Let's Talk About Fifth Ward

[TAK]

I was riding around 3rd Ward and East End this weekend. Went to Ninfa's on Saturday (delicious).

I was on Gregg St, south of I-10. I see townhomes/lofts/condos going up. I crossed I-10, and I was in 5th Ward, and it looked like no improvement is even being considered.

Don't get me wrong, I know 5th Ward is currently undesirable, but so is/were all the other Wards that are now gentrified.

Question - How long until someone 'takes a chance' and builds on what must be fairly prime location?

[WesternGulf]

I hate to say it, but I somewhat agree with you. Gentrification is not always a good thing but this area of town is very seedy as if the city does not even know that it is there. If you see this area of town from the air, it doesn't even look like Houston. Vacant lots everywhere with a row of shotguns here and there with the rest of the block vacant. I do not even remember the area ever having a history of where things being torn down for new development but little history remains in this area that once was a thriving community home to a large French black creole population.

[HeightsGuy]

The only thing going for the 5th Ward is that it's close to downtown. As far as gentrification goes, the 4th and 6th wards are sandwiched between desirable locations. The 5th Ward does not have that "luck". There is nothing beyond the 5th Ward except more of the same as you continue northeast. The same could be said of the 3rd Ward and southeast, but Eastwood helped to anchor the area over the years, and there was always and continues to be a thriving community to the southeast even if it doesn't look exactly desirable to investors.

[Guest danax]

5th Ward has a powerful negative going for it in terms of potential for gentrification; yuppies will perceive it as dangerous. People can deal with junky looking areas but fear of murder and armed robberies will keep almost everyone away. Although there are some nice skyline views around there, there are lots of other areas in 3rd Ward and the East End that have a more gentle vibe that will be attended to first.

However, there are two portions of 5th Ward that will start to feel creeping development pressures over the coming years; the area immediately across the tracks from Hardy/Elysian, which will likely have the Hardy Toll Road come through and the area just north of I-10 across from the townhouse boomtown of Clinton Dr.

I'd guess that the early bird, "smart money" developers are already gathering land around these spots.

[TAK]

I'm actually considering an attempt at "smart money". I have had a discussion about building a triplex (for rental property) just north of i-10 - a quarter mile from a townhome boom on Gregg and 2.5 miles from Minute Maid. It wouldn't be a 'luxury' spot, but it would be the nicest thing I've seen on the north side of I-10.

However, I feel fairly certain I can't be the first owner in the spot I'm looking at unless I can buy a whole street and clear out everything around the lot I'm looking at.

[HeightsGuy]

You are by no means the first person back there. What's back there now are investors that have no qualms about owning rat shack rentals, and long-term investors that have the money and patience to wait on their payday as there are no quick turnarounds back there. I believe the payoff is out there, but it's a long way out.

[TAK]

Right... I don't mean be the first investor. I mean the first to build something worth living in. Actually, I have seen where some housing has been built... Saw something with a fence and razor wire. Who wants to live behind razor wire?!

[Jeebus]

5th Ward has a powerful negative going for it in terms of potential for gentrification; yuppies will perceive it as dangerous. People can deal with junky looking areas but fear of murder and armed robberies will keep almost everyone away.

As will the AID's, HIV, TB, & crack..

[RedScare]

Funny that this thread started today. My brother and I were talking yesterday about the fact that you never hear about crime in the 5th anymore. It is all in SW Houston. This is not to say that the 5th is all warm and fuzzy, but it is nowhere near as bad as it's Bloody 5th days...and nowhere near the hellhole that SW Houston has become.

[Original Timmy Chan's]

From the "Handbook of Texas On-Line": http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online...s/FF/hpfhk.html

FIFTH WARD, HOUSTON. The Fifth Ward, east of downtown Houston, is bounded by Buffalo Bayou on the south, Lockwood Drive on the east, Liberty Road on the north, and Jensen Drive on the west. The site was sparsely inhabited before the Civil War.qv It was subsequently settled by freedmen and became known as the Fifth Ward in 1866, when an alderman was elected to represent the community in the Houston city government. At the time, half the population was black and half white. By 1870 the population of the ward comprised 561 white and 578 black residents. Two schools, one black and one white, corresponded to the roughly equal segments of the ward's population in 1876. Mount Vernon United Methodist Church, founded in 1865 by former slave Rev. Toby Gregg, is the oldest institution in the ward. Five other churches are over 100 years old: Pleasant Grove Baptist, Mount Pleasant Baptist, Sloan Memorial United Methodist, Payne Chapel Methodist, and First Shiloh Baptist. The Fifth Ward was also the site of a saloon named for Carry Nation,qv which, after considerable damage resulting from a dispute with the owner over the name, was subsequently known as the "Carnation." In the 1880s the ward enjoyed a boom following the construction of repair shops for the newly built Southern Pacific Railroad. Growth was interrupted by a fire in 1891 at the Phoenix Lumber Mill and another in 1912 that burned 119 houses, 116 boxcars, nine oil tanks, thirteen plants, and St. Patrick's Catholic Church and school.

Eventually, the Fifth Ward population became predominantly black. At Frenchtown,qv a four-square-block neighborhood in the ward, 500 blacks of French and Spanish descent from Louisiana organized a community in 1922. Black-owned businesses, including a pharmacy, a dentist's office, an undertaking parlor, a theater, and several barbershops, operated after 1900 on Lyons Avenue and numbered forty by 1925. Working-class blacks were primarily employed within walking distance of the ward; many worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad or at the Houston Ship Channel.qv Others commuted across town to work as domestics and servants for wealthy Houstonians. By 1927 Phillis Wheatley High School in the ward, with 2,600 students and sixty teachers, was one of the largest black high schools in America. Other new businesses developed in the 1930s, including printing plants, photography studios, and the Club Matinee, which came to be known as the Cotton Club of the South. Local businessman Grand Duke Crawford organized the Fifth Ward Civic Club.

Houston's second housing project for African Americans,qv the Kelly Court Housing Project, opened after World War II.qv Early community activists included Lonnie Smithqv and Lilly Portley. Peacock Records, a black-owned recording company, started in the ward, as did C. F. Smith Electric Company, one of the state's early licensed electrical-contracting companies. Finnigan Park, the second public park for blacks in Houston, opened in the community in the postwar years, and the Julia C. Hester House, a black community center, began service. Nat Q. Henderson, long-time principal of Bruce Elementary School, was the mayor of the Fifth Ward and became known for his leadership.

With passage of integration laws in the 1960s, however, many residents left the community seeking wider opportunities. The Fifth Ward is noted for training many prominent athletes. Musicians from the ward include Arnett Cobb,qv Milton Larkin, and Illinois Jacquet. Barbara Jordan and Mickey Leland, members of Congress, graduated from Wheatley High School. In the 1990s efforts were being made to preserve the Houston Place, a seventy-five-year-old gathering center.

[VicMan]

Speaking of which, Wheatley High School is being rebuilt. I wonder if nearby Kashmere will be shuttered and merged into Wheatley (HISD hasn't announced this yet - I asked because both Wheatley and Kashmere have low, low enrollments).

EDIT: http://www.houstonisd.org/HISDPortal/depar...4872301,00.html is the info page about the rebuilding of Wheatley.

[kylejack]

I'm going to take a bike ride through the Fifth on Sunday and take some pictures. Any points of note I should hit? I was thinking Frenchtown (and the Silver Slipper), Burt's & Davis meat markets, that big mural of Fifth Ward residents...what else? Ideas?

[JLWM8609]

I'm going to take a bike ride through the Fifth on Sunday and take some pictures. Any points of note I should hit? I was thinking Frenchtown (and the Silver Slipper), Burt's & Davis meat markets, that big mural of Fifth Ward residents...what else? Ideas?

How about Our Mother of Mercy Catholic Church on Sumpter?

[macwoodson]

I was riding around 3rd Ward and East End this weekend. Went to Ninfa's on Saturday (delicious).

I was on Gregg St, south of I-10. I see townhomes/lofts/condos going up. I crossed I-10, and I was in 5th Ward, and it looked like no improvement is even being considered.

Don't get me wrong, I know 5th Ward is currently undesirable, but so is/were all the other Wards that are now gentrified.

Question - How long until someone 'takes a chance' and builds on what must be fairly prime location?

I agree with you. I was raised in 5th ward and it has gone down terribly. I remember when the street sweepers came around twice a week to clean the streets in

5th ward. I-10 ran right in front of the apartment I grew up in. I saw them tear down the old neighborhood to make way for the I-10 freeway. The freeway stopped

at Gregg street and it took years for them to complete the rest. There was a place bordered by Clinton Drive (south), 59 freeway (west), Collingsworth (north) and Gregg St (east). This area was called "French Town". This is where my grand parents lived. My grandfather was a carpenter and was the builder for many of the

rent houses that was located within this area of 5th ward. My parents had businesses in that area also. It was a very vibrant fun place to be. Once you get there,

you never wanted to leave. It just sucked you in, embraced you, and accepted you as one of them. My grandfather worked hard Mon thru Friday and Friday night,

it was Zydeco time. They played just as hard as they worked. There was my grandfather & grandmother, their five sons and five daughters. Needless to say, there

was a lot of grandchildren, which I was one of them. Sometime my grand parents would have a barrel in the yard and they would put wood in it and start a fire. It

was so nice because we kids would sit on the steps and listen to the adults tell stories of their lives and about things that happened in their lives. It was so interesting. I learned a lot about family just by listening to their stories. Other times, my grand father, his sons, and his cousin would grab some musical instruments

and begin playing the zydeco while we kids would commence dancing to the music. One person would get a rub board, one would get the accordion, one would get an old bucket that had a hole in it, and they would put a knot in a string, thread it into the hole of the bucket, attach the other end of the string to the top of a

broom stick and that would be the bass. Another one would have two spoons playing them together to make a tune. They played while sitting on the porch and we kids would dance in the streets. This was in the 1950 - 1960 before the 1964 civil rights act bill was passed. We had fun! We were family, all of us! If you came

to French Town, you were one of us and that is all there was to it. That is why nobody every wanted to leave. Now, I visited Houston a few years ago and the area

that I grew up in is completely demolished. Nothing could I see that I remembered. All the houses are gone, the lots are overgrown with weeds and trash, the City

of Houston does not clean up it's streets any more. It used to be so pretty and green. Now, it looks like a large slum with a few roses (new homes) trying to grow

amongst the weeds. What has happened to "French Town" and the Historical Society of Houston, TX?