Historic Houston Maps

[kylejack]

Some of those old roads are now a bike path and a walking trail, which is probably a big part of why they're still visible.

[Heights2Bastrop]

Check the Addicks topographic maps from the Perry-Castaneda collection. There is a map from 1919, 1949, 1955 as well as later years.

[TexasFreeway.com]

Thanks!!! That was a big help. The abandoned railroad right-of-way show on the HCAD maps running next to the old Westheimer alignment (Beeler) is actually from the old Texas-Western RR.

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/topo/texas/txu-pclmaps-topo-tx-clodine-1915.jpg

[djrage]

Any one know where I can find old texas road maps? Possibly from around 1970 to 1975. Im working out at the South Texas Nuclear Plant and very curious to what it was like through there before the plant was built. Im very curious about a road that appears to have run through it that is now fenced off and dead ends at the east end of the reservoir. Wondering if this road was the original route of FM 521.

[TheNiche]

Any one know where I can find old texas road maps? Possibly from around 1970 to 1975. Im working out at the South Texas Nuclear Plant and very curious to what it was like through there before the plant was built. Im very curious about a road that appears to have run through it that is now fenced off and dead ends at the east end of the reservoir. Wondering if this road was the original route of FM 521.

You're in luck. I have a collection of official state highway maps that goes back to the very first issuance from 1938.

From my favorite among them, the 1971 map (titled "Land of Contrast" with the cover art depicting a young brunette pacing through some sand dunes in a vintage bathing suit as a guy trails not far behind and a little off to the side staring indiscriminately at her chest) depicts FM 521 as being straight.

[Subdude]

Any one know where I can find old texas road maps? Possibly from around 1970 to 1975. Im working out at the South Texas Nuclear Plant and very curious to what it was like through there before the plant was built. Im very curious about a road that appears to have run through it that is now fenced off and dead ends at the east end of the reservoir. Wondering if this road was the original route of FM 521.

Your best bet for old road maps would probably be Ebay, or else try one of the large antiques markets.

[TheNiche]

Your best bet for old road maps would probably be Ebay, or else try one of the large antiques markets.

Yep, I accumulated all of mine through Ebay.

[mkultra25]

You're in luck. I have a collection of official state highway maps that goes back to the very first issuance from 1938.

From my favorite among them, the 1971 map (titled "Land of Contrast" with the cover art depicting a young brunette pacing through some sand dunes in a vintage bathing suit as a guy trails not far behind and a little off to the side staring indiscriminately at her chest) depicts FM 521 as being straight.

[Dan the Man]

I see them at estate sales from time to time. I'd like to find a decent Houston street map from the 1930s or 1940s, but no luck yet...

[Subdude]

I see them at estate sales from time to time. I'd like to find a decent Houston street map from the 1930s or 1940s, but no luck yet...

A good place to look would be one of the large antiques marts. The one on Old Katy Road at the West Loop had a couple of vendors that sold old maps.

[Dan the Man]

Thanks for the suggestion!

[WillowBend56]

Here's a great source of online map images for the area dating from the 1870s to the 1960s:

http://www.hctx.net/archives/Maps.aspx

My apologies if this has been mentioned before! Browse away!

[NenaE]

http://digital.lib.uh.edu/collection/p15195coll35/item/25

 

...believe this one is from 1937. see bottom right date. release date 1957. It has some interesting information. Pre-freeway construction, it helps to use the bayous as reference markers. 

 

 

[UtterlyUrban]

THANK YOU! Fascinating!

[plumber2]

Nena,

   This is an awesome map. It must have been an HL&P map of some type, with the KVA substation notations scatered about.  

I notice that Nabisco on Almeda is not shown but the Dominican Convent is, as is the retired priest's home, St. Anthony's, futher up the street.

Also it points to the future Veteran's Hospital as being on the south side of OST.

 

The bayous have yet to be channelized, so it's interesting seeing their twisted paths to the ship channel.

[NenaE]

Yeah, all those oxbows are interesting. I was intrigued by the horse stable references (calvary stables is now the police memorial) and the parks on Houston Avenue, north of Downtown (Luna Park). The Ellington officers reference in Glenbrook was also nice. Very detailed map.

 

note the "secret" reference.

[NenaE]

http://digital.lib.uh.edu/collection/p15195coll35/item/24 ... oops. here is the one with the parks off Houston Ave.

[IronTiger]

It's interesting that the out of town subdivisions like Eureka Gardens are just outside of Inner Loop (and Eureka Gardens was many years ago redeveloped into industrial buildings and restaurants--Ball is now Karbach). The bayous, on the other hand, retain their twisty configuration (seems like they were straightened and concretized in the 1960s or so) but the Houston Ship Channel is more or less in its current form (built 1914), so landmarks like Brady's Island, the Turning Basin, and all--those still exist. They didn't even blast through Avenue U to make a straighter channel, although they did shorten the route by getting rid of that oxbow just west of it (it's still visible as an inlet)

[Ross]

It's interesting that the out of town subdivisions like Eureka Gardens are just outside of Inner Loop (and Eureka Gardens was many years ago redeveloped into industrial buildings and restaurants--Ball is now Karbach). The bayous, on the other hand, retain their twisty configuration (seems like they were straightened and concretized in the 1960s or so) but the Houston Ship Channel is more or less in its current form (built 1914), so landmarks like Brady's Island, the Turning Basin, and all--those still exist. They didn't even blast through Avenue U to make a straighter channel, although they did shorten the route by getting rid of that oxbow just west of it (it's still visible as an inlet)

 

White Oak Bayou was channelized between about 1948 and 1955. The Google Earth 1953 aerials show the effects of channelization in the Timbergrove area.

 

[NavArch]

Nice!

[FilioScotia]

A fascinating glimpse of Houston as it was in 1937. This might amount to beating a dead horse, but I notice that oval shaped mystery in the Brunsville area just north of Clinton Drive and the Ship Channel was still there in the late '30s.

 

Speculation and guesswork about this thing took up a lot of bandwidth here on the HAIF for a long time a few years ago. Has anybody ever figured out what it was?

 

[NenaE]

A fascinating glimpse of Houston as it was in 1937. This might amount to beating a dead horse, but I notice that oval shaped mystery in the Brunsville area just north of Clinton Drive and the Ship Channel was still there in the late '30s.

 

Speculation and guesswork about this thing took up a lot of bandwidth here on the HAIF for a long time a few years ago. Has anybody ever figured out what it was?

 

I couldn't help but notice Brunsville, as well, once again. I have concluded that the layout was probably a neighborhood design. Seems to me that the circular aspect was used in several neighborhoods I've glimpsed on the old maps. I believe one "Garden" named one sits to the northeast of Brunsville. Parks with band pavilions seems reasonable for the time period. The whole area's transfer to industrial complex may have played a large part, as well as a need for war-time/ production workers housing, given its location.

 

[FilioScotia]

I went to Google Earth to explore that area from the air, and I'm sure I found the spot where the long oval used to be. It's in the same spot where the oval was on the old maps. On Google Earth, just east of the Loop 610, there is a large green space shaped roughly like a cowboy boot with the toe pointed to your left. In the tall side of this space, the outline of a long oval.can be seen clearly. I'm betting this is the spot that has mystified us for several years now. 

 

As for what this space was, I have no idea but I found a clue by finding the same spot on Google Maps. I clicked the Street View on a nearby street and saw that the green space inside the oval is elevated significantly. This rise qualifies for what passes as a hill in Houston.. And the outline of the oval can be seen.

 

From the air, I swear that oval looks like it may have been a race track many years ago. Does anybody know if Houston ever had a race track in that area at one time? Could be for cars and/or horses.

[IronTiger]

I think I found the spot. West of east 610, bordered to the east by Maxine? Going back in time in Google Earth, it starts to look like less like an oval the farther back and in the 1970s looks like it was a landfill at one time (could be anything from benign to toxic)

[Ross]

The oval sits on top of what is now McCarty Drive, just North of Clinton. In the 1944 Google Earth aerials, there's no evidence at all of the oval. The properties on the site of the oval are not in Brunsville, but in Port Houston, according to the block book maps, like this one http://books.tax.hctx.net/v029/AE1997_28-29_0522.jpg

[FilioScotia]

Oops. I shoulda said "west" of 610, not "east". I'm with IronTiger in thinking it could be an old landfill site. Has Houston been using landfills for as long as that oval has been there?  We know this oval has been seen on city maps going back many years. 

[NenaE]

Oh... y'all were talking about a different oval. Is it directly south of Ledwicke x Guinevere? 

[Ross]

That landfill is too big and in the wrong place. I doubt the oval ever existed in reality. There is zero evidence of it on the 1944 aerials. It might possibly have been a storage tank site, but I doubt that as well.

[gmac]

http://www.houstonarchitecture.com/haif/topic/4512-brunsville-old-subdivision-near-the-ship-channel/page-5

 

[Earlydays]

A developers dream that never materialized.....