East End, Houston

East End Houston, managed by the East End District (EED), is a district in eastern Houston, Texas, United States, located between the eastern edge of downtown to the Port of Houston and South to Hobby Airport.[1] The District is home to Houston's early history and industry and is the site of Harrisburg, the seat of government for the Republic of Texas in 1836.[1] East End Houston consists of many different ethnic groups, including Hispanic, Asian, White, and African American. Latinos make up more than half of the 100,512 residents, The area includes two of Houston's oldest Hispanic neighborhoods, Magnolia Park and Second Ward.

East End
East End District management offices

History
Fire Station 18, 1976

East End Houston is bounded on the west by downtown Houston and on the east by the Port of Houston. Buffalo Bayou flows past the site of Harrisburg, an early Texas trading post and seat of government for the Republic of Texas in 1836. Founded by John Harris, for whom Harris County is named, Harrisburg was initially considered by the Allen brothers for the initial development of Houston.[2]

East End Houston was a primary area for relocation for Germans, Italians and Mexican Americans that settled in areas near the port of Houston. Second Ward and Magnolia Park, in the district, are two of Houston's oldest Hispanic neighborhoods.

The Eastwood subdivision, established in 1913, is considered one of the first master-planned communities in Houston. Many well-known Houstonians including Howard Hughes lived in Eastwood as children.[3]

The District has become popular among those who restore many of its vintage homes.[4] In the mid-to-late 2000s upper middle class residents moved into East End Houston to take advantage of houses that are less expensive than west side houses.[5] Other neighborhoods include: Lawndale/Wayside, EaDo (East Downtown Houston), Broadmoor, Idylwood, Houston Country Club Estates, Forest Hill, Mason Park and Pecan Park. For several months leading into August 2007, the East End Chamber of Commerce Crime Awareness Committee argued that the Houston Police Department assigned insufficient police officers in the area.[6]

In 1997, Lori Rodriguez of the Houston Chronicle said "In the lifetime of some coalition members, the East End has gone from being mainly white to mainly Hispanic, mainly affluent to mainly modest, mainly thriving to mainly struggling," and that "a younger and more aggressive leadership is trying to revitalize the area and, to a touchingly discernible degree, it has succeeded."[7]

The Greater East End management district was established by a bill sponsored by Texas Senator Mario Gallegos and Texas Representative Rick Noriega after a petition circulated advocated for the establishment of the district. The Governor of Texas signed the bill into law in 1999.[3]

The 2002 East End murders involved the deaths of a 15-year-old girl and two waitresses. The perpetrators were arrested and convicted, with two of them receiving death sentences.[8]

Culture

The Talento Bilingue de Houston, the largest cultural arts center of its kind in Houston is in East End Houston, as well as the 100 seat Carlos Garcia Theater at Houston Community College-Southeast campus which was dedicated in late 1997.[9] The district is home to The Orange Show, Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, Mutalistan Hall, and a Chicano mural by artist Leo Tanguma on Canal Street.[9]

The Association for the Advancement of Mexican Americans opened the new $3.6 million AAMA Multi-Purpose Education Center in 1999. The center includes computer and science labs.[10] The Ripley House-Neighborhood Centers successfully completed a capital campaign to raise $9 million to replace its 60-year-old, aging physical structure with a new 60,000-square-foot (5,600 m2) community center.[9]

Cuisine
The original Ninfa's

In 2013 Houstonia wrote that East End Houston is "home to some of the city’s best Mexican restaurants and bakeries."[11] The original Ninfa's restaurant opened in East End Houston in 1973. The Ninfa's chain became very popular and prominent.[12] In 1997 Paul Galvani of the Houston Press said that despite the fact that the East End has "standouts " like Ninfa's, Mandola's Deli, and Shanghai Reds, "it too frequently gets bypassed when folks think about eating out."[13] In 1997 the East End Management Association published a dining guide listing 42 restaurants within the East End, including in the Second Ward, the original Chinatown, Magnolia Park, and other communities. The Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau and various area hotels and restaurants distributed the guides for free, and the East End Area Chamber of Commerce mailed copies of the guide, with each copy priced for $2.50 ($3.98 when adjusted for inflation).[13]

Government and infrastructure
Harris County Courthouse Annex 39

The East End District is headquartered at 3211 Harrisburg Street.[14]

Three Houston City Council districts, B,[15] H,[16] and I, serve sections of the East End.[17]

The Houston Fire Department operates several fire stations in the East End.[18] Three fire stations, Station 18 East End, Station 20 Magnolia Park, and Station 23 Lawndale are in Fire District 20. Station 17 Second Ward is in Fire District 8.[19] In 1920 Station 2 was in what would later become the East End. In 1926 the station moved to what would become Downtown Houston.[20]

Harris County Precinct Two operates the Raul C. Martinez/East End Courthouse annex in the East End.[21] In addition the county operates Courthouse Annex 39 in the East End.[22]

The Houston Housing Authority (HHA), formerly the Housing Authority of the City of Houston (HACH), operates the 296-unit Clayton Homes in the East End. Susan Vahn Clayton donated the property to the HACH in 1952. The development was modernized in 2007.[23]

Cityscape

In 2011 Dane Schiller of the Houston Chronicle said "Parts of the area have the feel of Mexico: brightly painted homes and narrow streets, store signs in Spanish and snow cones sold from carts."[24] In 1997 Lori Rodriguez of the Houston Chronicle said that "the revitalization" that occurred in the 1990s "seems to abruptly stop at the railroad tracks that crisscross Harrisburg beyond the Plaza" and that "the slick national chains must share the commercial corridor with cantinas, empty buildings and halfway houses."[7]

As of 2013 24% of the land in the Greater East End was used for warehouses and industrial purposes.[11]

By 2015 new townhouse developments were appearing in the East End.[25]

Communities

Economy
KBR offices on Clinton Drive

By 1997 new retail operations had been established in East End Houston. By the same year, the former Baker Hughes building was renovated into an 80-acre (32 ha) complex, Central City Industrial Park. Five Texas state agencies, together with 1,200 employees, moved into the complex.[7]

KBR maintained offices in a 138 acres (56 ha) campus on Clinton Drive,[26][27][28] within the boundaries of East End Houston and the Fifth Ward.[18][29] The KBR office complex is the former headquarters of Brown & Root.[30] As of December 2010 KBR no longer operates this office.[31]

By 2001 Halliburton owned the Clinton Drive campus. In August of that year Halliburton announced that it would consolidate 8,000 local employees to office space in Westchase. Halliburton planned to relocate around 2,000 employees from Clinton Drive and the industrial facilities would have been relocated to a location that was, in that month, undetermined. Sanford Criner, a principal at real estate brokerage Trione & Gordon, suggested that gentrification would turn what would have been the former Clinton Drive facility into entertainment, residential, or retail use, and that the facility would not have been redeveloped for office space usage.[32] In December 2001 Halliburton canceled its plans to relocate employees to Westchase. Nancy Sarnoff of the Houston Business Journal said that it made more sense for the company to lease existing space instead of constructing new office space in times of economic downturns.[33]

In 2010 KBR announced that it will vacate the Clinton Drive campus and move the 1,600 employees who work at the Clinton Drive office to the KBR offices in Downtown Houston. The company will then conduct an environmental cleanup of the Clinton Drive site.[28]

When Weingarten's existed, its headquarters was in what is now East End Houston.[34][35][36] When Oshman's Sporting Goods existed, its headquarters were in East End Houston.[37] When RioStar Corp. (Ninfa's parent company) existed, its headquarters were also in East End Houston.[38]

Education

Public schools
Austin High School

Residents attend school in the Houston Independent School District (HISD).

Sections of areas within the Greater East End Management District[18] are zoned to the following senior high schools:

Eastwood Academy in East End Houston is an HISD charter school serving the Austin High School attendance boundary.[44]

HISD schools racially integrated in the 1970s. Prior to integration black students attended Wheatley High School and/or Yates High School.[45] Until 1970 HISD counted its Hispanic and Latino students as "white."[46]

State charter schools include:

Private schools

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston operates a single K-8 school in the East End: Our Lady of Guadalupe School in the Second Ward.

Resurrection School is in nearby Denver Harbor.[52]

The archdiocese previously also operated Queen of Peace School, which opened on September 8, 1947 in a four classroom building. The official website of the school stated that the school being shuttered was a possibility in the 1980s as the number of students fell significantly.[53] That institution closed in 2020, partially due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[54]

Colleges and universities
HCCS Southeast College

The Houston Community College System serves East End Houston. HCCS Southeast College is in East End Houston.

Public libraries
Patricio Flores Neighborhood Library

Three Houston Public Library locations are in East End Houston.[18][55] They include the Patricio Flores Neighborhood Library,[56] the Melcher Neighborhood Library,[57] and the Stanaker Neighborhood Library.[58]

Transportation

The Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (METRO) operates public transportation services, including buses and the METRORail tram service. METRORail stations include:

On the METRORail Green Line:

In addition as of 1997 several companies offered international bus services to Mexico from East End Houston. As of that year most of the passengers were Hispanics who were visiting family members. The international bus services from East End Houston were established in the 1990s.[59]

Notable residents

References
  1. "The East End Management District: The New Day Begins!". Archived from the original on 2008-05-06. Retrieved 2008-03-29.
  2. "The East End Management District, History". Archived from the original on 2008-05-06. Retrieved 2008-03-29.
  3. Gibbens, Pam. "Communities experience revitalization". Greater Houston Weekly, Houston Community Newspapers Online. Archived from the original on 2007-08-05. Retrieved 2008-03-29.
  4. "The East End Management District, History, Neighborhoods". Archived from the original on 2008-05-06. Retrieved 2008-03-29.
  5. Sarnoff, Nancy. "Housing buzz fuels move to East End." Houston Chronicle. January 21, 2008. Retrieved on April 7, 2009.
  6. Britt, Douglas. "Is the East End caught in the middle?." Houston Chronicle. July 4, 2007. Retrieved on August 9, 2009.
  7. Rodriguez, Lori. "NEIGHBORLY NEEDS/Help for homeless touches raw nerve in the East End." Houston Chronicle. Sunday March 16, 1997. A1. Retrieved on November 4, 2011.
  8. Sallee, Rad; Dale Lezon (2004-05-22). "Man gets death in East End killing". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved 2017-05-23. – abbreviated version, titled: "Honduran man gets death in Houston slaying", published in the Plainview Daily Herald
  9. "The East End Management District, Culture". Archived from the original on 2008-05-06. Retrieved 2008-03-29.
  10. "The Association for the Advancement of Mexican Americans, About Us, AAMA Today". Retrieved 2008-03-29.
  11. Holley, Peter, John Lomax, and Todd Spoth. "25 Hottest Neighborhoods" (Archived 2015-11-02 at WebCite). Houstonia. June 1, 2013. Retrieved on November 2, 2015.
  12. Huynh, Dai. "Restaurateur Mama Ninfa dies." Houston Chronicle. Monday June 18, 2001. A1. Retrieved on February 5, 2012.
  13. Galvani, Paul. "Dish." Houston Press. Thursday May 29, 1997. Retrieved on February 6, 2012.
  14. "Contact the District Archived 2009-07-23 at the Wayback Machine." Greater East End District. Retrieved on April 7, 2009.
  15. City of Houston, Council District Maps, District B Archived June 25, 2012, at the Wayback Machine." City of Houston. Retrieved on November 5, 2011.
  16. City of Houston, Council District Maps, District H Archived 2012-06-26 at the Wayback Machine." City of Houston. Retrieved on November 5, 2011.
  17. City of Houston, Council District Maps, District I Archived 2013-09-18 at the Wayback Machine." City of Houston. Retrieved on November 5, 2011.
  18. "Map" (). East End Management District. Retrieved on March 8, 2010.
  19. "Fire Stations." City of Houston. Retrieved on May 8, 2010.
  20. "Fire Station 2 Archived 2010-05-27 at the Wayback Machine." City of Houston. Retrieved on May 8, 2010.
  21. "Courthouse Annexes Archived 2010-04-22 at the Wayback Machine." Harris County Precinct Two. Retrieved on May 23, 2010.
  22. "Job No. 07/0036 Archived 2011-07-23 at the Wayback Machine." Harris County. Page 16 of 29. Retrieved on May 28, 2010.
  23. "Clayton Homes." Houston Housing Authority. Retrieved on October 16, 2011. "1919 Runnels Houston, Texas 77003"
  24. Schiller, Dane. "Modern-day mafia story had its roots in Houston's East End." Houston Chronicle. March 20, 2011. Retrieved on August 8, 2011.
  25. Rhor, Monica. "Time of transition for Houston's East End." Houston Chronicle. January 24, 2015. Retrieved on January 25, 2015.
  26. Eriksen, Helen. "Will KBR ditch its Houston headquarters for Katy suburbia?." Houston Chronicle. April 30, 2008. Retrieved on January 13, 2009.
  27. "KBR Announces Pricing of Its Initial Public Offering Archived 2010-01-02 at the Wayback Machine." KBR. November 15, 2006. Retrieved on July 25, 2009.
  28. Dawson, Jennifer. "Plan for Clinton Drive stirs East End interest." Houston Business Journal. Friday February 5, 2010. 1. Retrieved on February 8, 2010.
  29. Fifth Ward, Houston from the Handbook of Texas Online Retrieved on June 25, 2009.
  30. "Offices." Brown & Root. January 31, 1998. Retrieved on September 15, 2009.
  31. "Locations." KBR. Retrieved on December 26, 2010.
  32. Sarnoff, Nancy. "Halliburton move could create hole in Houston's office market." Houston Business Journal. Friday August 10, 2001. Retrieved on November 11, 2009.
  33. Sarnoff, Nancy. "Downtown up, Westchase down as Halliburton postpones project." Houston Business Journal. Friday December 21, 2009. Retrieved on November 11, 2009.
  34. Pike, James Albert, Henry Gold Fischer, and John William Willis. Pike and Fischer Administrative Law, Second Series, Volume 21. Bender, 1951. 125. Retrieved from Google Books on July 10, 2010. "J. Weingarten, Inc. (hereinafter sometimes called "Weingarten") is a corporation organized and existing under the laws of the State of Texas, with its principal office at 600 Lockwood Drive, Houston, Texas."
  35. "District Boundary Map Archived 2011-07-11 at the Wayback Machine." Greater East End Management District. Retrieved on July 10, 2010.
  36. "News Digest." Securities and Exchange Commission. Issue No. 68-174. September 5, 1968. 1/6. Retrieved on July 10, 2010. "J. Weingarten, Incorporated, 600 Lockwood Drive. Houston, Texas 77011"
  37. "Oshman's Sporting Goods." Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved on September 14, 2011. "2302 Maxwell Lane Houston, TX 77023 United States"
  38. D & B Nusiness Rankings. Dun & Bradstreet, 1998. 38. Retrieved from Google Books on February 6, 2012. "4824 RIOSTAR CORP 2727 Canal St, Houston, TX 77003-1526"
  39. "Austin High School Attendance Zone Archived 2007-09-30 at the Wayback Machine." Houston Independent School District.
  40. "Milby High School Attendance Zone Archived 2011-07-26 at the Wayback Machine." Houston Independent School District.
  41. "Jones High School Attendance Zone Archived 2008-04-11 at the Wayback Machine." Houston Independent School District.
  42. "AGENDA Board of Education Meeting March 13, 2014." Houston Independent School District. Retrieved on March 15, 2014. "Proposed Attendance Boundaries" New 03/06/04 Attachment F-1 March 2014 p. 24/119.
  43. "Wheatley High School Attendance Zone Archived 2007-09-30 at the Wayback Machine." Houston Independent School District.
  44. "HISD campus charters." Houston Chronicle. August 12, 2003. Retrieved on October 17, 2009.
  45. Berryhill, Michael. "The Unchanging Face of Milby." Houston Press. Thursday October 9, 1997. Retrieved on November 4, 2015.
  46. Kellar, William Henry. Make Haste Slowly: Moderates, Conservatives, and School Desegregation in Houston. Texas A&M University Press, 1999. ISBN 1603447180, 9781603447188. p. 33 (Google Books PT14).
  47. Radcliffe, Jennifer. "KIPP heads east." Houston Chronicle. April 8, 2008. Retrieved on March 8, 2010.
  48. "YES Prep East End." YES Prep Public Schools. March 16, 2008. Retrieved on March 8, 2010.
  49. "Greater Northside Management District Archived 2009-11-04 at the Wayback Machine." Greater Northside Management District. Retrieved on May 30, 2009.
  50. "YES Prep East End Archived 2010-03-23 at the Wayback Machine." YES Prep Public Schools. Retrieved on March 8, 2010.
  51. "Locations". Association for the Advancement of Mexican Americans. Retrieved 2019-04-14. AAMA – Sanchez Charter School 6001 Gulf Freeway, Building E Houston, TX 77023[...]AAMA – Sanchez Charter School-North 215 Rittenhouse St. Houston, TX 77076
  52. Rhor, Monica (2012-08-15). "Houston Catholic school enrollment strong and growing". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved 2020-06-06. 215 students - an increase of about 7 percent from last year.[...]Just 10 years ago, the school had 137 students;[...] - The source states Resurrection School is in the East End, but it is in Denver Harbor, which is not in the East End district.
  53. "History". Queen of Peace School. Retrieved 2020-05-30. 2320 Oakcliff Street, Houston, TX 77023 - Compare address to a map of the East End.
  54. Webb, Shelby (2020-04-21). "Low enrollment, drop in donations prompts closure of four Houston-area Catholic schools". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved 2020-05-30.
  55. "hpl locations." Houston Public Library. Retrieved on May 7, 2010.
  56. "Flores Neighborhood Library Archived 2010-01-27 at the Wayback Machine." Houston Public Library. Retrieved on May 7, 2010.
  57. "Melcher Neighborhood Library Archived 2010-04-18 at the Wayback Machine." Houston Public Library. Retrieved on May 7, 2010.
  58. "Stanaker Neighborhood Library Archived 2010-04-18 at the Wayback Machine." Houston Public Library. Retrieved on May 7, 2010.
  59. Berryhill, Michael. "East End Transit." Houston Press. Thursday November 27, 1997. 1. Retrieved on May 7, 2010.
  60. Ruiz, Rosanna. "`She was the epitome of love' / Mama Ninfa remembered for restaurants, legacy of faith." Houston Chronicle. Thursday June 21, 2001. Retrieved on February 6, 2012.

Further reading

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