Patterson Road

[JLWM8609]

There's a small town about 3 miles north of Brookshire called Pattison. I had to go there on saturday for an aunt's funeral and had to detour to avoid the I-10 closure mess. I passed by Patterson Rd. and wondered about the history of it, noticing that it sounded VERY much like our destination of "Pattison". Looking at maps today, Patterson Rd. begins at N. Eldridge Pkwy. and terminates at Hwy 6, just a bit to the south of Groeschke Rd., which begins at Hwy 6. Groeschke Rd. then changes names when crossing Barker Cypress to Morton Rd. Morton Rd. terminates in a subdivision but picks up on the other side of the subdivision (it appears that construction to connect the two ends is underway), goes into Waller Co., and runs all the way to Durkin Rd. in Pattison. I'm wondering if at one time a road ran near or along the present day alignments of "Patterson/Groeschke/Morton" called "Pattison Rd.", and was mostly lost to subdivision development. Perhaps "Morton Rd." and "Groeschke Rd." are complete renamings of a former "Pattison Rd." and "Patterson Rd." is a misspelling of it? Does this ring a bell for anyone?

[FilioScotia]

There's a small town about 3 miles north of Brookshire called Pattison. I had to go there on saturday for an aunt's funeral and had to detour to avoid the I-10 closure mess. I passed by Patterson Rd. and wondered about the history of it, noticing that it sounded VERY much like our destination of "Pattison". Looking at maps today, Patterson Rd. begins at N. Eldridge Pkwy. and terminates at Hwy 6, just a bit to the south of Groeschke Rd., which begins at Hwy 6. Groeschke Rd. then changes names when crossing Barker Cypress to Morton Rd. Morton Rd. terminates in a subdivision but picks up on the other side of the subdivision (it appears that construction to connect the two ends is underway), goes into Waller Co., and runs all the way to Durkin Rd. in Pattison. I'm wondering if at one time a road ran near or along the present day alignments of "Patterson/Groeschke/Morton" called "Pattison Rd.", and was mostly lost to subdivision development. Perhaps "Morton Rd." and "Groeschke Rd." are complete renamings of a former "Pattison Rd." and "Patterson Rd." is a misspelling of it? Does this ring a bell for anyone?

At first glance it wouldn't appear that Patterson Road and Pattison have anything in common. The road appears to start at Eldredge and end at Hwy 6. Groeschke Rd meanders around a lot from there to Barker-Cypress, and Morton Rd takes several broken segments to get to Pattison. It's not continuous. Further, it doesn't appear to be a continuation of a road over to the east of the reservoir.

However, that could be explained by the way the old rice farms in that area were cut up, carved up, sold off and changed hands over the past century. As the big farms expanded and contracted and changed shape geographically, a stretch of wagon road would disappear here, and a new road would appear over there, or wherever a right-of-way could be found. Things really were that hap-hazard on the frontier, at least in rural areas.

Having said all that, it's entirely possible that Patterson Rd got that name because it once led to Pattison. Texas has an old habit of naming roads for the places they led to. San Felipe Road was at one time the main road going west out of Houston to the towns of San Felipe, Sealy and Columbus. We also name roads for the places at both ends of the road. Aldine-Westfield, Barker-Cypress, Spring-Cypress, Almeda-Genoa, etc.

It's possible that a wagon road from Houston out to Pattison may have been named Patterson Rd, but we can only guess at which name is the correct one. In frontier days, barely literate people had a tendency to spell proper names and place names the way they sounded. The community may have started out as "Patterson", probably the name of one of the farmers, but was corrupted to "Pattison" over the years. Patterson and Pattison are essentially the same name. My mind's ear can hear an early Texan saying the name "Patterson" and having it come out sounding like "Pattison". Countless place names have evolved just that way.

But, the more I think about it the more I suspect Patterson Rd may be a modern road. When the Army Corps of Engineers built the Addicks Dam and turned that vast area into a giant flood control reservoir, they had to build roads to get their equipment in and out of the area. I think Patterson Rd could be one of them.

It's worth noting that Patterson Rd is the boundary separating the federally managed Addicks Reservoir and the county-managed Bear Creek Park. The explanation could be as simple as that. The road could be named for one of the engineers on the project.

Edited September 10, 2007 by FilioScotia

[Subdude]

I'm thinking Pattison is the original. If I'm not mistaken, there are some graves with that name, or a sign referencing it, by the Pattison cemetary.