Main Street Park On South Main St.

[Highrise Tower]

Thanks to @Ross I discovered a new park that was located in the Texas Medical Center in the decade of the 1910s. Ross suggested this pre-dates the Hermann Park.  I researched, and according to the Hermann Park Conservancy, Hermann Park opened in 1914. Or, in 1914, the park was announced and the master plan started. Hermann Park may have opened a year later than 1914?

https://www.hermannpark.org/history/timeline/

In May of 1914 Houston real estate investor and industrialist George H. Hermann announced publicly his intention of deeding to the City of Houston 285 acres of this property for a municipal park across the street from the Rice Institute and thus Hermann Park was born. A century later, Hermann Park is 445-acres of beautiful green space and is visited by an estimated 6 million people per year. 

I first discovered the park while researching the Colonial Park Amusement Park near Fannin Street and Southmore Avenue. 

1913 City of Houston map:

The Houston Post dated July 19, 1913:

Amusements:
Main Street Park- Wild West Broncho Bustling at 5 p.m.
Isis Theater- "Beauty and the Beast" and other motion pictures.
Pearce's Theater- "The Master Painter" and other motion pictures."
Top O'Houston, Carter Roof- Motion pictures, carabet, features and refreshments.

The Houston Post dated June 8, 1912:

Dekor to make flight at Main Street Park

Houston Aviator will give exhibition prior to leaving the city.

Fred De Kor, the aviator. will make a series of exhibition flights Sunday afternoon at Main Street Park, prior to leaving the city. Mr. De Kor has been contemplating giving the public thorough exhibition of his powers for some time and now feels that he has the best opportunity to do .

The flights will be made at Main Street Park at 2 o'clock Sunday afternoon--

The advertisement showing the date:

Don't fall to see the exhibition flight at Main Street Park June 9, 1912 at 2:30 p.m.

By Aviator Fred De Kor.

In huis new aeroplane, The Green Dragon.

The Houston Post dated September 28, 1912:

Baseball 
Sunday, Sept. 29
At Main Street Park
Game Called at 4 O'Clock.

Houston Sporting Goods
Vs.
Sharp and Hughes.

Both clubs have strong line-up, and a good game is promised. 

Batteries- Houston Sporting Good, Wehrman and Holt; Sharp and Hughes, Malloy and Page.

Take South End Cars and transfer for Main Street Park.

The Houston Post dated January 5, 1913:

Farming With Aetna Dynamite.

Demonstration will be held at Main Street Park Tuesday afternoon, January 7, at 3 o'clock. Stump Blasting, Subsoiling, Tree Planting, Ditching. Everybody invited. Take Sound End Car, transfer to Westmoreland.

L. Harde & Co.

Dealers in Agricultural Blasting Material, Room 3, Cotton Exchange Building.

The Houston Post dated December 24, 1911:

Location is Changed.

For three years the Sunny South has made the traps at Delmonico Garden famous. In 1912, however, the Houston Gun Club offers a new location, Main Street Park. The new grounds are considered far better in accommodation than the old, and, since last July, have been used as the regular grounds of the Houston Gun Club.

Main Street Park is located on the extension of Main street out beyond the Rice Institute. The park is reached by the South End and Westmoreland Farms car lines.  The service off the South End line is present on every hour, but for the Sunny South the street car company will be requested to make special provision.  With this improvement the park will be as accessible as Delmonico. Main street has already had its baptism as a trap shooting center, the Texas handicap having been held there in midyear of 1911. 

 

[Highrise Tower]

Houston Adjacent Subdivisions Map 1930.

Printed on front: "Compiled from data and information furnished by City Planning Commission, City Engineering Department, resident engineer of State Highway Department and other sources by W.G. Jones, Secretary-Manager-Motor League of South Texas and R.M. Stene, road log enginner."

Shows city blocks, named streets, major highways, proposed highways, subdivisions, bayous, and ship channel. Includes lists of schools, hospitals, and cemeteries and index guide to streets of Houston. Title from title block. Scale of map is approximately 1 mile to 2 in.

In this 1930 map, Hermann Park had two locations. The usual location, and the area around Holcombe & Main, and across from Rice University was also considered Hermann Park. TMC wasn't even planned yet, and only the original Hermann Hospital was built.  Wild!!

Notice how Holcombe was called Marlborough Drive back then. From the research I did, Marlborough was a famous person in England. I wonder if there was any relation to our street name? One of the first records of the family in England was Thomas of Marlborough (died 1236).