Jump to content

Houston City Hall History


dbigtex56

Recommended Posts

Long-time Houston residents will recall the siren which was mounted on City Hall. It was sounded every Friday at noon, and the sound was incredible. All conversation in Tranquility Park would come to a stop, and you could hear the reverberations several seconds after it was shut off. I could even hear it clearly at my apartment on Commonwealth. It was removed sometime in the 80s.

My brother-in-law refered me to an interesting website about the Chrysler Air Raid Siren, which is the loudest warning device ever built. It was powered by a Chrysler Hemi V-8, and could be clearly heard at a distance of four miles.

I'm curious about what kind of siren Houston had, and whatever became of it. The VictorySiren.com site lists only about a third of the systems sold - why shouldn't we take credit for having had one, if indeed we did?

Check out the website - they even have .WAV files for those who'd like to hear that unforgettable sound again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks bigtex. Everyone in the office just came in to see what the hell I was doing!

I grew up in Winston-Salem, NC. I'll never forget that soulful wail...always at noon on Friday. You could set your watch by it. Don't know what kind it was, but it put out the coolest sound. I got chills listening to that website. Oh, the flashbacks.

Moved to Houston in 1977. Never remember hearing one here, but I lived in Spring.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I lived in Ohio for 4 years, and we had "tornado sirens" throughout the city. They would go off every week at noon as well, but I thought it was on Wednesdays.

Fortunately for us, we only heard the tornado siren activated once for an actual tornado, and we didn't have any major damage.

Am I correct in thinking that Pasadena also uses warning sirens for refinery emergencies as a signal to leave the area?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I believe all or most of the fire stations around the city had sirens, and they all went off at the same time - 12:02pm every Friday.

If I am not mistaken, they discontinued the practice during the Cuban Missile Crises and possibly one other occasion before stopping the alert system altogether.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Two summers while I was in college I lived in the college's apartment complex, which had one of that city's civil defense sirens in the parking lot. It was tested once a week during around lunchtime if the weather was clear, and was so loud that it rattled just about everything in the apartment. The system there had originally been installed as an air raid warning system but since the closure of a local air force base in the early 1970s, was used as a tornado warning system. In four years of living there, I only remember it going off for a tornado warning twice, but it was always a very frightening feeling to hear that siren go off when the weather outside was absolutely horrible. In one case about half the campus was outside for an outdoor music festival when a very severe storm hit and we were being bombarded by chunks of hail that were up to six or seven inches in diameter. I'll never forget being evacuated to the communication arts building basement during that storm, dodging the hail and flying debris in the wind and hearing the sirens wail. Fortunately the tornado hit just outside of town and did very minimal damage to buildings and property but the hail storm did a pretty serious job of banging up every car on our campus.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I remember going to school back home in small town Louisiana. The city had a centrally located air raid siren also that was tested once a week during the 80's. After 1990 they seemed to stop.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...
I believe all or most of the fire stations around the city had sirens, and they all went off at the same time - 12:02pm every Friday.

If I am not mistaken, they discontinued the practice during the Cuban Missile Crises and possibly one other occasion before stopping the alert system altogether.

In 1957-1959 I lived on Redstart street in (Willowmeadows, but that might not be the right "willow" subdivision). I used to climb up on the swingset and watch the siren at the local fire station rotate. we called it the friday noon whistle. I believe it was painted yellow.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Am I correct in thinking that Pasadena also uses warning sirens for refinery emergencies as a signal to leave the area?
I'm not sure about Pasadena, but Texas City has these. They are not the chrysler sirens but they are still pretty loud. If you are in Texas City and notice what looks like a stack of white tires on top of a power pole, you're looking at a siren.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I believe all or most of the fire stations around the city had sirens, and they all went off at the same time - 12:02pm every Friday.

If I am not mistaken, they discontinued the practice during the Cuban Missile Crises and possibly one other occasion before stopping the alert system altogether.

My memory is that during the Cuban Missle Crisis, the air raid sirens went off every day at noon instead of just on Friday. It always started my pulse to racing to hear that siren and I always had to check to see what time it was to make sure it wasn't the real thing. I would have been 7 at the time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My memory is that during the Cuban Missle Crisis, the air raid sirens went off every day at noon instead of just on Friday. It always started my pulse to racing to hear that siren and I always had to check to see what time it was to make sure it wasn't the real thing. I would have been 7 at the time.

That was before my time, but during the years that I was a cable TV installer in and around Texas City I always got a similar feeling; I had to make sure it was noon on Wednesday, or else it was shelter-in-place time. Trouble was as a cable guy I had no place in which to shelter per se, so it always made me particularly nervous. I was only a couple miles away from the site during the explosion before last.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
The siren in my neighborhood goes off every Wednesday at 10am. I had never heard a tornado/flood/civil defense siren until I moved to Wisconsin in 1997. Now I'm used to them.

The sirens in Dallas go off only on the first Wednesday of the month, which is hard to get used to after growing up in Wisconsin. They're spaced just far enough around here that you forget about them nearly every time!

Back in the Appleton Wisconsin my desk sat a few feet away from one of the siren's test button.... but I was a good kid so no pranks. :D

Jason

Link to comment
Share on other sites

During WWII, we had what were called "Black-Outs", that were scheduled about twice a year if I remember correctly. Sometime after darkness settled in, a siren would go off, and everyone was required to turn off their house lights, business lights, stop their cars and turn off its lights, etc. The black-out would last for about 30 minutes. There were what were called "Air-Raid Wardens" assigned to specific areas of town, who went around checking to see that the lights-out request was being followed. There were even attachments for car headlights that covered the top half that would allow you to drive your car during this black-out period. I think most people, knowing that the black-out was scheduled, just chose to stay home for that period. I never knew where the siren I heard was located, but it may have been on City Hall, since I didn't live that far from it. As a little kid, the black-outs were a real hoot for me and my friends... a spooky time for us with no lights on anywhere.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

I believe the Air Raid Siren downtown was still being used until at least the late 80's. It was not on City Hall, however.

The Siren belonged to the County. I know that in the late 60's -early 70's it was on top of the Family Law Center. The new Harris County Courthouse was still being built. My mother worked for the county judge at the time (Bill Elliott) and the siren was on the roof directly abover her office. He was officing there until the new courthouse was complete. We used to get on a tiny private elevator that went from the lobby to the county judge's office on the top floor. One could hear the siren for miles and miles. The siren also rotated. When it went off you could hear it vaguely until it rotated to face your direction and then it was quite loud, even in the museum district. Then it would rotate away and you would wait until you could hear it again. It was a very low wailing siren. I loved it. I would wake up on Fridays and I could hardly wait until noon to hear it.I don't know if the siren was moved to the top of The County Courthouse bulding or not.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...

My mother who worked for SW Bell for over 30 years was working at the Wesalyn Building in the early 90's and I know that of at least 1992 when I turned 16 started driving, I drove there to meet her for lunch that summer and at noon on a friday, the air raid siren was still going off then, that was prob. the last time i recall hearing it here in Houston. She had once said in addition to the Fire Stations having the horns most of the Bell central offices had them on the roof tops as well. You can still see an old one on Harrisburg Blvd at the Haz Mat Station near 80th st and Harrisburg, its on the left side of the building. I grew up the first 6 yrs of my life near that one, i was in the area a few weeks ago visiting my grandmother and noticed it still there. I just moved back here from Dallas, where i got hear them every week this spring when all the tornados where coming through.

I also have seen the City of Pasadena has erected the newer sirens that at long black tubular horns around town, we had those at ends of streets in Dallas. But have not ever heard Pasadena testing them since i been back.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...
I was surprised to find out yesterday that Centerville, TX still tests their air raid siren. I was up there yesterday around 11AM, and I heard it go off.
I very much believe HOUSTON should still test it's air raid siren and I also believe we should still have bomb shelters.Nowdays, any "air raid" would come from ICBMs or cruise missiles, but I think the warning would still be nice -- kind of a "you now have thirty seconds to bend over and kiss your butt goodbye" alarm...why not? :lol:
My mother who worked for SW Bell for over 30 years was working at the Wesalyn Building in the early 90's and I know that of at least 1992 when I turned 16 started driving, I drove there to meet her for lunch that summer and at noon on a friday, the air raid siren was still going off then, that was prob. the last time i recall hearing it here in Houston. She had once said in addition to the Fire Stations having the horns most of the Bell central offices had them on the roof tops as well. You can still see an old one on Harrisburg Blvd at the Haz Mat Station near 80th st and Harrisburg, its on the left side of the building. I grew up the first 6 yrs of my life near that one, i was in the area a few weeks ago visiting my grandmother and noticed it still there. I just moved back here from Dallas, where i got hear them every week this spring when all the tornados where coming through.I also have seen the City of Pasadena has erected the newer sirens that at long black tubular horns around town, we had those at ends of streets in Dallas. But have not ever heard Pasadena testing them since i been back.
When I lived in the old section of Pasadena, you could hear the siren test every Thursday evening.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...

Anyone know if Houston area swimming pools had these emergency sirens?

I just noticed in this old 1969 snap at Glenbrook Pool there is a siren on the pole in background. See it facing in 4 directions?

Coincidence?

Note: Female Red Cross Lifeguards still wore swimming caps then. :lol:

EastEndBaseball-47.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When I taught at E.O.Smith JHS in the arly 70s my room on the 2nd floor was right below the air raid siren on the school roof and it went off like clockwork on Fridays at noon. Later at Westbury HS rumor was that they had a fallout shelter underground but I was never able to go down and check it out or verify.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Long-time Houston residents will recall the siren which was mounted on City Hall. It was sounded every Friday at noon, and the sound was incredible. All conversation in Tranquility Park would come to a stop, and you could hear the reverberations several seconds after it was shut off. I could even hear it clearly at my apartment on Commonwealth. It was removed sometime in the 80s.

My brother-in-law refered me to an interesting website about the Chrysler Air Raid Siren, which is the loudest warning device ever built. It was powered by a Chrysler Hemi V-8, and could be clearly heard at a distance of four miles.

I'm curious about what kind of siren Houston had, and whatever became of it. The VictorySiren.com site lists only about a third of the systems sold - why shouldn't we take credit for having had one, if indeed we did?

Check out the website - they even have .WAV files for those who'd like to hear that unforgettable sound again.

I remember that siren. My cousin and I used to attend the YMCA downtown (not the current one, but another one more east ... like somewhere over where the GRB is...?).

I used to be so terrified of that sound.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I used to be so terrified of that sound.

This "wailing sound" created many a nightmare for thousands of youngsters. I recall asking mom on occasion what they were for. Most parents at that time lived through WWII so of course the first thing we were told was "Thats in case we are about to be bombed and the enemy are flying overhead". So freak out right!

Nightmares always were of the enemy flying over and the soldiers parachuting to the grown as all of us were scrambling around crying for our parents. Missiles dropping from the sky and blowing up the whole neighborhood! Nothing but debris strewn about. Then you wake up crying! Whoah gotta love it!

This is what I used to picture :o

nazi-germany-conquers-france-30.jpg

narnia_london_blitz.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 8 months later...

Houston had Federal signal Thunderbolt 1000, 1000T & 1003 sirens. There was also one located on the corner of long point & campbell Rd. at an elementary school. I lived very close to it & heard it wail every friday at 12pm. There were many others located around houston, but they were all taken down in the early 90's. They were used for civil defense & storm warning.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i remember hearing the air raid sirens at noon on fridays when i attended red elementary in the late 60's. i don't remember hearing them in high school at st. agnes. but i do remember hearing them near red if i was driving by on friday at noon in the 70's. we also did the duck and cover under the desk at red.

also remember being told that houston was one of the prime targets of the soviet missiles because of nasa and the oil industry.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...