Near Northside Historic District

Originally part of the Fifth Ward, the Near Northside neighborhood dates back to the late nineteenth century. In 1866, Fifth Ward was carved out of the First and Second Wards and included the geographic area north of Buffalo Bayou and east of White Oak Bayou. Prior to the establishment of Fifth Ward, Houston was divided into four wards, one for each geographic quadrant. Although the first streets in the Near Northside Historic District were surveyed and laid out by 1866, subdividing the blocks into salable parcels did not occur until 1890 and the majority of the single-family house construction occurred in the first two decades of the twentieth century. In the early 1880s, the Southern Pacific Railroad located a multi-acre repair and maintenance facility called the Rail Shops, several blocks southeast of the district, one of the largest employment centers in the Fifth Ward. The railroad and the expansion of the streetcar lines within the neighborhood allowed the area to continue developing as a working-class neighborhood in the first decades of the twentieth century. The earliest residents were Anglo, German, and Italian immigrants who built modest wooden framed houses that followed national architectural trends and styles. Typical residents worked at the rail shops, the nearby port, or as clerks or salespersons downtown. The Near Northside Historic District is nominated to the National Register of Historic Places at the local level of significance in the area of Community Planning and Development. The district is also nominated in the area of Architecture, as an intact collection of working-class homes dating to the late 19th and early 20th century, with very little postwar infill, especially in comparison to most other neighborhoods of this era in central Houston - only a few teardowns in recent years. The period of significance is c.1890 to 1940, the period of the neighborhood's settlement and greatest development as a working-class residential area. There was almost no new construction in the district from 1940 until the 1990s.

Houston's first port was located at Allen's landing at the foot of Main Street near the confluence of Buffalo and White Oak Bayous. The first steamer, the "Laura," docked here in 1837 and the Port of Houston was officially established on June 8, 1841.

Commerce and trade centered on the port gave birth to the surrounding warehouse district just north of Buffalo Bayou. When rail came to the city in 1850, a large swath of undeveloped land was available in the Fifth Ward in close proximity to the port. Subsequent development in the area including the location of the Southern Pacific rail shops and the expansion of the electric streetcar system, allowed for the growth of the working-class neighborhoods north of the bayou, including the nominated Near Northside Historic District. In 1913 the port moved east to its present location, yet the neighborhood retained its major employment centers well into the 1950s.

The first platted streets and numbered blocks in the neighborhood appear on the W. E. Wood Map of 1866. This map, prepared for the city directory of the same year, shows the initial development of the area north of Buffalo Bayou. The platted areas are mostly east of Montgomery Avenue, (North Main Street). The two blocks shown on this map and included in the Near Northside District are 43 and 44 of the A. C. Allen plat, bounded by James, Montgomery Avenue, Stephans (now Hogan), and White Oak Bayou. Morrison & Fourmy's 1882 City of Houston map, surveyed by E. Alsteaten, extends slightly further north to Quitman. The area streets and numbered blocks are shown yet the latter had not yet been subdivided into individual lots. A City of Houston map from 1884 depicts the extensive Southern Pacific rail shops, a major employment center for the neighborhood, south of Burnett Street and just east of Montgomery Avenue. The entire area north of Buffalo Bayou is labeled "Fifth Ward," a former political system term and still a part of the city's geographic vocabulary. The original four wards, established by a city charter amendment in 1840, divided the city into four political divisions. The Fifth Ward was created in 1866 from portions of the First and Second Wards and included the area north of Buffalo Bayou and east of White Oak Bayou. First Ward historically was the geographic area north of Congress and west of Main Street. Second Ward historically was north of Congress and east of Main Street. The Near Northside Historic District is no longer considered part of the Fifth Ward; the present-day boundaries of Fifth Ward are Buffalo Bayou to the south, Jensen Drive to the west, Liberty to the north, and Lockwood to the east.

The 1890 Official Map of the City of Houston by Porter, Pollard & Ruby shows individual lots facing south onto Stephanes [sic] (now Hogan) of Block 44. This block is bounded by Stephanes, Montgomery Avenue, James, and Fletcher. The majority of the blocks to the east of Montgomery Avenue and south of Stephanes show individual lots on the map. By 1904, the street grid generally appeared as it does today, with large block parcels between Hogan and Quitman bisected and the new east-west streets inserted: Winnie, Marie, Bishop, and Gargan. This split of the larger block parcels is reflected in the legal descriptions, and there are four blocks with the same number and the same sequencing of block numbers.

Numerous small frame houses began to appear throughout the neighborhood as early as 1890 and scores survive to the present. Queen Anne's stylistic embellishments appeared on more middle-class houses in the district. Like their counterparts throughout the country, they featured pitched or hipped roofs with fish scale shingles in the gable ends and decorative brackets and turned posts on the front porches. From the 1920s through the 1930s, Craftsman-influenced bungalows dominated new construction in the district. As a result, half the houses in the neighborhood bear Craftsman influence, more than any other discernable style. Most were front-gabled frame buildings with full or inset front porches supported by tapered posts on brick piers. They often featured exposed rafter ends and knee braces under the eaves. Although brick was widely available, virtually all of the district's bungalows are of frame construction, possibly because milled lumber could be sent inexpensively by rail in the early 20th century.

The neighborhood, as seen in Sanborn Maps and city directories, had a large number of buildings constructed by 1924. Several incomplete blocks (only two drawing sheets) of the neighborhood appear in Volume I of the 1907 Sanborn Map. Many of the houses shown in the early map appear on subsequent maps (1924 and 1924-1950) and are still standing. Early density was concentrated to the south in the vicinity of Hogan and east along Montgomery Avenue (now North Main Street). The 1907 Sanborn Map depicts the area bounded on the west by present-day Interstate 45 and on the east by Montgomery Avenue. Hogan appears on the map and the northern boundary is only drawn to Henry Street. The area was comprised of modest, wood-framed, dwellings with partial or full-width front porches. All of the dwellings were single-family and outbuildings included small one-story sheds and privies and larger one and two-story stable structures. The lots were typically 50 feet by 100 feet. The residential nature of the neighborhood extended east along Montgomery Avenue. There was one church on the southeast corner of Bishop and Fletcher, "Bishop Street Baptist Church" that had electric lights and was heated by a wood-burning stove. There was a small school located at 404 Gargan near the corner of Fletcher. None of the streets were paved with the exception of Montgomery Avenue which had asphalt paving.

The 1924 Sanborn Map depicts increased housing density in the neighborhood. There were commercial intrusions within the neighborhood concentrated along Montgomery Avenue. New structures replaced the empty lots seen on the previous map.

Also on this map, Montgomery Avenue has been renamed North Main Street. The Sunset Hospital of the Southern Pacific Railroad, one of the district's significant structures, is visible in the 2000 block of Thomas Street. Stables are still seen in the neighborhood yet one and two-story auto garages now outnumber them. The area was still filled with predominantly single-family dwellings, and North Main Street remains residential with a few commercial enterprises creeping in on many of the corners. There were two commercial businesses and one multi-family building labeled "F" for "Flat," both located on Keene Street, one block west of North Main Street.

Little change can be seen on the 1924-1950 Sanborn Map when compared to the previous map with the exception of increased density, the influx of commercial enterprises, and a rise in multi-family structures, and the conversion of single-family houses into duplexes.

Transportation

In 1850 the railroad came to Houston and in subsequent decades the Fifth Ward with its availability of large undeveloped parcels of land became the location of numerous rail lines and the Southern Pacific rail shops. Mule-drawn streetcars bypassed the area and the first electric streetcar service on Montgomery Avenue began in 1892. This early route extended as far north as Hogan (the southern boundary of the historic district) and encouraged residential development with access to the transportation line. In 1903, the Montgomery line was extended with loop service to the east, toward the Southern Pacific railroad shops. In 1913 the Main Street Viaduct opened, providing more efficient access to the north side of Buffalo Bayou from downtown. This same year North Montgomery Avenue was renamed North Main Street. The new Viaduct greatly improved the electric streetcar service. The electric street cars remained in operation along North Main Street until 1939.

When the Texas Highway Department approved the first group of Houston freeways in 1945, the beginnings of Interstate 45 - a small segment from downtown to North Main Street designated at US 75- were among those initial roadways agreed upon. A year later the highway department authorized the freeway to be extended from North Main to the northern city limits, at the time just north of present-day Loop 610. The first freeway section opened for traffic in 1959 and had a permanent impact on the western edge of the district, although the impact was softened by the lack of a standard feeder road. Freeway construction permanently altered the landscape and physically cut in half the Wrightwood subdivision in the north part of the district.

Civic Organization

One of the oldest Fifth Ward civic organizations, the "North Side Planning and Civics," was formed in 1928. The organization's area of interest was bounded by Buffalo Bayou on the south, the city limits (Hays Street) on the north, Little White Oak Bayou on the west, and Lockwood Drive on the east, and was later described as "an outgrowth of an idea that by cooperation and honest effort, the 65,000 North Side residents may better conditions in their community."10 The mission of the group was to improve the neighborhood and create "a highly livable environment."
Membership was free to homeowners and renters residing within the North Side boundaries. Fred W. and Bernice L. Turner published The North Side, the group's news magazine, from 1929-1938. Regular meetings were held on the first and third Thursdays of each month. As published in a 1929 issue of the North Side, the group was formed "to foster civic pride, aid rational development in the North Side with separation of residential and industrial uses [the group was pro-zoning in a city known for its lack of zoning], encourage the proper location for recreational facilities, create the best possible neighborly relationships and promote civic welfare of men women and children now and into the future."12 Specific needs addressed in the magazine included improved drainage, street paving, better bridge access to downtown, improved lighting in the tunnel under the railroad bridge, more traffic arteries, and widening of streets including a comprehensive street plan. An excerpt from the April 1929 magazine laments the lack of paving in the North Side, a recurring theme throughout the life of the publication:

Pavements have been a prime element in civilization since Rome conquered the world. No progressive city can exist without them and therefore it naturally follows that no section of a city without them can hope to keep pace with the remainder, and, as a result, industrial progress in that section is slackened or stopped altogether, and the health, happiness and comfort of residents injured.

The magazine periodically offered nostalgic recollections of its residents about the changes in their neighborhood. The April 1931 issue reflects the changes to Montgomery and Houston Avenues from residential streets to commercial thoroughfares. Brief biographies of some of the civic leaders include Lawrence Raney who lived at 2404 Keene Street and was employed as an assistant manager at Byrd's Clothing, 420 Main Street. Other professions noted in the district include lab technicians with the City Water Department, carpenters, cabinet makers, plumbers, car helpers with Southern Pacific Lines, clerks for Union Transfer and Storage (now Vine Street Studios, NR 2001), bricklayers, shoe repair, welder and oil field supply clerks and assemblers. There were many listings for "car repairers" with Southern Pacific, Texas & New Orleans, Houston Belt & Terminal, and Houston East & West Texas railroads, among others.

Presently, the neighborhood is predominately Hispanic, a change from its inception as an Anglo, German, Polish, and Italian immigrant community. Shifts in the ethnic population began very slowly around 1945 with the shifts most noticeable along the larger and perimeter streets such as Keene, Quitman, and Hogan. The smaller streets in the interior of the neighborhood are slower to change. The majority of the neighborhood became Hispanic by the 1970s.

Conclusion

The Near Northside Historic District is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places at the local level of significance under Criterion A in the area of Community Development and Planning as an excellent intact example of a modest, working-class Houston neighborhood that developed around employment centers on the north side of Buffalo Bayou. The neighborhood is threatened by rising land prices and the expansion of the city's light rail system into the area with its associated new development. Land prices also continue to rise in the inner loop and the expansion of the adjacent Interstate 45 also threatens to carve off a slice of the neighborhood. The neighborhood remains a modest, working-class neighborhood with a dense and intact collection of single-family wooden framed houses.