Edwin Parker Home At 2310 Baldwin St.

[isuredid]

While out and about Saturday.. and thinking of that party I went to a few times in the early to mid 80's.. that wacky Porno Picnic outdoor party.. that was identified as being on Helena.. I drove down Helena.. for the first time in awhile.

In the 70's.. when I was a bit of a "barfly" at Theodore's around the corner.. one guy I went out with some lived in what I call a "group hippie house" on Helena.. so I was in that neighborhood some and liked that area. In the 70's or so, I used to drive down Helena and it was kinda spooky or eerie, to me. Lots of pretty old looking homes and lots of trees around there.. it kinda looked dark around there..

But not anymore of course.. it's Condo/Townhome city now.

That area was called Oak Place. There had been a large mansion on that property with several out-buildings around it. The buildings that were still standing that you remember were probably some of those. The Porno Picnic was in a house on the corner of Bremond and Helena/Oak Place. It was dark back there because of all the old Live Oaks that shaded the area. Just another of the unique Houston places that have disappeared.

Harris County Block Book of Parker Home

[BlueSquirrel]

I really loved that neighborhood. I used to live on Mason and walk every where back then.

Investors started buying up the houses in the '70s and '80s and tearing them down, leaving vacant lots. The neighborhood became dark and spooky in a bad sort of way. It wasn't simply the oak trees. They were beautiful. I had friends who lived all over around there back during the '70s. Bad things started happening, lots of burglaries, muggings and worse. Friends of mine woke up to find a woman dead in front their house. Another friend's purse was stolen off a table in her house while she was unloading her groceries.

I still have a hard time understanding why they put such high density properties up on those narrow streets. They actually made West Gray narrower! I guess they wanted that cozy Montrose feel. I drive down McGowan pretty regularly when I taking the back streets on the way home. I just have to shake my head.

[detached]

Oak Place. A beautiful area in its heyday. "The Oaks" was a grand estate, built around 1909-1910 by noted architects, Sanguinet and Staats, for the for Edwin Parker. It was designed in the "Prairie Style" made popular by Frank Lloyd Wright. It sat on a large, circular plot of land surrounded by Oak Place, Bremond, Baldwin and Hadley Streets. The home was purchased by Capt. James Baker in 1923 and upon his death in 1941, the property was left to the Rice Institute. They transferred it to MD Anderson Hospital, which made a hospital out of the home. You can see photos and a write up about the main house in Houston's Forgotten Heritage, by Houghton, Scardino, Blackburn & Howe (pp. 186-187). This estate was demolished by the mid 1960's, but the "smaller cottage" where the Parkers lived while their large home was being constructed, lasted longer. In 1989, I drove the area and took photos. Here are some of my photos of the cottage, which sat facing east on Hadley, with Webster Street to its north (right) and Oak Place to its south (left side of photo). There was also an old tennis court behind the cottage.

[cottonmather0]

Oak Place. A beautiful area in its heyday. "The Oaks" was a grand estate, built around 1909-1910 by noted architects, Sanguinet and Staats, for the for Edwin Parker. It was designed in the "Prairie Style" made popular by Frank Lloyd Wright. It sat on a large, circular plot of land surrounded by Oak Place, Bremond, Baldwin and Hadley Streets. The home was purchased by Capt. James Baker in 1923 and upon his death in 1941, the property was left to the Rice Institute. They transferred it to MD Anderson Hospital, which made a hospital out of the home. You can see photos and a write up about the main house in Houston's Forgotten Heritage, by Houghton, Scardino, Blackburn & Howe (pp. 186-187). This estate was demolished by the mid 1960's, but the "smaller cottage" where the Parkers lived while their large home was being constructed, lasted longer. In 1989, I drove the area and took photos. Here are some of my photos of the cottage, which sat facing east on Hadley, with Webster Street to its north (right) and Oak Place to its south (left side of photo). There was also an old tennis court behind the cottage.

Thank you for posting this. When I met my wife back in 2002 she was living in the apartment complex directly behind this building (was called the "Oakwood" then, now it's something else) and I always wondered what the story was. That neighborhood has changed and built up a lot even in the last 5 years since she moved out, I can only imagine what it might seem like to someone who knew it 10 or 20 years ago.

One thing I do remember is that even with all of the apartments and townhouses there, property crime was still pretty bad. I spent the night at her apartment on my birthday in 2004 and woke up the next morning to a smashed rear window and my truck cleaned out... and I was parked in the complex parking garage behind an 8 foot fence. We also threw a new years eve party one year and people were out in the street below her windows celebrating and shooting their guns into the air. That was quite a neighborhood.

With regards to the OP, Rice military has changed a lot too. I run with the Kenyan Way group every summer that meets at the park at the bottom of Jackson Hill and Scotland. When I started in 2000, it was a pretty shady place to park your car that early in the morning and didn't feel particularly safe. There was a rickety two story building called the "Jackson Hill Grocery" that sat on an overgrown lot and looked like a one stop shop for any and all kinds of drugs. Then they built the huge apartment complex across the street (that burned down once and was rebuilt before it opened) and things started to clean up. Garden in the Heights went not long after and pretty soon the bungalows and shacks were in the minority.

[detached]

Thanks for sharing the pictures of the old house, I was always intrigued by similar ones that I saw traveling many times through downtown, viewed from the Pierce Elevated, when I was young.

So many of those houses were so large, hard to upkeep, as they aged. I can recall a few in the East End, of course, all gone now.

The history of Oak Place is something new to me.

I could have sworn that, a couple of years ago or so, I had posted my photos and details of the home that used to face Baldwin, next to Webster Street. We had quite a discussion about the area on HAIF, as I recall, but I guess the forum has been purged and revamped. This was a Prairie Style home with fantastic details that was built by architects, Sanguinet & Staats (I got it wrong in the photo album!) http://www.tshaonlin.../articles/cms01 as a precursor home to live in while the owners of Oak Place built their estate (also in the Prairie Style) on the circular portion of acreage just to the South. Well, here are my old shots of the home before it was torn down. I recall that there was a tennis court behind this house, as well. The book, Houston's Forgotten Heritage, has nice photos and info about Oak Place.

[detached]

I could have sworn that, a couple of years ago or so, I had posted my photos and details of the home that used to face Baldwin, next to Webster Street. We had quite a discussion about the area on HAIF, as I recall, but I guess the forum has been purged and revamped. This was a Prairie Style home with fantastic details that was built by architects, Sanguinet & Staats (I got it wrong in the photo album!) http://www.tshaonlin.../articles/cms01 as a precursor home to live in while the owners of Oak Place built their estate (also in the Prairie Style) on the circular portion of acreage just to the South. Well, here are my old shots of the home before it was torn down. I recall that there was a tennis court behind this house, as well. The book, Houston's Forgotten Heritage, has nice photos and info about Oak Place.

Now, the same view from Baldwin looks like this. These are the same oak trees that were in front of the old "Cottage":