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Brunsville - Old Subdivision Near The Ship Channel


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You're right. A closer study of the aerial photo and that incredible 1942 map someone supplied a link for shows clearly that the oval and circles were in the area of that photo at one time. The street names haven't changed, but that area certainly has. Sorry about that.

Even more amazing, for me, is seeing on that 1942 map clear proof that the Gulf Freeway was in the planning stages even then. They didn't start building it until several years after WWII, but it was on the drawing boards for a long time.

No problem.

Yeah, that old planning map is pretty neat. Amazing how many of those roads actually made it.

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Here is my two cents forth...

I opened up a 1950 Houston Street map which I have scanned but not yet posted on TF. The outline of the oval can be seen (mostly). The upper curve is an unnamed street. The eastern boundry is Columbus. The western boundry has Borden and James cornering together; Bower and Cleveland in a rough horseshoe; So is Arthur and Garfield. There is the NSB railroad cuts between Hays and Braynt. From here you have the upper curve. There is no "lower curve" on this map.

My guess is it was a neighborhood park.

I'll pull out the scan tonight and post a portion of it.

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Here is my two cents forth...

I opened up a 1950 Houston Street map which I have scanned but not yet posted on TF. The outline of the oval can be seen (mostly). The upper curve is an unnamed street. The eastern boundry is Columbus. The western boundry has Borden and James cornering together; Bower and Cleveland in a rough horseshoe; So is Arthur and Garfield. There is the NSB railroad cuts between Hays and Braynt. From here you have the upper curve. There is no "lower curve" on this map.

My guess is it was a neighborhood park.

I'll pull out the scan tonight and post a portion of it.

thanks, more thoughts and any information is definately appreciated.

most of the maps draw the outside oval separately from the streets that adjoin it.

as if it is a separate structure.

I could definately see it as a park but do the interior circles represent fountains or pools and interior oval a running track or a lake? And it is never named on any maps like other parks usually are.

whatever it was, were these ovals/circles ever actually constructed? they don't seem to be depicted in the b&w aerial photographs where there should be something.

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thanks, more thoughts and any information is definately appreciated.

most of the maps draw the outside oval separately from the streets that adjoin it.

as if it is a separate structure.

I could definately see it as a park but do the interior circles represent fountains or pools and interior oval a running track or a lake? And it is never named on any maps like other parks usually are.

whatever it was, were these ovals/circles ever actually constructed? they don't seem to be depicted in the b&w aerial photographs where there should be something.

It's important to remember that, historically, this part of Houston was and still is largely neglected. It's a highly industrial area that's virtually on the banks of the Houston Ship Channel. It has always been a low income area, where the City of Houston has only recently put in public utilities like water and sewage lines.

By "recently" I mean the past several decades. This is why I seriously doubt that the large oval and concentric circles represent a park, or fountains, or pools, or a lake, and definitely not a running track. Those kinds of amenities are reserved for more affluent parts of town. That's not a racial thing. It's just the way things were, and still are to some extent.

I'm guessing that these strange circles represent something industrial.

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these neighborhoods existed when the ship channel was being built. my aunts, uncles and grandfather all moved here from tennessee for jobs. my grandfather was a welder who worked on the big 610 bridge as well as refineries. my aunts and uncles worked for refineries after ww2. these neighborhoods (manchester) existed before the ship channel. it's no surprise to me that there were street plans.

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these neighborhoods existed when the ship channel was being built. my aunts, uncles and grandfather all moved here from tennessee for jobs. my grandfather was a welder who worked on the big 610 bridge as well as refineries. my aunts and uncles worked for refineries after ww2. these neighborhoods (manchester) existed before the ship channel. it's no surprise to me that there were street plans.

My point is that these areas have always been working class blue-collar neighborhoods, and the City has never spent a lot of money on parks and other amenities, and even public utilities, in those areas.

The Houston Ship Channel was completed in 1915, long before your relatives came here for jobs during and in the years after WWII. The Ship Channel Bridge was built in the 1970s.

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Maybe they we're thinking in the wrong direction. Maybe these were above ground constructions, but below. Maybe they were pits of some kind that eventually got filled in and paved over. Or maybe they were a pair of oil drilling rigs that have since been dismantled.

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My point is that these areas have always been working class blue-collar neighborhoods, and the City has never spent a lot of money on parks and other amenities, and even public utilities, in those areas.

The Houston Ship Channel was completed in 1915, long before your relatives came here for jobs during and in the years after WWII. The Ship Channel Bridge was built in the 1970s.

True, but the initial plats of Brunsville were done sometime around or before 1920 and before the area became heavily industrialized. I sort of thought it might have been a master-planned community (i.e. land speculation) developed by Judge Masterson (see post 17) and the ovals/circles represent the centerpiece park that was NEVER built. The subdivison itself never really filled in either probably because of the industialization that eventually developed in the area. Also, It was platted in the right time period when, nationally, a lot of these interesting subdivision planning ideas were popular. It went along with the housing boom of the time.

I will have to check my maps, but I don't think the Brunsville was annexed into the Houston city limits until the 50's. So any park there would not have been city maintained. and then came the Clintonview replat in the 50's - around the time of annexation - that wiped out the ovals.

these neighborhoods existed when the ship channel was being built. my aunts, uncles and grandfather all moved here from tennessee for jobs. my grandfather was a welder who worked on the big 610 bridge as well as refineries. my aunts and uncles worked for refineries after ww2. these neighborhoods (manchester) existed before the ship channel. it's no surprise to me that there were street plans.

East end and southeast side areas like Manchester, Magnolia Park, Park Place, Allendale (i can keep naming them) were all developed before the war and before the area became heavily industrialized. Old-timers say that the war time refineries and then the post war boom is what really changed these additions dramatically and turned them into the blue collar neighborhoods with mixed in light industrial.

Maybe they we're thinking in the wrong direction. Maybe these were above ground constructions, but below. Maybe they were pits of some kind that eventually got filled in and paved over. Or maybe they were a pair of oil drilling rigs that have since been dismantled.

I initially considered it might be some sort of tank farm (or other industrial structure) but these are typically depicted differently on the maps where they both coexist. and then why would you develop a neighborhood symetrically around an industrial feature like that?? My vote is for the never fully realized master-planned community.

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But if they had never been built why would they continue to show up on maps for many years? My guess it was a park for the neighborhood. Maybe the central oval was a garden feature surrounded by a retaining wall (just a guess). Wasn't this platted out around the time of the "City Beautiful" movement?

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But if they had never been built why would they continue to show up on maps for many years? My guess it was a park for the neighborhood. Maybe the central oval was a garden feature surrounded by a retaining wall (just a guess). Wasn't this platted out around the time of the "City Beautiful" movement?

i will have to get my books out but i think it was platted during the city beautiful movement.

i figured maps are made by out of towners and maybe someone added it to an early map when it was planned and even though it was never built, other cartographers kept including it because they didnt know it had never been constructed...especially since it wasn't in the city limits proper and thus information might not have been readily available

The reason i say never is because of the b&w aerial photos. i just can't believe that features that prominent would not be visible. i guess it might have been bulldozed by then though.

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There are currently houses where the oval was supposed to have been, correct? Has anybody checked the dates of construction to see if the houses where the oval was supposed to be is more recent than the surrounding houses?

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There are currently houses where the oval was supposed to have been, correct? Has anybody checked the dates of construction to see if the houses where the oval was supposed to be is more recent than the surrounding houses?

yes. i did when i first looked at it. brunsville was replatted in 1947 (i think) and there are only a few houses (maybe 20) that are (still) there from before then.

i think i remember that there is one 1930s house on teal that backed up to what would have been the oval. the rest of the structures that are there (there are a lot of vacant lots and a lot of light industrial in the subdivision) date to 1947 or later and some of those are on the interior of the oval.

Some maps still show the ovals post 1947 (i think the latest map in which i have seen with it depicted is 1956) which might lend more evidence to the fact that the maps are wrong.

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yes. i did when i first looked at it. brunsville was replatted in 1947 (i think) and there are only a few houses (maybe 20) that are (still) there from before then.

i think i remember that there is one 1930s house on teal that backed up to what would have been the oval. the rest of the structures that are there (there are a lot of vacant lots and a lot of light industrial in the subdivision) date to 1947 or later and some of those are on the interior of the oval.

Some maps still show the ovals post 1947 which might lend more evidence to the fact that the maps are wrong.

Here's a scan from a 1968 Houston Tourguide map published by Gulf Oil Company. This map clearly shows

the area in question just to the west of the large GALENA orange square. Notice that IH610 East Loop is scheduled for Summer 1969 completion in this photo, and yet the area shows no signs of the circles anywhere. The "Maxine Street" goes completely North-South through the area in question. "Bowers" street is on here but most of the other streets are missing. The East-West street "Mississippi" as shown here appears to be a more major street as it's designated by a double-blue line. There's not even a hint of any "circles" in this map, however. The streets of "Belfield" on the circles west edge and an unnamed street on their east edge do interestingly curve inward joining "Borden" street, as if there WAS some type of obstacle these streets were built around. Clinton Park is clear on the other side of the future IH610 East construction.

IH610East.gif

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I have the ANSWER!!!!! It was a public school, Fidelity Elementery school. My 1950 Houston Street map has a marker in the "loop". Matching it to the legend gives the school map see below.

1950 Houston Street map

Houston1950.jpg

1950 Houston Street map legend

Houston1950Legend.jpg

1962 Harris County Map,

Harris1962b.jpg

1992 Harris County Map

Harris1992b.jpg,

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That school idea looks pretty convincing, but I have to wonder about that. School districts are notoriously slow to close and tear down old schools, and today there is absolutely no sign that a school was ever there.

I've found something else interesting. As a former employee of Houston Public Works, it occurs to me that the oval and concentric circles bear a vague resemblence to the general outline of a sewage treatment plant. So, I went to my Google satellite photo site and checked a photo of that area.

There's no sign of anything resembling a sewage plant at the Brunsville location, BUT, check out a photo of the city sewage plant located at the intersection of Hwy 225 and the East Loop 610. Hmmn. Very interesting.

It raises the possibility that the city, at one time, may have wanted a sewage plant in the Brunsville area, and it may have been on the drawing board for a long time, but maybe resistance from residents forced the city to relocate it. ??? Just a guess, but a good one, I think. The plant on 225 is only 2 miles south of the Brunsville neighborhood.

I think the idea that it might have been a master-planned community doesn't fly. Master-planned communities didn't come to this part of the country till the late 1950s, and Sharpstown was the first in this area. Also, no one would build a master-planned community that close to the Houston Ship Channel and the Port of Houston.

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My guess is that, as was suggested, the oval was a planned park that was never built. Just because it appears on maps from multiple years means nothing. When new maps are made up, most of the existing streets are drawn in as they appeared on earlier maps. Case in point is my old neighborhood.

I grew up on w 14th A few houses east of Beall, which came to an end at 14th. The street to the south of 14th is Wynnwood. Although Beall does not extend to Wynnwood, all the maps from the 50s on showed it as doing so. It would not surprise me to find a map today that still shows that error.

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I have the ANSWER!!!!! It was a public school, Fidelity Elementery school. My 1950 Houston Street map has a marker in the "loop". Matching it to the legend gives the school map see below.

1950 Houston Street map

Houston1950.jpg

now i think that map is definately wrong. i have a 1954 map that shows Fidelity Elementary on the corner of Fidelity (makes sense) between Bolden and Delaware (other side of clinton park). It does not seem to still be an active school in Galena Park ISD and from google maps it appears that a large vacant lot is on that corner today. I am not even certain that Brunsville was ever in Galena Park ISD since Clinton Park Elementary just to the east (but before fidelity) is in HISD.

I've found something else interesting. As a former employee of Houston Public Works, it occurs to me that the oval and concentric circles bear a vague resemblence to the general outline of a sewage treatment plant.

I can't go along with the sewage treatment plant. The ovals were taken into account on the original plat of Brunsville. I cannot imagine that (even back then) someone would expect to plan a neighborhood centered around a treatment plant.

I think the idea that it might have been a master-planned community doesn't fly. Master-planned communities didn't come to this part of the country till the late 1950s, and Sharpstown was the first in this area. Also, no one would build a master-planned community that close to the Houston Ship Channel and the Port of Houston.

again, we are talking about a time before the area was industrialized and the ship channel was in its infancy.

think of magnolia park and central park today. these two communties were planned nice subdivisions not meant to be a lower income working class enclave - it just developed that way as the industry developed around the relatively new ship channel.

also, when i say master planned, i didnt mean something on sharpstown's scale (if that is the type of development you are referring). Think of the heights (1896), think of river oaks (1924) with its curvilinear layout, think of garden villas (1926) with its interesting street grid that is focused on a central "square", or even park place (1914) with its circles.

My guess is that, as was suggested, the oval was a planned park that was never built. Just because it appears on maps from multiple years means nothing. When new maps are made up, most of the existing streets are drawn in as they appeared on earlier maps. Case in point is my old neighborhood.

I am leaning towards this option more and more. It seems the most plausible.

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Agreed the neighborhood wouldn't have been planned around a sewage treatment plant. :o

When the first suburbs were built there wasn't an idea that the East Side would become more industrial than the west. I believe Magnolia Park was one of the first planned subdivisions, and the Houston Country Club was built on the East Side (now Gus Wortham Park).

The park idea makes a lot of sense. In San Francisco there was a similar "city beautiful" oval neighborhood park called South Park. I would still love to know for sure what the circles were, or were meant to be.

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I have a call into HISD to find out some of the details and history of Fidelity Elementary. I will post when the person calls me back.

My information says Fidelity was in Galena Park ISD - another reason that it couldnt be in Brunsville (see post 63)

i really think you are going the wrong direction with this. i believe that school was placed incorrectly on your 1950 map.

i have found two maps so far that show the school on Fidelity st. - to the east of brunsville and clinton park and in gpisd

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My information says Fidelity was in Galena Park ISD - another reason that it couldnt be in Brunsville (see post 63)

yup...according to this, too:

"WHEREAS, This esteemed coach, teacher, and administrator

joined the Galena Park Independent School District as a teacher at

Fidelity Elementary School in 1947"

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I found a 1941 map of industries along Buffalo Bayou and the ship channel, that I thought might help, but nothing is shown in that particular area. Interesting, nonetheless.

HoustonShipChannel-1941.jpg

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hopefully ending the fidelity school possibility...

found an old street index that lists the address of the school as 415 bolden

this puts it in a block bordering fidelity st and between bolden and de haven.

in the fidelity addition to the east and not in brunsville.

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The 1955 directory lists "Fidelity Junior High" at 401 Bolden. Borden is on the (present-day) west side of 610, while Bolden is on the east, just south of Clinton Park.

Also - listed at 9525 Clinton Dr. is the Clinton Park recreation center. Today, 9525 is east of 610 but in 1955, the intersection of McCarty and Clinton was at about 9138 (present-day 610). Soooo the park actually would be near the ovals at that address today...

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I don't know if this was brought up earlier but farther west on Clinton, there is this little neighborhood:

1z3s107.jpgbrunsville_1926.jpg

Now, Garfield and Buchanan streets seem to align with the older map near present-day McCarty but Borden St. aligns near present-day Maxine St.

If Buchanan and Garfield continued east, they would have been WAY farther north...:unsure:

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The 1955 directory lists "Fidelity Junior High" at 401 Bolden. Borden is on the (present-day) west side of 610, while Bolden is on the east, just south of Clinton Park.

Also - listed at 9525 Clinton Dr. is the Clinton Park recreation center. Today, 9525 is east of 610 but in 1955, the intersection of McCarty and Clinton was at about 9138 (present-day 610). Soooo the park actually would be near the ovals at that address today...

not sure what you are trying to say. that the numbers might be off?

i looked up the current address of the clinton park recreation center and its at 200 missisippi at clinton park.

http://www.houstontx.gov/parks/ClintonBox.htm

Clinton Park is always shown as a separate entity in all the maps i have seen and looks to have always been just north of missisippi st in the clinton park subdiv.

here is the map from post 14 showing the park clearly labeled on the right

brunville_46.jpg

weird that the cprc would have a clinton drive address in 1955. i dunno what to make of that.

about fidelity, i checked sanborn and it also shows the fidelity (colored) school taking up the entire block 21 of the fidelity subdivision and lists it at 415 (and at a few other numbers for other buildings). block 21 corresponds to the block surrounded by fidelity,bolden (formerly maryland*), dehaven (formerly virginia*).

*pre-coh annexation

I don't know if this was brought up earlier but farther west on Clinton, there is this little neighborhood:

Now, Garfield and Buchanan streets seem to align with the older map near present-day McCarty but Borden St. aligns near present-day Maxine St.

If Buchanan and Garfield continued east, they would have been WAY farther north...:unsure:

i dont think the street alignment deal is any issue with this. i just think the city planners sometimes didnt spend a lot of time on exact name consolidation and alignment when a new area was annexed.

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