Historic Houston Street Signage

[tmariar]

From Marks Hinton's book Historic Houston Streets: The Stories Behind the Names (2006):

"In River Oaks, Houston Heights and Montrose, to mention a few older neighborhoods, some streets still have their name and block number in tile on the curb at the end of each block. The city began using this form of identification in the 1920s and carried the practice into the early 1950s. It was cheap, attractive, durable and easy to read. Unfortunately, the growing popularity of the automobile brought an end to this naming practice. Drivers were going faster and found that street signs on poles were easier to read at higher speeds. Today while a number of these relics remain in pristine condition, most are in various states of deterioration. Age, contact with automobiles and trucks, repaving, recurbing, name changes and destruction for handicapped access at corners have all taken their toll on this pleasant reminder of Houston

[Subdude]

I remember the four-sided concrete posts. When I lived in the Heights someone said that they were phased out because not only were they hard to read, but because they would do a lot more damage to a car that jumped the curb than would a regular metal post street sign.

[Vertigo58]

I remember the four-sided concrete posts. When I lived in the Heights someone said that they were phased out because not only were they hard to read, but because they would do a lot more damage to a car that jumped the curb than would a regular metal post street sign.

Reminds me as kids we tried to balance and actually sit on em. You could with just one cheek at a time.

Scary to think about now.

[brerrabbit]

Interestingly enough I know where the final resting place for a ton of these things are. Back in the early eighties before they built Moody Gardens in Galveston I used to go wade fishing with a few of my friends at the airport in Galveston right where Moody Gardens sits today. There was a reef that runs the length of Offats Bayou and we would wade out and catch trout and Redfish there. As we would wade out you had to be careful as you did because there were a bunch of the old concrete sign posts in the water. Apparently when they were doing work on one of the airport runways they needed to shore up the edge of the water and they used concrete rubble. I guess their need coincided with Houstons decision to take out the old sign posts and so they used them as fill in Galveston. Also another place we waded a lot on the seawall had a huge hole with some sort of concrete chunks lining it and it could have very well been the same thing. The hole was at 14th street right in front of the surf shop that was there.

[SunKing]

... there were a bunch of the old concrete sign posts in the water. ...their need coincided with Houstons decision to take out the old sign posts and so they used them as fill in Galveston.

Interesting info - thanks. I guess a few of the old signs survived - I know there were still a few in Garden Oaks when I was living there (until '04).

[dbigtex56]

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