Why Didn't Houston Reroute Its Then-Rural Streets to Grid Pattern...

[DaTrain]

I'm boggled about this, especially given the afterthought that Houston is a flat city and the rest of Harris County is flat as well. So here's the question: if Houston was going to grow, expand, annex and swallow whole all the urbanized countrysides of yesteryear 4 decades ago, how is it that most of the streets on the outskirts (outside the Loop) didn't get converted to 1-mile-apart grid patterned streets? The city may be flat, but if I were to pull out a map of the city and look at it, it looks like these were rural roads 50 years ago that only got widened and the slight curves and wayward directions are still in place. From what I researched, Chicago converted their streets to predominately grid patterns 100 years ago; Phoenix, Vegas, Dallas (outside of DT and Midtown), LA and Miami have the grid pattern in place with a few exceptions in given portions of town. And their terrain is flat as a pancake.

Do any of the older Houston urban heads have an explanation to why the street pattern is what it is today? Now as far as inside the Loop is, most of the streets are grid patterned in DT, Midtown, Upper Kirby, Heights, Fifth Ward, South Park north of Loop and Third Ward to name a few. And its not the suburban-style cul-de-sac twistin and turnin layout of neighborhood streets I'm talkin bout, it's something else I can't quite put my finger on.

[musicman]

I'm boggled about this, especially given the afterthought that Houston is a flat city and the rest of Harris County is flat as well. So here's the question: if Houston was going to grow, expand, annex and swallow whole all the urbanized countrysides of yesteryear 4 decades ago, how is it that most of the streets on the outskirts (outside the Loop) didn't get converted to 1-mile-apart grid patterned streets? The city may be flat, but if I were to pull out a map of the city and look at it, it looks like these were rural roads 50 years ago that only got widened and the slight curves and wayward directions are still in place. From what I researched, Chicago converted their streets to predominately grid patterns 100 years ago; Phoenix, Vegas, Dallas (outside of DT and Midtown), LA and Miami have the grid pattern in place with a few exceptions in given portions of town. And their terrain is flat as a pancake.

Do any of the older Houston urban heads have an explanation to why the street pattern is what it is today? Now as far as inside the Loop is, most of the streets are grid patterned in DT, Midtown, Upper Kirby, Heights, Fifth Ward, South Park north of Loop and Third Ward to name a few. And its not the suburban-style cul-de-sac twistin and turnin layout of neighborhood streets I'm talkin bout, it's something else I can't quite put my finger on.

many areas were developed independently and then connected later. not sure how you would convert areas developed indenpendently to a mile apart grid pattern after the fact. things would have to be destroyed. there actually is a grid pattern in many areas, but it hasn't been completed because there was no growth in the area. think south of the south loop. imagine bellfort, airport, orem, fuqua, where they connect with their "west" counterparts. i know kirby, cullen, mlk etc have been extending as growth develops. these will form a grid eventually.

[The Voice of University Oaks]

Take a look at the City of Houston's Major Thoroughfare Plan (.pdf here).

You can see that the plan is to link up as many major roads as possible in order to provide a network that operates in a grid-like fashion, even if it is not perfectly orthagonal. For what it's worth, however, you can see that a one-mile-square thoroughfare plan is eventually planned for the west part of the county.

Houston developed in a radial fashion, with railroads and later freeways spoking out from the center, and the city's throughfare network reflects that characteristic. Gaps or interruptions in the grid, by and large, occur where there are natural features - Buffalo Bayou/Ship Channel, Memorial Park, Addicks and Barker Dam - as well as where independent municipalities are located - Bellaire, West U., The Villages, etc.

[Double L]

When I look at a map of the City of Houston I tend to think that it has done a much better job at keeping a grid pattern through the metroplitan area when compared to other cities. I think we have one of the most efficient road systems in the country. Just look at University Oaks map.

[Jeebus]

You think we have a mess? Just look at a map of Lafayette Louisiana.

[CDeb]

You think we have a mess? Just look at a map of Lafayette Louisiana.

Ahhhh, my hometown.

The problem with Lafayette is that it's three settlements that grew together and then the cowpaths in between were paved and eventually became the major streets. Seriously.

[Subdude]

The city did plan to grow with a grid pattern. Check out this 1942 planning map from texasfreeway.com. It shows the filling out of much of the grid inside the loop, such as Studemont.

1942 Houston road plan

[musicman]

The city did plan to grow with a grid pattern. Check out this 1942 planning map from texasfreeway.com. It shows the filling out of much of the grid inside the loop, such as Studemont.

1942 Houston road plan

thx. i knew i remembered an older map. forgot about the houston freeways book!

[Houston19514]

As to other cities, I doubt very much that Chicago or anyone else did any "converting" to a one-mile grid system. Most of the country was originally laid out on-the one-mile grid system, so it pre-existed the cities' growth into those areas

[WesternGulf]

Westheimer was called Hathaway?

[MidtownCoog]

We don't need no stinkin grids...

[Croberts]

I'm boggled about this, especially given the afterthought that Houston is a flat city and the rest of Harris County is flat as well. So here's the question: if Houston was going to grow, expand, annex and swallow whole all the urbanized countrysides of yesteryear 4 decades ago, how is it that most of the streets on the outskirts (outside the Loop) didn't get converted to 1-mile-apart grid patterned streets?

The 1 mile grid was a function of the township and range survey system that was used by the united states on its public lands. However, Texas was admitted to the union without conceding lands to the federal government, so the system was never used here. In west texas the state used a survey similar to the township and range, but not in east texas. The original lands around houston were first surveyed during the mexican and spanish eras.

the reference line was the camino real. If you draw a line connecting Nacogdoches to San Antonio, you will see that many county boundaries run either parallel or perpendicular to the camino real. In at least one case (gonzales) the survey line started with the camino real and ran to the town, many miles away.

by contrast, houstons survey started with the allen brothers ripping a paddelwheel off a steamboat and sailing as far up buffalo bayou as they could get (allens landing) then hopping out and surveying perpendicular to the landing (Main and fannin) After that it was up to the independent developer.

Since texas counties have little control over land use and essentially no planning function, lands outside city limits are not zoned or controlled. Since houston has no zoning, planners have no controls to impose on subdividers.

Consider Oak Forest Parkway, along White Oak Bayou. The developer thought that a major boulevard was needed along this bayou, but the adjacent developers did not, so it begins and ends in the middle of nowhere.

[TxDave]

Looking at a map of Houston "proper", you can see a general "mile grid" pattern of the major roads, especially in Southwest Houston.

Outside of the city, many major roads seem to follow the path of old country roads, with the development branched off to the side. Houston, or any other city for that matter, had no control over this development - good or bad.

The result is a complicated transportation problem that the region seems to be trying to address - the success is yet to be determined.

[Croberts]

Looking at a map of Houston "proper", you can see a general "mile grid" pattern of the major roads, especially in Southwest Houston.

I zoomed in to southwest houston in google maps so that the scale was equal to a mile and moved the map around to see if the roads were a mile apart. Mostly they were not, Hillcroft to Fondren was a mile but hillcroft wasnt very straight and Gessner was more than a mile from fondren, etc, compared to Miami and many other post colonial places where the major streets are mostly section line roads that were renamed when encorporated into developed suburbs.

[Croberts]

I next looked to see if the drainage ditches/canals from the "drain the wetlands" era accounted for the grid shape. There is a drainage ditch running along burdine south of hillcroft that runs for a very long and straight distance, so it cant be the result of a single developer but must be part of the flood control efforts of the 50s that scraped brays bayou and willow waterhole clear of trees. I wondered if these ditches (we would call them canals in florida, even though they are dry much of the time) were a mile apart. They were not. The next one west of burdine is down hillcroft, less than a mile, but that might be related to the road rather than flood control. Betweeen hillcroft and fondren there was another n/s canal a few blocks west of hillcroft, but it was not a mile from the others.

The USGS 1921 bellaire quadrangle shows bellair as a grid, with Chimney rock extending a mile north and south of bellaire blvd. The grid is interrupted by Richmond "road" which being the old houston to richmond road, is much older than bellaire. On this map, it looks like Hillcroft and richmond is the center of the gridded area, with what must be fondren as the western part of the survey. The grid then is about 2 sq miles, one mile north and south of hillscroft and richmond road and one mile east and west.This must be the beginning of the gridded effect in southwest houston. In 1921 to reach bellaire from houston, you either had to come down main to bellaire boulevard (the route of the interurban) or else out westheimer to hillcroft (not named on the map I have). Fondren appears to end at the railroad tracks (Gulfton?) to the north and the north side of brays bayou to the south.

[Croberts]

This morning I overlayed the 1921 topo with current streets. I saw the following

Richmond road in 1921 is todays bissonett in the vicinity of bellair

I was off in interpreting the boundaries of the bellaire grid. It starts at newcastle on the east, and chimney rock is at the center

East of shepard on the 1921 map, virtually all roads, with few exceptions, run either parallel or perpendicular to the bellaire grid. How this happened is a mystery, because the original parcel surveys (texas irregular survey) run parallel or perpendicular to the camino real, when they run in straight lines. You can see this pattern if you examine google maps for the area west of Rosenburg. At some point, prior to the survey of bellair, there must have been a county decision to run roads ns-ew outside of the allen brothers survey (houstons original grid). Then it was left to subdivides to decide how to handle roads inbetween the rural ones. A true grid consists of rectangular or squarish blocks, but most of sw houston has rectangular oriented major roads, with curvilinear streets inside.

[Pumapayam]

We don't need no stinkin grids...

That is kind of a grind, maybe not a right angle version, but I don't see any cul de sacs.