Houston was a planed commercial development. Once the infrastructure was put into place; cotton, oil, and shipping drove it's engine. Look at Frost Town. It's gone.
Houston grew so fast, that by 1930 it was, and has stayed the largest city in Texas.
Look at the 1891 map and you can see how spread out things were.
Many of the "working class" lived in tiny box houses or stayed in apartments or boarding houses; if they lived in the city.
You have to remember that there was a trolly service to get around.
Here are some postcards of Main Street at around 1910.
The original photo:
Another postcard.
Another promotional postcard.
And sadly after the blight set in; the upper crust moved outward, leaving this sort of thing in downtown.
(Houston 1944 - in color)
There were many high rollers back in the day. The cotton exchange, the railroad, the oil field, made fortunes. As far as population goes, I'm sure that there were at least double the amount of people that lived outside the city limits of a couple of miles. Many labors, farmers, craftsman, along with their families that weren't counted.
It sux eggs that all these grand houses are gone, but it appears to be like that in most of the big cities of today.
-PB