Burnett Bayland Home At 5500 Clarewood Dr.

[enviromain]

In the late 50s , I remember a large orphanage on the way to Galveston . I was

I grew up in Sharpstown (apparently near an orphanage) and over the years from attending Sutton Elem., Jane Long JH, and SHS, I met quite a few aqaintenances. It sucks that they could not contact me after they were gone.

Does anyone know what orphanage that might be?

And by the way..........we ARE in the next century.....why haven't WE, (As The People) given this type of hopeful place a more respectable name? ~global

Edited November 6, 2006 by enviromain

[plumber2]

I grew up in Sharpstown (apparently near an orphanage) and over the years from attending Sutton Elem., Jane Long JH, and SHS, I met quite a few aqaintenances. It sucks that they could not contact me after they were gone.

Does anyone know what orphanage that might be?

And by the way..........we ARE in the next century.....why haven't WE, (As The People) given this type of hopeful place a more respectable name? ~global

The orphanage was probably the Burnett Bayland Orhpanage on Chimney Rock Rd. These students would have diffinently gone to Jane Long Jr. High. The old structures were torn down in the early 60's, and new buildings built on the southwest corner of the county property, Clarewood and Alder (I think). Most of the property is now county offices and park facilities. The orginal buildings were quite impressive, large spanish style dormitories, similar in look to the Ft. Crockett buildings, still standing in Galveston.

[Jose Reyna]

There is a Burnett Bayland group on Facebook. It’s the Orphanage home that was at 6500 Chimney Rock in Houston. I was there from 1969 to 1972.

Edited December 6, 2020 by Jose Reyna

[Highrise Tower]

Edit: Also known as, in the 1910s, as Girl's Industrial School.

Regarding the different addresses. I found this on a forum:

My 1955 Bellaire City Directory showed Burnett-Bayland Home at 5500 Clarewood and I remember it being situated on a large piece of property at the corner of Clarewood (a residential street) and Chimney Rock Rd. (one of Bellaire's main thoroughfares). My 1965 Bellaire City Directory showed the address as 6100 Chimney Rock.(Remodeled, I believe the location of the entrance changed.) The orphanage closed and I'm pretty sure the property is now a bootcamp for troubled youth.

Girls From Broken Homes Are Given Cheerful Lift
Mary Burnett School at Bellaire Warmly Receives Orphans and Innocent Victims of Wrecked Domestic Establishments, Ushers Them Into the Happy Cluster of Joyous Youngsters and at Last They Begin to Unfold Just as Truly as a Bud Suddenly Opens

Broken Homes! Broken hearts!
It is the innocent victims of the broken homes and hearts that she Mary Burnett School for Girls picks up and gives a normal. happy girlhood, teaching them ideals and work that will make them useful citizens in after years.  Miss Ethel Alice Claxton, superintendent of the school at Bellaire, asserts--

1: Cornelia Ennis Cargill Cottage, constructed in 1917, one of the units of a remarkable school for girls in the environs of Houston. Two classes of girls are in the school, orphans and wards of the court.

2: Gray Cottage, built in 1914, the first unit of the school which now houses 160 young girls. The building also contains the school offices as well as quarters for a number of the girls. “All of the girls,” The superintendent does not believe in high walls and board fences, with watchdog methods.

3: Wash day at the school. The girls do all their own laundering, with modern machine. Indeed, the student take a four months course in laundry work, showing one the great practical phase of the school.

4: Miss Ethel Alice Claxton, superintendent of the Mary Burnett School for Girls at Bellaire, who assets that “each girl is an individual something very human that we believe we can change into a wonderful personality.”

5: The famous “shack,” which was built in 1916, when the school was filled to overflowing. It has served many purposes.

[Highrise Tower]

I (believe) I found the campus on Google Earth. Very cool!!  I do have a question.  Was there one school campus for girls and another campus, down the block, for boys? On Google Earth, it appears there was two separate campuses blocks away from each other.  Wonder if I'm even reading it correctly? I see more than the 4 buildings outlined above in the newspaper article.

1944:

1953:

1978, the two separate campuses are no more. Now a different structure and grown over with grass.

Present day 2023, looks like the parcel is back to 3 separate campuses.  I believe Harris County owns the whole parcel. Half of the land is a juvenile facility and the other half is a park. I see lots of available land for development 

[Highrise Tower]

The Burnett Bayland Home, referred to as Harris County School For Girls, is on this 1950 Sanborn map.  Very cool!!

A little confused. On the map, the home is located directly across Pin Oak Stables on South Post Oak Road.  I assume that is apart of a map-fold?

[Highrise Tower]

Edit: Enders and (Lamar) Cato are the architects for one of the buildings.  Lamar Cato is awesome!

Came across some Burnett Bayland Home photos and details that I've never seen before. Wanted to share and post in the thread.  Love the architecture from the 1910s!

Plan for Grey Cottage.

Proposed landscaping for the school - 1914.

First unit of new Harris County Home for Girls is now complete.  Grey Cottage - August 30, 1914.

Cargill Cottage.

Chapel.