Height’s
Bottling
Company that
was located on
Link road near
Airline and
operated by
H.C. Wooley.
The fancy
bottle has
arc designs
on it with
Sunset Heights
Houston
embossed near
the bottom.
The bottling
company was
short lived, and
the building
was torn down
by the 1940’s.
to see these people. He told us they had bought a lot on which they
had a new house built. Years later, I moved to Houston. First I lived on
the south side for a short time and later in the Lindale area for several
years. In 1965, as I decided to move from there, I rented a room in
The house at 106 Aurora
may be the oldest one in the
neighborhood. It was built in
1908 on 2007 Lubbock Street.
In 1929 it moved just one lot
to 2009 Lubbock Street. In
1980’s it was moved from
that address to its current
location to make space for
the Consulate of Belgium.
Right: Sharon and Buster Pendley
of East Sunset Heights shared this
old photo of their home and the
previous owner identified as possibly
being Athina or Manto Hoak.
the 200 block of East 26th from Mrs.
Mary Stasny. Soon, to my surprise, I
learned that I was living in the same
house my grandfather talked about
back in the 1920’s as being in the
Sunset Heights!”
Mrs. M. S. Gomez and her husband were Air Raid Wardens during World War II. Air Raid Wardens
were trained in fire-fighting, first
aid, and patrolled to make sure everyone had their lights out during
blackouts. Her grandfather named
Sikes owned the property where
Caninos on Airline Drive is located
today. Mrs. Gomez used to go the
Fulbright Methodist church and remembers going to the Reinhardt
store on Yale and 27th.
What’s in a Name
Heights Boulevard originally ran all the way to E 23rd St. which
marks part of the northern boundary of the Heights. It stopped going
through when
Hamilton middle school was
built. This area
was later replatted as part
of the Milroy
development.
Most
of
the
streets
which
run
north/south in
These maps are sections
of Sanborn fire insurance
maps. They contain
drawings of the buildings
with codes that explain
the purpose and type of
building, information
used when calculating
insurance premiums.
For example, the maps
showed whether a
structure was brick or
wooden.
Bottom left: A map
showing where Heights
Boulevard previously
continued through.
Bottom right: A map
showing Cambridge
Street, renamed after
the Gostic development.
the Heights were given the names of schools. Going east after Oxford
the next street was Cambridge. Some maps actually show the street as
Blanchard into the 1950’s. Blanchard was the merging of Blanche and
Richard, the same couple that formed Sunset Realty and developed the
area. At some point after the Gostic development was completed, the
street was renamed to Gostic.
Most of the other streets in the Gostic development had their
names changed. Little became E 22nd and Barker and Bartholomew
became E 21st. McNeil became Wilder and Melrose became Sheldon.
The Civic Clubs of the
Sunset Heights
by: John Ridgway and Dorothy Hester
The start of the Club
As an unincorporated area, the Sunset Heights Civic Club was the
primary form of government. It was formed at the same time as the
neighborhood in 1910. The Civic Club worked with the electric companies to get the street car lines extended into the neighborhood in
1914. It worked with the county to make sure roads were graveled and
that there was good drainage. It worked toward getting the fire hydrant
system implemented which lead to setting up the Sunset Heights Vol-
unteer Fire department in 1914, a volunteer group of eight men who
used a hose wagon to fight fires.
The area wanted to incorporate itself to become a city, and attempted this several times. The biggest attempt was in 1916, but it was
stopped by residents in Studes Woods. Studes Woods was a neighborhood created out of Henry Studes
Woods. On a side note, that is where
the name Studewood came from for
the street. These homeowners feared
that their area would be included in
the city. Even though no evidence can
be found that Sunset Heights ever officially became a city, it was listed in
the Houston city directories as a town.
The Sunset Heights Civic Club ceased
operations shortly after Sunset Heights
and several other surrounding neighborhoods were annexed by the City of
Houston in 1927.
The second and third coming of
the civic club
In 1939, Charles “Chaz” Halbert decided that the area needed
a civic club so he set out to recreate
the Sunset Heights Civic Club. He got
residents from Milroy Place, the area
between E 23rd and E 25th, Gostic,
the area east of Oxford and south of E
23rd, and residents of Stude, the area
east of Main below E 23rd. He reached
out as far west as Nicholson St. He donated a lot located on the 700 block of
E 24th where a club house was built.
Sadly, Mr. Halbert died in 1941 after
successfully reviving the civic club. As
a memorial, the club members had a
Even though the telephone
company was a top employer
for the neighborhood, phones
were still not widely used in
private homes. So, in the mid
1920’s, a fire alarm system was
setup in the neighborhood, and
pull stations were installed at
intersections every few blocks
giving residents a way to call
the fire department.
The box shown above had
cables running from its base
to the fire station. Each fire
box had a unique bell so the
firemen would know where to
go. The metal rod attached by
a chain was used to break the
glass window, open the box,
and enable the person to pull a
lever inside.
plaque created and placed on the club house. His motto on the plaque
reads “To make Sunset Heights a better place in which to live.”
SHCC members had been petitioning the city to purchase land for
a neighborhood park and so in 1945 the city purchased the land for
Halbert Park from a couple of home owners and the DePelchin’s Children’s center. In 1951 the city made some improvements to Halbert
Park like the addition of a flag pole and new playground equipment
including a merry go round.
By the late 1960’s the SHCC had once again disappeared, but in
1984, residents once again resurrected the civic club. There were numerous abandoned properties in the neighborhood and people wanted
a civic club to address these issues. Back in action, SHCC members
were researching the ownership of one of the properties when they discovered the lot where the civic club house used to stand. Although the
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You may have seen the Guinea Hen in
the neighborhood and wondered who
they belong to. There has been a little
group of them in the neighborhood
for a while. At last count there were
only 3 or 4. Some suspect the Ike or a
recent freeze reduced their number.
No one knows where they came from,
but they have been around for years.
They are an unofficial mascot.
club house had been demolished the memorial plaque for Mr. Halbert
had survived. Once the civic club found out that years of taxes and
fines had not been paid for the property they were forced to sell the
land. The civic club salvaged the plaque and had it installed in Halbert
Park in 1985 as part of a park rehabilitation project. Olive DeMar, the
daughter of Charles Halbert was able to attend the ceremony. She was
the treasurer of the Sunset Heights Civic Club for many years in the
1940’s and 1950’s.
The East Sunset Heights Association forms
The unofficial beginning of the East Sunset Heights Association
took place in May, 2002 when several neighbors who lived on the east
side of North Main concentrated their efforts to improve the area between Airline and North Main which had been deteriorating for years.
The official boundaries are E 23rd, Airline, 610 North Loop and North
Main. Buster & Sharon Pendley, Holly Hughes, Chuck Shoults, Juan
Arroyo, and Gary & Dorothy Hester called neighbors and knocked on
doors to invite residents to the first meeting; it was a huge success, and
the association was officially formed in October, 2002. The purpose
of the organization
is to encourage and
promote the enhancement of the East Sunset
Heights community.
In the early years
of the association,
speakers from the vari- A billboard announcing the recognition of the
East Sunset Heights as a community star.
ous departments of the City of Houston attended the ESHA meetings
educating members about what could be done to improve the neighborhood through the existing City Ordinances and the Police Department. In October, 2004 the East Sunset Heights Association was recognized with five other Houston civic associations as Community Stars of
Houston. The mayor held a banquet, presented ESHA with an award,
and the city placed a billboard displaying the association’s name on
Yale Street to recognize ESHA’s effort to change the neighborhood.
ESHA continues to improve the neighborhood today, welcoming
and encouraging neighbors to attend the meetings, organizing neighborhood events, and most importantly bringing neighbors together to
build a stronger community. ESHA’s motto, displayed in its newsletters,
has always been “It’s All About The Neighborhood”
Sunset Heights Civic Club Today
The club’s recent efforts have been focused on Halbert Park. In
2007 the SHCC adopted Halbert Park via the City of Houston Adopt
A Park program. Since then, the
civic club has worked with the
city’s Parks Department to install
and maintain a doggie waste bag
dispenser, an information shelter,
and a butterfly garden. The SHCC
was awarded a $3000 2009
Neighborhood Matching Grant
which was used to resurface the
tennis court and install a new
The Sunset Heights actively seeks to beautify our local park with ongoing
improvement projects such as the information shelter, left, and the
butterfly garden shown during construction right.
bench during the summer of 2010. Halbert Park continues to be a
focal point for the neighborhood and is the location of the centennial
celebration on September 25th, 2010. SHCC joined forces with ESHA
to assist the Houston Heights Association in the creation of the Northern Heights constable program which started this past July.
The Future
The Sunset Heights Civic Club
has been around since the beginning of the neighborhood, and
while activities have sometimes
slowed, it has always rebounded.
The original charter, by Charles
Halbert, was simple:“To make Sunset Heights a better place in which
to live”. He did not limit the organization to the strict boundaries of
the neighborhood when recruiting
volunteers. Rather, people living in close proximity to each other all
had a vested interest in the area and the organization welcomed them
all.
The Sunset Heights neighborhood has multiple organizations
that represents its residents. In addition to support from the SHCC and
ESHA organizations which have collaborated on things like Yard of the
Month, National Night Out, and the Centennial Celebration, the Houston Heights Association and Greater Super Neighborhood organiza-
tions also help to improve the neighborhood. These organizations will
continue to work together to improve
Sunset Heights in the years to come.
You are invited to be a part.
Civic Club
Calendar of Events
2010
• Sept 23rd SHCC
monthly meeting @
the Brethren Church
• Oct 5th National
Night Out
• Oct 12th ESHA
quarterly meeting
@14 Pews on Aurora
• Oct 28th SHCC final
monthly meeting @
the Brethren Church
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SunsetHeightsHouston.org
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Join us
Saturday
September
25th
for an all day event.
A parade, a festival, a
cookout! Oh my.
SunsetHeightsHouston.org/100years
To sponsor this event or get
involved, visit
Celebrate the centennial of the Sunset Heights
100
years
Sunset Heights Celebration
Join your
civic club
today!
Look inside for more information.
Annual memberships start at just
$15 and supports the Sunset Heights
Community. Come to a meeting to see
what it’s all about.
-- to make Sunset Heights a better
place in which to live

Program of Events

Transcription

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