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Houston In The 1910s


wendyps

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Can anyone provide a resource to confirm that Chapman Street was named after the founder of Houston? I am told via oral histories from families that lived in the area,1910 thru 1960, that the Chapman was the developer of this neighborhood of Queen Anne Cottage style row houses, circa 1860-1890.

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Can anyone provide a resource to confirm that Chapman Street was named after the founder of Houston? I am told via oral histories from families that lived in the area,1910 thru 1960, that the Chapman was the developer of this neighborhood of Queen Anne Cottage style row houses, circa 1860-1890.

You are referring to the very Near Northside as it is/was known. Coincidence, we still know a family that has had the same home for over 60 plus years on Chapman & Lorraine The home they have lived in is of Queen Anne style with a high pitched roof, big front porch, tall interiors and it still has most of the original detail. In fact if you drive very slowly around all of this nabe you will find numerous similar homes complete with gingerbread ornamentation. Many have been remuddled beyond recognition but if you observe or imagine the years of remodeling you can see that it is hiding underneath. See topic under Other Neighborhoods (Northside) where we or I urged people to try to save these relics before development plows them under for eternity.

Hopefully someone else can provide the source for the Chapman name. :)

PS, please urge these very friends of yours to start on Haif. This is a very historical area that has been ignored for decades. My dad grew up on Terry Street near Hay's Street from around late 1930's to early 1950's. Most of the old timers will tell you it was once a very clean and quiet area. The area then was mostly non Hispanic too. Good luck and welcome aboard!

Here is a mapquest of the somewhat heart of the "Northside" as it was always known at least while I was growing up here in the city. We never called it Ward period, just Northside.

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  • 8 months later...
Amazing panorama, thank you.

What if you could go back in time and tell the people in this picture, "Nearly everything you see in this picture will be demolished by 1970."

Yeah, that would sound crazy, huh? :D

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But the most prominent is still there: the Chronicle building is still standing but you can't see it. They skinned over it to make it and the building that was eventually built next door look like one.

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  • 8 months later...

BTW, did anyone notice that the murder rate in 1910 is about twice as high as 2008?

Not so much the murder rate, because I don't keep tabs on early-20th century population milestones...but I did notice the disproportionate frequency of "colored" women being arrested. I'm guessing that those were mostly prostitution-related offenses, but it is a curious circumstance.

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Not sure about the white outs or if they're intentional..

I looked at some other years (paper copies) and they are not organized with subsections - just long lists.

The first blocked (60-64) were most likely all spinal cord related, the second blocked (108-117) probably all intestinal related (the first there being intestinal parasites) and maybe liver/cirrhosis since I don't see it anywhere else, the third blocked (127-130) maybe uterine related, and the fourth and fifth blocked (160-161, 172-176) - I'm not too sure.

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I'm fairly convinced it's censored. It's not random and the whited out spots are just the right size, or close to it. The whited out areas seem to concern spinal and intestinal diseases, reproductive organs, and suicide methods. Of course the who and why would make an interesting story, I'm sure.

It might just have been something as simple as a cover-up for fear of some kind of public hysteria about diseases thought to be communicable, incurable, or embarassing in some way, and an attempt to spare the feelings of the surviving relatives of suicide victims.

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I doubt it was censored. The originals would almost certainly be available for viewing at the Texas Room.

I was wondering why poisoning wasn't listed under suicide. I always find that manner of suicide appearing in the papers. Maybe I just missed it.

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Doesn't it seem odd that so many people were ticketed/jailed for "suspicion?" That's the offense. Suspicion.

"Hey! Why am I being ticketed? What did I do??!"

"...Oh... just suspicious... that's all..."

...and it happened 216 times.

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  • 5 months later...

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