torimask Posted February 15, 2015 Share Posted February 15, 2015 Put all of the 40+ screen grabs here for easy viewing: http://southbelthouston.blogspot.com/2015/02/houston-illustrated-few-facts-about.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mkultra25 Posted February 15, 2015 Share Posted February 15, 2015 That book is a great resource - it was featured in a blog post from the Woodson Research Center that I mentioned previously in a post that clearly wasn't too search-friendly (it took me a little while to find it): http://www.houstonarchitecture.com/haif/topic/31129-a-look-back-at-houston/ I've wondered where the "Brick & Tyle Works" was in the Heights - it was a fairly large industrial complex on a similarly-sized chunk of land. Lots more digitized Houston history stuff here, which you've probably already looked through: https://scholarship.rice.edu/handle/1911/20463/browse?type=title 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Reading Posted March 6, 2015 Share Posted March 6, 2015 This was incredibly interesting and useful for me. Thanks for posting this. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UtterlyUrban Posted April 11, 2015 Share Posted April 11, 2015 Here is an interesting write up abou the Waldo mansion. It may have been posted elsewhere but, if not, here it is........http://offcite.org/2015/04/09/how-the-waldo-mansion-moved-out-of-quality-hill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HardcoreHoustonian Posted June 10, 2018 Share Posted June 10, 2018 On 11/2/2009 at 10:40 AM, Heightsite said: Just thought I'd add my .02 for anyone researching their old house...our Heights house was built around 1894 but HCAD has 1920 on the records. I wasn't surprised to see that my address was not on the list Bees Knees posted. Many homes in our area are reported being built in 1920 for some unknown reason. My neighbor's dad was born in our home, so I knew it was built before 1900. Since I knew my neighbor's maiden name, I was able to look up residency by old phone books through the microfiche files at the downtown library. Unfortunately my quest ended at 1894 because they couldn't find previous year phone books on microfiche. When I first moved to the Heights I noticed all the 1920 build dates too. A neighbor suggested maybe the county didn't start keeping good records until after most of the houses were built. If it was 1945 for example, and they didn't know the build date but knew the house was at least 25 years old, they just listed it as 1920. My house and the two on either side were all listed as 1920. The other two houses were slightly wider than mine so pulling into the driveway meant a tight squeeze between two houses. My house being about 5' narrower left me with a wider driveway. My house probably was built around 1920, but the other two were probably built a couple of decades earlier, before owning a car was a consideration. Just a theory. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heightsite Posted June 10, 2018 Share Posted June 10, 2018 Since my original post, I found out that when the COH annexed The Heights, mostly all deeds were recorded as 1920. I’m guessing it was cost prohibitive and lack of records to assign actual dates. On a side note, since The Heights was its own city, it was never part of a ward. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ross Posted June 10, 2018 Share Posted June 10, 2018 10 minutes ago, Heightsite said: Since my original post, I found out that when the COH annexed The Heights, mostly all deeds were recorded as 1920. I’m guessing it was cost prohibitive and lack of records to assign actual dates. On a side note, since The Heights was its own city, it was never part of a ward. The City may not have issued permits then, which is the only real way to know the build date. I know that the house my granddad lived in on W 17th was build prior to 1911, because that's when they moved there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HardcoreHoustonian Posted June 11, 2018 Share Posted June 11, 2018 8 hours ago, Heightsite said: Since my original post, I found out that when the COH annexed The Heights, mostly all deeds were recorded as 1920. I’m guessing it was cost prohibitive and lack of records to assign actual dates. On a side note, since The Heights was its own city, it was never part of a ward. Deeds are recorded with the county. Unless that wasn't the case back then, wouldn't Heights properties have already been recorded since the 1890's? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HardcoreHoustonian Posted June 11, 2018 Share Posted June 11, 2018 17 minutes ago, HardcoreHoustonian said: Deeds are recorded with the county. Unless that wasn't the case back then, wouldn't Heights properties have already been recorded since the 1890's? I found this on the Texas State Library website so it's not that they weren't keeping records: The recording of deeds of trusts or mortgages has been required by law since 1846, initially in the Deed Record, but beginning in 1879 in the Deed of Trust or Mortgage Record. Like the companion Deed Record, the Deed of Trust Record must be indexed by law; in this instance, to mortgagor (direct) and mortgagee (reverse). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mollusk Posted June 11, 2018 Share Posted June 11, 2018 1920 was likely picked as an arbitrary place holder number when the tax records were computerized many moons ago, or maybe when HCAD and the other appraisal districts were created effective 1/1/1980. Building permits weren't required until some time in the 1940s or 50s, IIRC. One way to estimate when a house was built is to get the date stamps off of any original plumbing fixtures that may remain. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hindesky Posted February 15, 2021 Share Posted February 15, 2021 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ross Posted February 15, 2021 Share Posted February 15, 2021 One of the books I have on Houston has a picture of the French style house at 2016 Main after the 1895 storm. Pretty amazing. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ross Posted February 15, 2021 Share Posted February 15, 2021 A few pictures from the Chron https://www.chron.com/weather/article/Houston-record-snow-1895-15952020.php?IPID=Chron-HP-CP-Spotlight 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ross Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 Here's another story on the 1895 storm with more pictures. The post is 4 pages long, there's links at the bottom of the text https://spacecityweather.com/houston-snow-1895-galveston/ The chron.com link has some of the same stuff. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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