George Hermann Stables

[Highrise Tower]

I'm still looking for George Hermann's saw mill/lumber company that was based on Fannin Street/South Main Street where present day Hermann Park is located.

While researching I found a glimpse of his stables located on some avenue. I cannot read it. Maybe someone could look in old City of Houston directories and find the correct address? It's probably located in the city core given the ancient date.

Very cool history here! Just imagine meeting Mr. Hermann and buying livery.

From the newspaper The Houston Daily Post dated November 23, 1897.

G.H. Hermann, stable, ? avenue; $15.

[Materene]

3 hours ago, Highrise Tower said:

I'm still looking for George Hermann's saw mill/lumber company that was based on Fannin Street/South Main Street where present day Hermann Park is located.

While researching I found a glimpse of his stables located on some avenue. I cannot read it. Maybe someone could look in old City of Houston directories and find the correct address? It's probably located in the city core given the ancient date.

Very cool history here! Just imagine meeting Mr. Hermann and buying livery.

From the newspaper The Houston Daily Post dated November 23, 1897.

G.H. Hermann, stable, ? avenue; $15.

That area has changed so much in only my lifetime I hardly recognize it.  My first time to be in that area was when I was about 5 at the zoo.  All the things I remember in the 70s are gone.  Now you might search the Rice or UH Historical photos, they have a lot of really old stuff donated over the decades.  I still remember all the old downtown buildings in the 60s were still for the most part non air conditioned because they had been standing for so long.  It is easy to still spot any still standing because they all have those really high windows that open, it was the only way to stay almost cool in summer.  Oh before I forget I was going to say a very close friend of my ex wife and myself told me about 17 years ago that her Late Father had planted all those first batch of trees lining the South Main Blvd in the 20s.  Some are still standing even with the street widening and other improvements.  The Lady belonged to one church that was 90 years old when I left Houston in 2008, she had died a few days before I left and she was almost 80.  Sadly her church closed forever when it became impossible to draw people to church, but that was after her death so at least she was spared of the bad news.  My old church Baptist Temple did the same and sold off all of the church property except one small office.  In 1955 the church consumed two city blocks and the entire area across the street for church parking.  It was full every sunday.

[NenaE]

I read somewhere that the rows of trees were planted in remembrance of WW1 soldiers.

I'm curious about the Hermann stables, as well. 

[Materene]

I live 3 hundred fifty miles from Houston but I have found a map quest location of the stables,  I never knew about the lumber mill but I would assume it was in that same area.  I will see what I can find and pass along anything I find.  About the Blvd Trees I really don't know the purpose of the planting but since it borders the University I always thought they were responsible for planting the trees.  There are some excellent photos taken from the top of the Warwick Hotel looking down onto the Blvd shortly after they were planted and that was around 28 I believe.  The University of Houston was the library I saw them on the internet.  Those photos show a different Houston than all of us living today ever saw, it was flat and few buildings going south, except for the Hospital and medical building further out.  Endless trees and nothing  ha.  Here is the map quest street view and naming of the stable area.  

https://www.mapquest.com/us/texas/hermann-park-stables-439522721

[brucesw]

I didn't grow up here, but it has been my understanding the trees were planted in commemoration of Armistice Day (Nov 11).  I think there used to be flags planted along the median on Armistice Day; can't say if that still happens but it suggests a veterans group was involved - maybe in planting the trees, too.

[brucesw]

The Wiki article on the park says the lumber mill was located on the land donated by Hermann for the park, which was centered around where the reflection pool is. The park was originally only about half its present size.  The article mentions live oak trees planted along a promenade near or around the reflection pool in memory of WWI soldiers.  

Fascinating history of Hermann Park by Stephen Fox (cited by the Wiki article) - as I understand it, the trees along Main were planted in 1916-1917 as part of George E. Kessler's plans for the park!  Fannin did not go that far south at that time and Main Street formed the western boundary of the park.  Fannin was extended and cut off the western edge of the park to accommodate increased traffic in the area in the 1940s as TMC grew with the addition of a dental school, MD Anderson and the relocation of Baylor College of Medicine from Dallas.

The Fox article also mentions oak trees planted along Outer Belt Drive by War Mothers in memory of WWI soldiers.

So, lots of oak trees have been planted in and near Hermann Park, some in memory of WWI soldiers but apparently not the ones along Main.

 

I'm vaguely remembering stables on the eastern edge of the park - along Almeda?  Obviously not the one located further south now.  Haven't come across any mentions of these stables in anything yet.

Edited October 3, 2023 by brucesw

[Dave W]

Almeda Stables was located on Almeda Road at the eastern edge of the park. But it was a privately owned business, even though the customers used the riding trails in the park.

A quick search says that the business moved to the location off 288 and Almeda-Genoa about 20 years ago and was renamed Sam Houston Equestrian Center, but Google Maps says it's permanently closed.

That doesn't tell us where George Hermann's stables were located, or if it was a predecessor to Almeda Stables.

 

[brucesw]

I don't remember the stables but did think I had seen horses and riders on the trails in the park.  Coming up from Brazoria Co. on 288, it turned into Almeda but we always went west on Holcombe to get to Main or West U. 

[Materene]

Sounds like you probably saw the annual Stock show riders, was this during the Fall you saw those riders.  Myself I never heard mention of the Hermann sawmill.  I read up on his history and he actually served in the civil war under the confederacy.  He died in 1914 leaving his fortune made in many ventures oil timber and other things to build the hospital.  Hermann hospital I am familiar with being 75 years old.  I searched all over and could not find any photos in that era of his properties.  Rice Photo library has a lot of old Houston photos.  I love looking at those old photos.  Houston had a lot of History including the pre WWI Army base there in the Memorial area.  Even Galveston had a large Army base in the very early days.  Getting back to topic I would think his sawmill would be in that general area of the old stable.  It would have had to be near a water outlet unless they were taking down very local timber and moved it by horse or mule or both.  One thing I found on reading his history was his per luck chance of buying land in Humble and it having oil.  That of course made his fortune.  To me it comes as a remembrance of being 5 years old and my grandmother and her best friend taking we two kids out to Humble in the oil field back roads for a early afternoon snack of Shipley's Doughnuts and cold milk.  We all sat on a blanket and it was so peaceful and pretty in the early 50s.  We would pick blackberries and of course the elders called them dew berries, but we would find buckets and buckets of berries.  There was no people living out that way so few people knew about the berries.  Lots of cows out there at the time and my family was old time folks that would also go out there and pick poke salad.  It had to be on pastured land to find it.  It was almost like spinach but prepared the same way and in the 50s canning was a part of living.  My Great Grandfather worked at a water powered sawmill and I have a photo of him on the saw mill .  It had to be in the late 1800s, another job he had and was photoed was him riding herd on livestock in Cisco Texas.  I have that picture also.  I will have to try one day and scan those two old photos and post them here.

[Dave W]

9 hours ago, Materene said:

Sounds like you probably saw the annual Stock show riders, was this during the Fall you saw those riders.  Myself I never heard mention of the Hermann sawmill.  I read up on his history and he actually served in the civil war under the confederacy.  He died in 1914 leaving his fortune made in many ventures oil timber and other things to build the hospital.  Hermann hospital I am familiar with being 75 years old.  I searched all over and could not find any photos in that era of his properties.  Rice Photo library has a lot of old Houston photos.  I love looking at those old photos.  Houston had a lot of History including the pre WWI Army base there in the Memorial area.  Even Galveston had a large Army base in the very early days.  Getting back to topic I would think his sawmill would be in that general area of the old stable.  It would have had to be near a water outlet unless they were taking down very local timber and moved it by horse or mule or both.  One thing I found on reading his history was his per luck chance of buying land in Humble and it having oil.  That of course made his fortune.  To me it comes as a remembrance of being 5 years old and my grandmother and her best friend taking we two kids out to Humble in the oil field back roads for a early afternoon snack of Shipley's Doughnuts and cold milk.  We all sat on a blanket and it was so peaceful and pretty in the early 50s.  We would pick blackberries and of course the elders called them dew berries, but we would find buckets and buckets of berries.  There was no people living out that way so few people knew about the berries.  Lots of cows out there at the time and my family was old time folks that would also go out there and pick poke salad.  It had to be on pastured land to find it.  It was almost like spinach but prepared the same way and in the 50s canning was a part of living.  My Great Grandfather worked at a water powered sawmill and I have a photo of him on the saw mill .  It had to be in the late 1800s, another job he had and was photoed was him riding herd on livestock in Cisco Texas.  I have that picture also.  I will have to try one day and scan those two old photos and post them here.

The Stock show ride (Salt Grass Trail Ride) ends at Memorial Park, not Hermann Park, and it's always been in February.

Riders could be seen any time of the year on the Hermann Park trails.

[Materene]

11 hours ago, Dave W said:

The Stock show ride (Salt Grass Trail Ride) ends at Memorial Park, not Hermann Park, and it's always been in February.

Riders could be seen any time of the year on the Hermann Park trails.

I've been gone for over 45 years, but I did ride trail in a club before then and our rides even came in from north to south along south main.  I forget where the turn was made but post oak was definitely one of the major crossings.  It was legal then and not just restricted to the beginning of the Fat Stock Show which it was called then.  Most were out north of Houston as far as FM 1960.

[Dave W]

14 hours ago, Materene said:

I've been gone for over 45 years, but I did ride trail in a club before then and our rides even came in from north to south along south main.  I forget where the turn was made but post oak was definitely one of the major crossings.  It was legal then and not just restricted to the beginning of the Fat Stock Show which it was called then.  Most were out north of Houston as far as FM 1960.

I don't doubt you, but that has nothing to do with the stock show riders, that ride didn't end at Hermann Park and wasn't in the fall.