Historic Houston Roads

[IronTiger]

Looks like Old Telephone Road had this done to it in the 1960s or 1970s. Part of it was demolished for a drain ditch expansion in the 1990s, the rest has had pavement removed.

[Goatman79]

While exploring old maps, I discovered an isolated segment of Old North Houston-Rosslyn Rd. on the southeast corner of SH-249 and North Houston Rosslyn Rd. The road appears in photos as far back as 1943, but has been abandoned since approximately the 1970's since the newer road was built to the west. Part of the old road now serves as a parking lot for a church, and the other half, which borders some shady apartments, is almost totally overgrown on both shoulders, but can still be traversed on foot (though I highly recommend not going alone in this part of town). Get your pictures taken now, because urban development trends suggest that this abandoned road, which sits alone in a grassy field, will likely be built over in the near future.

[plumber2]

Hollister at Hammerly? Anyone remember that curve?

[Goatman79]

I don't remember it personally, but I sure found it on the map. That looked like a pretty nasty dead man's curve. Apparently the curve was bypassed in the 70's at some point, and an apartment complex was built right over it.

[IronTiger]

There's another curve south on N Houston Rosslyn Road near Log Hollow Road that looks like it was taken out circa 1990.

[crooow579]

There's another curve south on N Houston Rosslyn Road near Log Hollow Road that looks like it was taken out circa 1990.

Yes, that part of N. Houston-Rosslyn was bypassed in the early 90s when the road was widened to 4 lanes. There was a bar and grill there called Zach's Shack. It was popular with the employees of the oil and gas companies that still line that road. I went there once for a wedding reception and stickers advertising those businesses lined the walls.

[djrage]

Looks like Old Telephone Road had this done to it in the 1960s or 1970s. Part of it was demolished for a drain ditch expansion in the 1990s, the rest has had pavement removed.

Where exactly is this?

[Dagnabbit]

Where exactly is this?

I'm guessing it's the part of telephone road thats just south of Hobby airport and north of Braniff St.

[plumber2]

Seawall Blvd. in Galveston was realigned sometime in the late 1950's when Ft. Crockett was abandoned. There is a section of the old roadway still visible just north of the present boulevard, between Academy and the San Luis hotel. Apparently the original road veried around some seawall gun implacements.

[billyf]

Hollister at Hammerly? Anyone remember that curve?

We were looking up my friends condo on Historical Aerials and saw that this road went right through it. The remains can be seen on the 1978 areial on Google Earth. The condo was built in 1980.

Edited June 3, 2012 by billyf

[NenaE]

Seawall Blvd. in Galveston was realigned sometime in the late 1950's when Ft. Crockett was abandoned. There is a section of the old roadway still visible just north of the present boulevard, between Academy and the San Luis hotel. Apparently the original road veried around some seawall gun implacements.

That's interesting Plumber2, I'll have to look at that. What's going on with the Crockett Buildings? Are they still standing?

[Earlydays]

Seawall Blvd. in Galveston was realigned sometime in the late 1950's when Ft. Crockett was abandoned. There is a section of the old roadway still visible just north of the present boulevard, between Academy and the San Luis hotel. Apparently the original road veried around some seawall gun implacements.

The San Luis sits on top off the old gun implacements...they are still there.

[Ross]

The old alignment is clearly visible in Google Earth on the oldest aerials

[Goatman79]

I'll have to check that out next time Im on the seawall. I knew about the gun turret installations in front of the San Luis, and always point it out to my passengers when I ride past it. If any of y'all remember Sea Arama, it also used to be along the seawall near the long fishing pier that got destroyed by Hurricane Ike. Numerically, it would have been located approximately at 89th street, if such a road exists. I managed to get inside and take plenty of photos before it got bulldozed in 2007.

[Earlydays]

....there were also gun implacements behind the seawall on the east end of the island. They were still there in the early '60's.

[FilioScotia]

***Seawall Blvd. in Galveston was realigned sometime in the late 1950's when Ft. Crockett was abandoned.***

Fort Crockett was never "abandoned". The army deactivated it as a military post in 1948, and it became the Galveston Recreation Center for the Fourth Army. Fishery research started at the fort in 1950, and in 1957 it was acquired by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The Bureau of Commercial Fisheries acquired 10 buildings there. The fort was transferred to the National Marine Fisheries Service in 1970, and the Department of Commerce began renovating the complex in 1998. The Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary moved its offices to the Post Exchange building in 2006.

Just last year, Galveston celebrated 100 years of history with Fort Crockett.

Here's a link to that story. http://galvestondail...m/story/266278/

I was surprised to learn that Fort Crockett was not a Civil War fort. It was built in 1897, but didn't acquire the name "Fort Crockett" until 1903, when it was rebuilt after the 1900 hurricane.

Edited June 14, 2012 by FilioScotia

[sevfiv]

Apologies if this has already been posted but this Chronicle article from 1997 explains a few:

http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=1997_1407015

[IronTiger]

MacGregor Way looks like it had that section through the trees cut off in the last past five years (I vaguely remember a HAIF discussion on it).

Marvin Taylor Exercise Trail looks like it must have been a road at sometime, though it looks like it was abandoned by the late 1970s.

[Native Son]

I like the Old Main Loop which ran from near Craghead and ran all the way through the Astrodome site

[jetfuel]

I have checked the various links of previous posts without luck finding any results. There is a stretch of City of Houston street that is now known as the 5300 block of Beverly Hill Street.  This is between Rice Avenue and Yorktown.  At some time in the past this was known as the 3300 block of Bingham Manor Lane.  Is there a record indicating when this name change was made?  Commercial map databases have a glitch in them that still identifies a portion of this block of Beverly Hill Street as Bingham Manor Lane.  If you move the mouse cursor or drop a pin at the corner of South Rice Avenue and Beverly Hill Street on Google Maps, it shows 3399 Bingham Manor Lane.  This error is in Google, OnStar, Waze, Bing, and MapQuest, and the USPS site says Bingham Manor Lane is not a valid address for 77056.  Also attached is a photo from an adjacent residence (current photo- 2015)   

[Libbie]

I haven't read this entire thread from 2007 to 2 weeks ago, so I might be repeating something,  but how about Reba in River Oaks, which becomes Fairview East of Shepherd, which then becomes Tuam right before downtown?

 And Gray, which just past Shepherd becomes Inwood.

[plumber2]

I have checked the various links of previous posts without luck finding any results. There is a stretch of City of Houston street that is now known as the 5300 block of Beverly Hill Street.  This is between Rice Avenue and Yorktown.  At some time in the past this was known as the 3300 block of Bingham Manor Lane.  Is there a record indicating when this name change was made?  Commercial map databases have a glitch in them that still identifies a portion of this block of Beverly Hill Street as Bingham Manor Lane.  If you move the mouse cursor or drop a pin at the corner of South Rice Avenue and Beverly Hill Street on Google Maps, it shows 3399 Bingham Manor Lane.  This error is in Google, OnStar, Waze, Bing, and MapQuest, and the USPS site says Bingham Manor Lane is not a valid address for 77056.  Also attached is a photo from an adjacent residence (current photo- 2015)Bingham Manor Lane.jpeg  bingham manor map.PNG

 

It has always been Beverly Hill Lane. I remember growing up in these parts, This parcel of land just north of Larchmont was originally a nursery. Apartments were then built in the mid 60's with the public road being named Beverly Hill Lane, lining up with Beverly Hill Lane in Larchmont beyond Pilgrim Elementary School. There may have been a Bingham Manor Lane that is a private street intersecting with Beverly Hill Lane.

 

[kskcarpenter]

This is my first time trying this; I hope I do it correctly.

I'm looking at the 1930 Federal Census for my great-grandfather who was a long-time resident of Houston, usually in the Heights. The address given, is 2615 Hilosel. I have searched and searched, but cannot find a street by that name in Houston. Does anyone know where this street is, if it was renamed, or if it was obliterated during a building boom? I have been able to trace his movements around Houston, but this has me stymied.

Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

[Ross]

This is my first time trying this; I hope I do it correctly.

I'm looking at the 1930 Federal Census for my great-grandfather who was a long-time resident of Houston, usually in the Heights. The address given, is 2615 Hilosel. I have searched and searched, but cannot find a street by that name in Houston. Does anyone know where this street is, if it was renamed, or if it was obliterated during a building boom? I have been able to trace his movements around Houston, but this has me stymied.

Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

 

It's now called Westgate Street, South of Westheimer, West of Shepherd. Here's a link to the block book map http://books.tax.hctx.net/v056/AE1997_Vol_56_0076.jpg

 

Ancestry.com has a number of Houston City Directories available. I just looked in the 1930 edition, under the street listing, which had  the general location as part of the description, then used a map to see what streets might fit the bill, then went to the block books search. Searching Westgate didn't quite work, so I used Newman, the next street East.

 

2615 is the first house listed, with E M Hudson as the resident.Going back to the name listing, his wife was Norma, and he was a salesman for Reliance Clay Products. Reliance admin offices were in the Gulf building, retail yard was at 1406 Dowling.

 

2615 is now a townhouse, I have no idea if the location is the same. The block book map lists lot numbers, not addresses

 

Edited April 27, 2015 by Ross

[kskcarpenter]

THANK YOU!  THANK YOU!  THANK YOU!

 

I was starting to go a little nuts.  I also thought of searching the block books, but became hopelessly lost.  Then, I stumbled onto this site (that's how lost I was) and decided to give it a try.  Glad I did.

[tanker61]

Mackie Dee Avenue in Magnolia Park.  First time poster.

In the 1913 map of Houston, present day 76th street was called Mackie Dee Avenue.  It ran north from Harrisburg Blvd to present day section of Avenue P, ran west for one block and then north on present day 75th Street to the Turning Basin of the Ship Channel.  The Central Park/Magnolia Park Map verified this.  Around 1950, the street names were changed to the names of today.  I have spent countless hours online trying to research and find out who Mackie Dee was with no luck. Never had the time to visit the Texas Room at the library to get serious.  Anyone ever heard of this road or of Mackie Dee?

[Ross]

1 hour ago, tanker61 said:

Mackie Dee Avenue in Magnolia Park.  First time poster.

In the 1913 map of Houston, present day 76th street was called Mackie Dee Avenue.  It ran north from Harrisburg Blvd to present day section of Avenue P, ran west for one block and then north on present day 75th Street to the Turning Basin of the Ship Channel.  The Central Park/Magnolia Park Map verified this.  Around 1950, the street names were changed to the names of today.  I have spent countless hours online trying to research and find out who Mackie Dee was with no luck. Never had the time to visit the Texas Room at the library to get serious.  Anyone ever heard of this road or of Mackie Dee?

 

Some more info at https://www.flickr.com/photos/rkimberly/4995896189

 

Reference to Mackie Dee Oil and Investment (may get more info from Texas Secretary of State records) https://books.google.com/books?id=H39DAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA63&lpg=PA63&dq=mackie+dee+houston&source=bl&ots=jsAE1v_Tu1&sig=RUH95c8q1T5Ga8Ly2Cn5oQ5qQbI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiKw7a-vubRAhXBRiYKHXKqC6IQ6AEINzAF#v=onepage&q=mackie dee houston&f=false

There's a mention of a Mackie Dee Barnett in the July 17, 1904 Galveston Daily News society news for Brenham. In 1906, there's a marriage license where Mackie Dee Barnett married a William Mayfield in Ft Bend County. In the 1910 census, they live at 415 Emerson Street in Houston (one street North of Westmoreland), the husband is a newspaper editor.

That's all I could find right now. The items with no link came from ancestry.com

[tanker61]

Thank you for the fast response on Mackie Dee.  The flickr link to the newspaper article was the closest I got.  If Mr. Lew who owned the grocery store at the corner of Canal didn't know, I thought it was a lost cause.  I will also keep looking.

[sevfiv]

Mackie Dee Oil and Development Company also shows up the September 1, 1911 issue of the Houston Post under "New Houston Corporations"

https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443220/m1/55/?q=mackie

[Michelle C]

Lincoln Street ran from Allen Parkway to Westheimer. It is now an extension of Montrose. Only a short section of Lincoln still exist between Westheimer and California St.