History of Houston
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This article documents the history of Houston, Texas.
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History
1800's
Houston's Turbulent Beginning
On the heels of the Texas Revolution, two New York real estate promoters, John Kirby Allen and Augustus Chapman Allen were seeking a location where they could begin building "a great center of government and commerce." In August 1836, they purchased 6,642 acres (27 km²) of land (on a site adjacent to the ashes of Harrisburg) from T. F. L. Parrot, John Austin's widow for $9,428. The city to be was named after Sam Houston, the hero of San Jacinto, whom the Allen brothers admired and anticipated to be the first President of the Republic of Texas. Gail Borden, Jr., a publisher and surveyor, who would later found the Borden dairy company, exercised foresight when he laid out wide streets for the town.
After it was established, it started out as a hamlet. Its population then swelled into the hundreds and then the thousands. The Laura, the first ship ever to visit Houston and Galveston, arrived on January 1837. The city was granted incorporation by the state legislature on June 5, 1837. Houston was made as a temporary capital of Texas. The first business opportunity for the city vaporized when a businessman's uncle, who was considering relocating his carriage making business, witnessed violence in a Texas saloon. He left the state never to return.
Lawlessness, diseases, and financial difficulties prompted Houstonians to put an end to their problems. And so, they wanted to make a Chamber of Commerce just for the city. A bill had been introduced on November 26, 1838 in Congress that would establish this entity. President Mirabeau B. Lamar signed the act into law on January 28, 1840. This move could not had come sooner; Some creditors had already cut off some Houston businessmen, and there were yellow fever outbreaks that claimed 10 percent of the population. Also, on January 14, 1839, the capital had been moved to Austin, known as Waterloo at the time. On April 4, 1840, seven men met at the Carlos City Exchange and enacted the Chamber of Commerce. The seven men were Thomas M. League, Henry R. Allen, George Gazely, John W. Pitkin, Charles Kesler, E.S. Perkins, and Dewitt C. Harris. The chambers' community development efforts would revive the dying frontier village.
In 1840, the town was divided into four wards, each with different functions in the community. The wards are no longer political divisions, but their names are still used. The Texas Government started to promote colonization of the state. The Allen brothers started to promote their town. The Allen brothers were not particularly honest to the people whom they settled. They boasted of waterfalls in their advertisements when all Houston had were bayous. However, Houston did get many perks very quickly, since the brothers really wanted their city to succeed. Digging for a proposed Port of Houston began when Congress approved a move to dig out the Buffalo Bayou on January 9, 1842. $2000 came as financial aid. Houstonians had mixed opinions over the apparent statehood of their country. When Mexico was threatening Texas, President Sam Houston moved the capital to Houston on June 27, 1842. However, the Austin residents wanted to keep the archives in their city. This would be known as the Archive Wars. The capital was then moved to Washington on-the-Brazos on September 29. Austin became capital again in 1844. The port in Houston was getting some shipping business, but the shallowness of the water hampered massive shipping. During the 1850s, the Houstonians decided to build in a rail system to connect their port with rail links. 11 companies built 451 miles of track all before 1860. Mexican-Americans, who were one of the earliest immigrant groups to Houston, were preferred as railroad builders.
Houston first dabbled in shipping cotton, lumber, and other manufacturing products. Alexander McGowen established the iron industry, and Tom Whitmarsh built a cotton warehouse. A fire ravaged Houston on March 10, 1859, but the city rebuilt itself soon after.
Thousands of enslaved African-Americans lived near the city before the Civil War. Many of them around the city were on sugar and cotton plantations, while many in the city limits did housework. 49 percent of the city's population was enslaved in 1860. Slave life in the city was generally easier than slave life outside of the city.
The Civil War
As 1860 came along, most Houstonians supported John C. Breckenridge, an independent democrat candidate. However, he lost the election. As the civil war went underway, people loyal to the Confederacy and people loyal to the Union had a falling out. The Chamber of Commerce kept the city together during the conflict. Galveston got blockaded on October 4, 1862, which in turn soured Houston's economy. On January 1, 1863, John B. Magruder's Confederate forces recaptured the city. However, the war was won by the Unionists and Texas got four years under military rule as a punishment, along with all of the other Confederate states. In 1869, the Ship Channel Company was made to help dig up the Buffalo Bayou. Texas' developments were revived shortly after the "carpetbagger" rule. On May 1870, Houston was the site of the State Fair. The fair remained until 1878.
Reconstruction
After Texas readmitted itself to the Union in April 16, 1870, Houston was going to grow during the reconstruction era. Houston became a port of entry on July 16, 1870. Its new charter drew up eight wards. Many freed slaves opened businesses and worked under contracts. The Freedmen's Bureau stopped abuse of the contracts in 1870. Many African-Americans at the time were in unskilled labor. Many former slaves legalised their current marriages after the American Civil War. African-American pupils were taught in separate facilities from Caucasian children. Soon after the Reconstruction, Jim Crow laws arrived in Houston.
Lumber became a large part of the port's exports, with merchandise as its chief import. The Houston Post was established in 1880. The Houston Chronicle followed on August 23 of that year. Former U. S. President Ulysses Grant came to Houston to celebrate the opening of the Union Station, which had rail links with New Orleans. Fifth Ward residents threatened to secede from Houston because they felt they already had been separated. An iron drawbridge built in 1883 pacified them, and they did not secede. In 1887, the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word established a hospital that would become Saint Joseph's Hospital.
1900's
The Early 1900s
In 1893, George H. Hermann donated a site for the purpose of a charitable hospital. It would later become Memorial Hermann Hospital in the Texas Medical Center. In 1898, Houstonians appealed before Congress for permission to turn the Buffalo Bayou into a deepwater port. The Spanish-American War prompted them to request permission. Congress approved it on March 3, 1899 and amended the act on February 20, 1900. On September 8 - September 9, the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 savagely tore apart the city of Galveston, Texas. After the incident, investors were afraid of its location, and invested in Houston. The oil discovery at Spindletop in Beaumont, Texas in 1901 prompted a new industry to be developed in Texas. The oil trade would transform Houston from a smaller town into a large city. In 1902, Theodore Roosevelt had approved a one-million dollar fund for the Ship Channel. By 1910, the population of Houston was larger than that of Galveston. 1902 also saw the first Japanese Americans into Texas, who moved there after Sadatsuchi Uchida gave a fact-finding tour of the Gulf Coast region. This would establish rice as a crop of the Gulf Coast area. With a large grant from Andrew Carnegie, the Houston Lyceum and Carnegie Library, later known as the Houston Public Library, was founded in 1904. In 1912, the Rice Institute (now Rice University) opened in the West University area. By 1913, twelve oil companies had located themselves in Houston. President Woodrow Wilson opened the port in 1914, 74 years after the digging started. Service started with the Satilla, a ship that ran from Houston to New York, New York. Mexican-Americans displaced by the civil war started flooding the city of Houston. Ever since, Mexicans and other Latin-Americans have been a heavy influence in the city of Houston. World War I put the gasoline-combustible automobile into widespread use, causing oil to become a precious commodity. However, the war caused the amount of tonnage arriving to drop. After the war, the rice business fell flat, causing many Japanese-Americans to find other work or to move out of Texas.
1920's
On May 30, 1922, George Hermann, a millionaire, donated land to the city that would later become the Hermann Park. September of the same year saw the start of the Houston Zoo. The zoo was started when Houston schoolchildren bought two ostriches. The zoo was later moved from Sam Houston Park to Hermann Park. September 26 saw the first international-bound ship in the port. During the Roaring Twenties', more specifically 1927, the state highway to Houston was built. Bus and truck operations also fell into swing. Houston Junior College opened its doors that same year, which would later become the University of Houston. August 1929 saw the first Sears into Houston. Then Black Tuesday threw devastating blow to the economy of the entire United States. Houston's growth was much smaller, but the city still grew. Mexican Americans no longer saw easy to obtain jobs, yet several were successful by catering to the Caucasian market in the city.
1930's
The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo came in 1932. In 1934, Houston Junior College became a four-year institution and changed its name to the University of Houston. A flood in 1935 further worsened conditions, and Houstonians were forced to clean up the mess. Air service by Braniff and Eastern Airlines came in 1935 and 1936. By the end of the decade, Houston was encountering growth pains, as the city had inadequate air service and that it was no longer a frontier town. Houston became the largest city in Texas in terms of population in 1939. Many immigrants and African-Americans from Louisiana and other parts of Texas moved to the city to find education or work. The city obtained a very multicultural atmosphere, with large African-American and immigrant communities scattered about. However, African-Americans faced bad housing and poor jobs during this time period. Nethertheless, African-American society developed so much that the city was, and still is, the African-American capital of Texas. The University of Houston moved to its present-day location donated by the Cullen family off of what would later be the first freeway in Houston, U.S. Highway 75, or Gulf Freeway. Also, educational facilities for minority groups, including the Wiley College opened in this time period.
1940's
World War II
When World War II started, tonnage levels fell and five shipping lines ended service. April 1940 saw streetcar service replaced by buses. Pan Am started air service in 1942. World War II sparked the reopening of Ellington Field. The Cruiser Houston was named after the city. It sank after a vicious battle in Java, Indonesia in 1942. August 1942 also saw the new City Manager government enacted. The M. D. Anderson Foundation formed the Texas Medical Center in 1945. That same year, the University of Houston separated from HISD and became a private university. Aircraft and shipbuilding became large industries in Texas as a result of the war. Tonnage rose after the end of the war in 1946. During the same year, E. W. Bertner gave away 161 acres (0.7 km²) of land for the Texas Medical Center. Surburban Houston came to be in the period from 1946 to 1950. When Oscar D. Holcombe took his eight term in 1946, he abandoned the city manager type government. Foley's department store opened in 1947. The Alley Theatre got its first performance in 1947. The banking industry also rose to prominence in the late 1940s. Houston carried out a large annexation campaign to increase its size. When air conditioning came to the city, it was called the "World's Most Air Conditioned City". The economy of Houston reverted back to a healthy, port driven economy. Segregation was not as rampant and vicious as it was in other parts of the South. As demonstrated by the NAACP voting drive in the time period, many African-Americans in the city started to more openly challenge segregational laws.
1950's
The medical center became operational in the 1950s. The Galveston Freeway and the International Terminal at Houston International Airport (nowadays Hobby Airport) were signs of increasing wealth in the area. Millions of dollars were spent replacing aging infrastructure. In 1951, the Texas Children's Hospital and the Shriner's Hospital were built. Existing hospitals had expansions being completed. July 1, 1952 was the date of Houston's first network television. Later on that same year, the University of Houston celebrated its 25th anniversary. Another problem Houston had back in the 1950s was the fact that it needed a new water supply. They at first relied on ground water, but that caused land subsidence. They had proposals in the Texas Congress to use the Trinity river. Hattie Mae White was elected to the school board in 1959. She was the first African-American to be elected in a major position in Houston in the 20th Century. Starting in 1950, Japanese-Americans as a whole were leaving horticulture and going into business in larger cities, such as Houston.
1960's
In the year 1960, Houston International Airport was deemed inadequate for the needs of the city. This airport could not be expanded, so Houston Intercontinental Airport (now George Bush Intercontinental Airport) was going to be built north of the city. December 1961 saw Hurricane Carla, which was a very destructive hurricane that hit the city of Houston. On July 4, 1962, NASA opened the Manned Spacecraft Center in southeast Houston in the Clear Lake area, now the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center. This would bring many jobs to the Houston, especially the Clear Lake area. In 1963, the University of Houston ended its status as a private institution and became a state university by entering into the Texas State System of Higher Education after a long battle with opponents from other state universities blocking the change. July 1965 saw Brazoria County, Fort Bend County, Liberty County, and Montgomery County added to the Houston Metropolitan Area. December 1965 saw the opening of the Astrodome, then called the Harris County Domed Stadium. Barbara Jordan was elected to the Senate by Houstonians on November 8, 1966. Houston Intercontinental Airport was built in 1969. Houston International Airport, renamed to Hobby Airport, was closed to commercial aviation until 1971.
1970's
In the 1970s, the Chinese American community in Houston started growing at a rapid rate. Although one had existed since the late 1800s, it was relatively small until the 1970s. The Sharpstown scandal, which concerned the neighborhood of Sharpstown occurred in 1970 and 1971. One Shell Plaza and Two Shell Plaza got completed in 1971. One Shell Plaza, at the time, was the tallest building west of the Mississippi River. The Houston Independent School District had a slower plan to desegregate schools, but on June 1, 1970, the Federal officials struck it down and forced HISD to adopt zoning laws. There were still racial tensions over integration of the schools. The Houston Community College system got established in 1972 by HISD. Water pollution of the Houston Ship Channel became notorious in 1972. August 1973 saw the "Houston Mass Murders", which were the murders of 27 boys killed by 3 men. August 2 saw La Grange, Texas's "Chicken Ranch shut down thanks to Marvin Zindler's report. Work on the Texas Commerce Tower, now the J. P. Morgan Chase Tower, began in 1979. The same year saw a racially integrated City Council for the first time. The late 1970s saw a population boom thanks to the Arab Oil Embargo. People from the Rust Belt states would massively move into Texas. During the time period, five African-Americans served on city council. The Houston Independent School District was also forced to desegregate, which it did so. Some Hispanic Americans felt they were being discriminated against when they were being put with only African-Americans as part of the desegregation plan, so many took their children out of the schools and put them in "huelgas", or protest schools, until a ruling in 1973 satisfied their demands. The Third Ward became the center for African-American activity in the city. In 1977, the University of Houston celebrated its 50th anniversary as the Texas Legislature established the University of Houston System, a state system of higher education that includes three other universities.
1980's
Several new construction projects, including The Park Shopping Mall, the Allied Bank Tower, the Gulf Tower and several other buildings were being carried out in downtown. The Transco Tower, the tallest building in the world outside of a CBD, was completed in 1983. METRO wanted to build a rail system connecting the city with the suburbs, but the plan was rejected by voters on June 11. The voters did approve plans for the George R. Brown Convention Center. August 18 saw Hurricane Alicia, which caused the most expensive damages in U.S. History. Alicia smashed Galveston and Houston. In 1985, the University of Houston changed its name to the University of Houston-University Park in order separate its identity and confusion with the other three universities within the UH System. The massive population boom calmed down when oil prices fell in 1986 due to the embargo being lifted. The space industry also took a blow that year with the explosion of the Challenger in Florida. The first nine months of 1987 saw the death of eleven banks. The 1980s was a decade of recession for the Houston economy, although the cultural areas expanded. The George R. Brown Convention Center, the Wortham Theatre, and the Menil Collection open this month. In 1988, the University of Houston-University Park reverted its name back to the University of Houston after much controversy with the name change in 1985 in order to separate its identity and confusion with the other three universities in the UH System. On August 7, 1988, Congressman Mickey Leland died in a plane crash in Ethiopia. On October 3, a Phillips 66 plant exploded in Pasadena, Texas, killing 23 and injuring 130. Admission fees on the Houston Zoo came the first time that year.
1990's
1990 saw the Mickey Leland International Airlines building of Houston Intercontinental Airport open. The 12-gate terminal was named after Mickey Leland. In 1991, Sakowitz stores shut down. The Sakowitz brothers had brought their original store from Galveston to Houston in 1911. August 10, 1991 saw a redrawing of districts for city council. Minority groups wanted to get more members into the city council. 1993 saw the G8 visiting to discuss world issues. The master-planned community of Kingwood got annexed in 1996, causing some residents to get angry. In the mid-1990s, Rod Paige became superintendent of Houston Independent School District, and the district became very well known for high test scores. Paige later left to be in the cabinet of George W. Bush when he became President.
2000 to Present Day
The sports teams had outdated stadiums, and they had threatened to leave Houston. The Houston Oilers did so after several threats, so the city built Enron Field, now Minute Maid Park for the baseball team. Reliant Stadium came up for the Houston Texans. Tropical Storm Allison devastated many neighborhoods with flooding in June 2001. Soon after September 11, Enron, a company in Houston, got caught in accounting scandals in October 2001. In 2002, the University of Houston celebrated its 75th anniversary with an enrollment of 34,443 that fall semester. At the same time, the University of Houston System celebrated its 25th anniversary with a total enrollment of over 54,000. Andrew Fastow was arrested and the company was sued. The new Terminal E at George Bush Intercontinental Airport partially opened on June 3, 2003. The rest will open in December. The Toyota Center, the stadium for the basketball and hockey teams, opened in fall 2003. METRO put in light rail service on January 1, 2004. Voters have decided by a close margin (52% Yes to 48% No) that METRO's light rail shall be expanded.