Was Old Galveston Road Ever Rerouted

[sootycat]

Does anyone know if Hwy 3 followed a different route in the past? While traveling east on Nasa Rd 1, I noticed a street by the name of Old Galveston Road. This was shortly after going over the railroad tracks at Hwy 3. This street was on the right hand side. It was a short road that dead ended into a field. It runs parallel to Hwy. 3. Has anyone seen this road and perhaps know its history?

[JLWM8609]

Does anyone know if Hwy 3 followed a different route in the past? While traveling east on Nasa Rd 1, I noticed a street by the name of Old Galveston Road. This was shortly after going over the railroad tracks at Hwy 3. This street was on the right hand side. It was a short road that dead ended into a field. It runs parallel to Hwy. 3. Has anyone seen this road and perhaps know its history?

It's not uncommon for roads to have once followed paths that have been straightened out or realigned as time progresses. I don't personally know the history, but I'm willing to bet that Galveston Rd once followed that path.

[TheNiche]

Does anyone know if Hwy 3 followed a different route in the past? While traveling east on Nasa Rd 1, I noticed a street by the name of Old Galveston Road. This was shortly after going over the railroad tracks at Hwy 3. This street was on the right hand side. It was a short road that dead ended into a field. It runs parallel to Hwy. 3. Has anyone seen this road and perhaps know its history?

I'd bet that it was realigned at some point. Looking at Google Earth, Old Galveston Road in Webster is a 1.76-mile road that clearly once led to a bridge over Clear Creek, connecting to Kansas Street in League City. Aerial imagery also indicates that an old right of way led from the intersection of Old Galveston Road at NASA Road One to the intersection of Highway 3 at Medical Center Dr.

I'd imagine that Dickinson Ave., which becomes Nichols Ave. in Dickinson, was also a former alignment. It sort of looks like a bridge over Dickinson Bayou was once there, and from 30,000 feet it looks like the whole section of Highway 3 from just south of Dickinson to the Galveston County line was at one time realigned as a bypass.

[NenaE]

I don't have any specific facts for you, but I do know the OGR is extremely old, and it's a safe bet that it's been realigned through the years. I know of one spot close to where I grew up, where the OGR curved in an underpass, under the railroad tracks that parallel the road. The sharply curved underpass was changed somewhat, in later years. That spot is right after it crosses Howard Dr. and before Winkler Dr. (around Berry Creek). There is/ was a very old gas station that sat around the spot you talk of, sootycat, corner of Nasa Rd. 1. & OGR.

[rreini]

I'd bet that it was realigned at some point. Looking at Google Earth, Old Galveston Road in Webster is a 1.76-mile road that clearly once led to a bridge over Clear Creek, connecting to Kansas Street in League City. Aerial imagery also indicates that an old right of way led from the intersection of Old Galveston Road at NASA Road One to the intersection of Highway 3 at Medical Center Dr.

I'd imagine that Dickinson Ave., which becomes Nichols Ave. in Dickinson, was also a former alignment. It sort of looks like a bridge over Dickinson Bayou was once there, and from 30,000 feet it looks like the whole section of Highway 3 from just south of Dickinson to the Galveston County line was at one time realigned as a bypass.

I've download several historic maps of the southeast Harris County and northern Galveston County areas from the Perry-Castaneda Map Collection at UT's website. The historic and topographical are the ones of most interest here. Especially of interest is a 1919 map of "Friendswood", which actually covers all of southeast Harris County from Pasadena down. It shows Galveston Road from South Houston down to League City, and the only place where it diverges from the railroad track is in Webster. Someone driving down Galveston Road would have come to a dead end at what is now Nasa 1, made that jog to the left to go down Old Galveston Road, and taken that across Clear Creek, ending up on Kansas Street in League City.

The map of League City is not as accurate as the Harris County side, so I can't say with certainty which way the road went after that.

[bred]

I've download several historic maps of the southeast Harris County and northern Galveston County areas from the Perry-Castaneda Map Collection at UT's website. The historic and topographical are the ones of most interest here. Especially of interest is a 1919 map of "Friendswood", which actually covers all of southeast Harris County from Pasadena down. It shows Galveston Road from South Houston down to League City, and the only place where it diverges from the railroad track is in Webster. Someone driving down Galveston Road would have come to a dead end at what is now Nasa 1, made that jog to the left to go down Old Galveston Road, and taken that across Clear Creek, ending up on Kansas Street in League City.

The map of League City is not as accurate as the Harris County side, so I can't say with certainty which way the road went after that.

I made the same discovery about the rerouting of Old Galveston Road and posted about it here, starting at post #25:

http://www.houstonarchitecture.com/haif/index.php?showtopic=17999&st=0

rreini, what year is the map of League City from that you downloaded?

[rreini]

I made the same discovery about the rerouting of Old Galveston Road and posted about it here, starting at post #25:

http://www.houstonarchitecture.com/haif/index.php?showtopic=17999&st=0

rreini, what year is the map of League City from that you downloaded?

My post referred to the same map, the one of "Friendswood" from 1919 (An Army Corps of Engineers tactical map). The map extended into Galveston County, but the detail there seemed to be less accurate than on the Harris County side. For example, the roads we know today as FM 2094 and the Kemah Cut-Off portion of FM 518 are shown, but they're out of position. The map legend admitted as much: "Area south of Clear Creek compiled from various sources."

[bred]

My post referred to the same map, the one of "Friendswood" from 1919 (An Army Corps of Engineers tactical map). The map extended into Galveston County, but the detail there seemed to be less accurate than on the Harris County side. For example, the roads we know today as FM 2094 and the Kemah Cut-Off portion of FM 518 are shown, but they're out of position. The map legend admitted as much: "Area south of Clear Creek compiled from various sources."

Yes, on that map there appear to be many streets that have not existed to my knowledge in recent history, but may have been there back then.

The more that I look at historic aerials of the League City area, the more I realize that there were a LOT of dirt or shell roads laid out back then that did not make for good routes to follow and develop for a city that has grown to the size of League City today. Farm Roads like 1266, 517, 518, 646, etc. are now being used as major thoroughfares as we try to cram subdivisions into parcels that were once used for rice farming. I guess the new highways like 270 and 96 are an attempt to split up all of this raw land in a way that makes sense for suburbanization.

There is a lot of work to be done, and in the meantime, I think League City will be a hodge podge of a lot of different things. Large waterfront homes in gated communities right next to previously isolated subdivisions of trailers and shacks on waterfront property (this describes Bacliff, too). New, upscale subdivisions off 96 and South Shore Boulevard that surround the Bayridge Subdivision, the Bayridge Apartments, the UTMB Linen Plant, and a proposed hazardous material collection site.

It will take many years before gentrification completely takes over and people completely forget that League City was once a small southern farming town, and not the sprawling bedroom community serving the southeast portion of Houston that it is quickly becoming.