Bayou On Antoine Rd.

[Reefmonkey]

I was reading through Houston Press's series of blogs on the histories of different Houston neighborhoods ("The Changing Face of Houston") and in the entry on Oak Forest, I stumbled upon a surprising claim:

 

Longtime resident Elizabeth Mendez remembers how Oak Forest was 50 years ago,"My family bought our house in the early 1960s. At that point Antoine was a bayou and beyond that it was just pasture land. The bayou was filled in and became Antoine, one of the major streets in the area."

 

I don't know a lot about road building, I do know a bit more about stormwater management, but it seems like it would be a bad idea structurally as well as in terms of flood control, as well as prohibitively expensive to fill in a bayou and turn it into a road, so it is something that would not have been done even in the 1960s. Plus, Antoine runs pretty far west of what I think of as Oak Forest's western boundary. I know that White Oak Bayou runs through that area, and that East and West TC Jester Rds follow White Oak's course closely on either bank, so I wonder if that is what this woman is thinking of?

 

I'm going to put this question in the comments section of the Houston Press blog, but wondered if anyone here had any thoughts?

 

 

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/artattack/2014/09/the_changing_face_of_houston_-_oak_forest.php?page=2

[JLWM8609]

I was reading through Houston Press's series of blogs on the histories of different Houston neighborhoods ("The Changing Face of Houston") and in the entry on Oak Forest, I stumbled upon a surprising claim:

 

Longtime resident Elizabeth Mendez remembers how Oak Forest was 50 years ago,"My family bought our house in the early 1960s. At that point Antoine was a bayou and beyond that it was just pasture land. The bayou was filled in and became Antoine, one of the major streets in the area."

 

I don't know a lot about road building, I do know a bit more about stormwater management, but it seems like it would be a bad idea structurally as well as in terms of flood control, as well as prohibitively expensive to fill in a bayou and turn it into a road, so it is something that would not have been done even in the 1960s. Plus, Antoine runs pretty far west of what I think of as Oak Forest's western boundary. I know that White Oak Bayou runs through that area, and that East and West TC Jester Rds follow White Oak's course closely on either bank, so I wonder if that is what this woman is thinking of?

 

I'm going to put this question in the comments section of the Houston Press blog, but wondered if anyone here had any thoughts?

 

 

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/artattack/2014/09/the_changing_face_of_houston_-_oak_forest.php?page=2

Looking at historic aerial views and old topographic maps on historicaerials.com, there was a small creek, bayou, or drainage ditch that ran roughly parallel to Antoine between present day Long Point and I-10. It was filled in sometime in the 60s or 70s. You can see where it used to run here: https://www.google.com/maps/@29.798894,-95.475376,3a,66.4y,4.82h,71.48t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1s_54wa6LhYxr_A_8jUtxK-Q!2e0

[Highway6]

If you look on google earth historic aerials back to 1944, it does appear to show some drainage depressions flowing into White Oak  right where Antoine is.   Seems like she exaggerating or remembering incorrectly, but her statement does have a kernal of truth.

 

Also.. this could explain why Antoine is essentially a boulevard for the 4-5 blocks from Acorn to the bayou, if they were maintaining that drainage at some point.

 

 

 

Edited March 19, 2015 by Highway6

[plumber2]

I'm suspect box culverts were installed inside the ditch before it was filled in. The bayou is still there, just below grade and covered over.

[IronTiger]

Just north of Saxon Drive, you can visibly in Google Earth see a culvert between the Antoine bridges where water is dumped into the bayou.

[ADCS]

I was reading through Houston Press's series of blogs on the histories of different Houston neighborhoods ("The Changing Face of Houston") and in the entry on Oak Forest, I stumbled upon a surprising claim:

 

Longtime resident Elizabeth Mendez remembers how Oak Forest was 50 years ago,"My family bought our house in the early 1960s. At that point Antoine was a bayou and beyond that it was just pasture land. The bayou was filled in and became Antoine, one of the major streets in the area."

 

I don't know a lot about road building, I do know a bit more about stormwater management, but it seems like it would be a bad idea structurally as well as in terms of flood control, as well as prohibitively expensive to fill in a bayou and turn it into a road, so it is something that would not have been done even in the 1960s. Plus, Antoine runs pretty far west of what I think of as Oak Forest's western boundary. I know that White Oak Bayou runs through that area, and that East and West TC Jester Rds follow White Oak's course closely on either bank, so I wonder if that is what this woman is thinking of?

 

I'm going to put this question in the comments section of the Houston Press blog, but wondered if anyone here had any thoughts?

 

 

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/artattack/2014/09/the_changing_face_of_houston_-_oak_forest.php?page=2

 

Many cities derived parts of their sewer and stormwater management systems from enclosing small channels in the area. The River Fleet in London and Mill Creek in Philadelphia come to mind.

Edited March 30, 2015 by ADCS

[Reefmonkey]

Looking at the topo maps and aerial photos from between 1946 and 1983, I see what happened now. What this woman thought was a "bayou" was actually a long straight manmade drainage ditch dug to direct water out of a clay pit at the corner of what is now Antoine (originally named White Oak Road, then Mangum) and Acorn Street some time after 1946 but before 1953. The ditch extended all the way south to a very short tributary of Brickhouse Gully that was straightened and channelized when it became part of the drainage ditch.

The two roadways of what is now Antoine were built on either side of that drainage ditch some time prior to 1957. The drainage ditch looks like it still had earthen banks as late as 1962 or 1964, but by the 1966 aerial photo, it looks like the drainage ditch's banks might have been clad in concrete. That photo also appears to show the banks of Brickhouse Gully being concreted over. By the 1973 aerial photo, that process looks to be complete.

The 1970 topo shows the drainage ditch still running through the esplanade between the two roadways of Antoine Road (now under that name) all the way down to Brickhouse Gully as a boulevard with road lanes on either side of the drainage ditch. But that doesn't mean there was a perennial stream still there, by that time it might have become more of a dry swale except during heavy rain events. It's hard to really make out the ditch in most of the photos from the mid-60s through 70s due to the low resolution of the black and white aerial photos.

By the 1983 topo, the drainage ditch doesn't show up on the map at all. It looks like it was gone by the time the 1981 aerial photo was taken, replaced by flat grass esplanade, and possibly as early as 1976. Also, the clay pit is last seen on the 1970 topo, and 1973 is the first and last time it appears to hold any water. By the 1983 topo the clay pit it is not there, and successive aerial photos after 1973 seem to show it getting filled in and vegetating over. I'm guessing it had ceased to be an actively operating clay pit, and so the need to actively drain water from it went away. It probably became a dumping ground for spoil from other developments elsewhere.

Current aerial imagery shows a storm sewer outfall into Brickhouse Gully right between the two roadways for Antoine, coming out of the esplanade where the drainage ditch would have entered the gully. So sometime in the late 70s the drainage ditch was turned into an enclosed storm sewer.

 

 

It's interesting to see how road names in that area changed due to extensions and realignments over time. Antoine, when it only extended as far south as Acorn Street, was originally "White Oak Road", then by 1957 renamed "Mangum" - it made a 90 degree turn east to become Acorn Street, then another 90 degree turn south to  what's now Randon Road, which in the present day becomes Magnum south of 43rd Street. Also, before 1957, what is now 43rd Street which didn't run west of Randon Road, was called North Houston-Rosslyn Road. Now North Houston-Rosslyn Road only exists where it picks up from Bingle north of Little York. The 1946 map shows a "Rosslyn Road" continuing west of what's now Antoine 

Speaking of Rosslyn, the 1915, 1922, and 1932 maps show the town of Rosslyn with a regular grid of 9 streets by 9 streets between what's now Bingle and what's now Antoine, south of what's now Pinemont, and another 5 by 12 street grid attached to it slightly to the northwest. None of these streets show up on the 1946 map or later, or the 1950s aerial photos (and later roads don't follow the pre-war plan), so it looks like the town of Rosslyn was platted but never actually built.