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Highland Park Amusement Park On Interstate-45


Ron4tx

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Does anyone in this forum have any information about Highland Park Lake in Houston?

I've come across old postcard images of Highland Park Lake in Houston, Tex.

but can find no reference to it today.

I suspect Highland Park is now Woodland Park because the area

was once named Highland Park Heights.

But I can't find a lake anywhere near it on old city maps.

The lake must have been of some importance in that postcards were made of it.

I've also found a reference to a swimming pool at Woodland Park yet no pool exists today.

Can anyone here shed some light on this elusive Highland Park Lake?

The attached images are old postcards of Highland Park Lake in Houston Texas.

hpl1.jpg

hpl2.jpg

hpl3.jpg

hpl4.jpg

hpl5.jpg

Edited by Ron4tx
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I suspect Highland Park is now Woodland Park ....

you are right. woodland park used to be highland park. i am not certain exactly where the lake itself was.

they probably dammed the bayou there. maybe it was in the current i-45 r.o.w.

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There is a short chapter on the park in the Houston Electric book (btw, i highly recommend it).

The park was developed in 1903 by the streetcar company to entice more people onto their trolleys.

It was an early success but later when it wasn't generating revenues for the company - they sold it to the city in 1911 - and they eventually renamed it Woodland Park.

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There is a short chapter on the park in the Houston Electric book (btw, i highly recommend it).

The park was developed in 1903 by the streetcar company to entice more people onto their trolleys.

It was an early success but later when it wasn't generating revenues for the company - they sold it to the city in 1911 - and they eventually renamed it Woodland Park.

Tell me more about the Houston Electric book... title, publisher..

Does the chapter mention the lake?

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Tell me more about the Houston Electric book... title, publisher..

Does the chapter mention the lake?

book info:

http://members.iglou.com/baron/book-info.htm

all it says about the lake is:

"the work included construction of a dam across little white oak bayou, creating an artificial lake large enough to accommodate motor boats."

and then he cites a newspaper review of the park from the time:

"surrounding the artificial lake, the banks of the bayou form a natural amphitheater skirted with majestic pines..."

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I-45 would have very much swallowed this park. Look at where the current Woodland Park is, west of Houston to the edge of I-45. Now, look at the 1913 Houston Map, that is often posted on this board. You will see Little White Oak Bayou winding in the area where I-45 sits today. When I-45 was built, the bayou was straightened, and some of it was buried in a box culvert.

Cool postcards, Ron.

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This is the only map i have seen to offer any clues.

woodland.jpg

This is from the 1924 Sanborn map. I will hypothesize from the orientation of the lone park structure shown, that the circular canopy may have faced the lake. Thus the lake would have been in the part of little white oak that is currently under I-45.

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This is the only map i have seen to offer any clues.

woodland.jpg

This is from the 1924 Sanborn map. I will hypothesize from the orientation of the lone park structure shown, that the circular canopy may have faced the lake. Thus the lake would have been in the part of little white oak that is currently under I-45.

I am not so sure that the location of the lake is now under I-45. Looking at Yahoo Maps - Beta and evern better yet the City of Houston map with aerial photo at:

http://pwegis.pwe.ci.houston.tx.us/viewer1.htm

you can see a funny bend with an Island in Little White Oak Bayou, in the middle of Woodland Park. I have never been to Woodland Park and I am wondering what the large building is on the north end, on Parkview Street.

I am not so sure that the location of the lake is now under I-45. Looking at Yahoo Maps - Beta and evern better yet the City of Houston map with aerial photo at:

http://pwegis.pwe.ci.houston.tx.us/viewer1.htm

you can see a funny bend with an Island in Little White Oak Bayou, in the middle of Woodland Park. I have never been to Woodland Park and I am wondering what the large building is on the north end, on Parkview Street.

[/quote

I now see that the building in question is the Woodland Community Center.

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I can't make out the street name in order to find the location on a modern map.

While you are at it...what ever happened to Cleveland Park and Cleveland Park Lake?

Cleveland_Park.jpg

Cleveland_Park2.jpg

There is a Cleveland Park near the Depelchin place near Waugh. I think that the Bayou has been straightened since then.

I looks to me that Cleveland Park and Cleveland Lake were located where the Cloverleaf is on Memorial and Heights. I almost appears that the current street that goes south bound on Waugh to Westbound on Memorial was Eugene Avenue along the North-Northwest side of Cleveland Park.

Edited by gto250us
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I am not so sure that the location of the lake is now under I-45. Looking at Yahoo Maps - Beta and evern better yet the City of Houston map with aerial photo at:

http://pwegis.pwe.ci.houston.tx.us/viewer1.htm

you can see a funny bend with an Island in Little White Oak Bayou, in the middle of Woodland Park. I have never been to Woodland Park and I am wondering what the large building is on the north end, on Parkview Street.

I don't think that is an island. The bayou curves almost 270 degrees, making it look almost like an island.

My belief that I-45 covered the former lake was based on the hill shown in some of the postcards. It looked similar to the hills to the east of the freeway. However, if you look at the TSARP map, there is a rather large flat area around the funny bend, which, when flooded, could make a lake. This area is within Woodland Park. Additionally, looking just north of the funny bend, you can see a sharp topographical rise to the area where the community center now stands. This may be the hill that is pictured in the postcard.

http://maps.tsarp.org/website/tsarp_firm/P...48201C0690L.pdf

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I don't think that is an island. The bayou curves almost 270 degrees, making it look almost like an island.

My belief that I-45 covered the former lake was based on the hill shown in some of the postcards. It looked similar to the hills to the east of the freeway. However, if you look at the TSARP map, there is a rather large flat area around the funny bend, which, when flooded, could make a lake. This area is within Woodland Park. Additionally, looking just north of the funny bend, you can see a sharp topographical rise to the area where the community center now stands. This may be the hill that is pictured in the postcard.

http://maps.tsarp.org/website/tsarp_firm/P...48201C0690L.pdf

Good call on the flood maps. I agree - that makes sense.

Since no maps show the lake - even the 1913 map, maybe the city removed the dam after they took over the park.

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  • 4 years later...

Highland Park was, at the turn of the century, a thriving park and promenade that Houstonian's would flock to for outdoor entertainment. According to the website http://houstorian.wordpress.com/2009/02/08/highland-park//, Highland part included a lake with leisure boating, places to eat, rides, and even a shooting range. Today, much of the land of Highland Park sits right where I-45 and I-10 join just NW of downtown Houston, but considerable unchanged land of the original Highland Park still exists on both the west and east side of I-45.

I'm fascinated by the former existence of this grand outdoor entertainment venue that opened in 1903 and today not an ounce of it seems to exist. I've explored the land that's there today and compared it against the postcards that show it's grand existence and cannot seem to make heads-or-tales of just exactly where anything was of the park. Does anyone have any more details about where building and structures where of Highland Park? Certainly some evidence of the park still exists today, but I can't find it...

Kevin

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  • The title was changed to Highland Park On Interstate-45

From the newspaper The Houston Post dated May 6, 1904.

Spectacular Show.

Rare Entertainment Secured for Highland Park.

The greatest of all sensational and awe inspiring performances is to take lace Sunday net at the well known amusement resort, Highland Park.

Ritchie is the name of the dare-devil cyclist who has been engaged by Manager Bishop of Highland Park to perform one of the most remarkable and thrilling performances ever conceived by the brain of man.

Ritchie mounts an ordinary bicycle on a restyle seven-five feet high and 100 feet long, rides down a steep, narrow course at a marvelous rate of speed and upon reaching the end, which is elevated seventy-five feet above the beautiful lake, springs over the handlebars and literally flies though the air a distance of seventy-five feet, making a beautiful headfirst dive into the water.

Flying through space at such a tremendous rate of speed, Ritchie would be unable to know when to leap whern it not for a man who is stationed at the head of the treselte, who notifies him.

GimUPbO.png

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  • The title was changed to Highland Park Amusement Park On Interstate-45
  • 2 months later...

Wow!  I never knew Woodland Park used to be called Highland Park.

There are these two concrete overlook piers on either side of White Oak Blvd at the intersection of Little White Oak Bayou.  I’ve always wondered why they were there.  Could they be remnants of Highland Park?

Dropped pin
https://maps.app.goo.gl/wNChxZdBsT8QSqBE7?g_st=ic

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

You can see that In the last GE pic (1944) there is a "White Oak drive" with a bridge crossing (East of Houston Ave.)  The concrete extensions (mentioned in an above post) over little White Oak bayou seem to have been built as part of this roadway (not the park). No proof, just a guess. Looks like the south bridge crossing of the White Oak drive was removed for the I-45 and I-10 interchange.

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