|
|
Does this look
like a ghost town to you?
Photo Courtesy Ken
Rudine, May 2010 |
Photographer's
Note:
North Houston is on or near the same railroad
as Louetta and Kohrville.
The area is now known as Willowood. The pictured area is on Fallbrook
near the intersection with FM249 housing a volunteer fire department
and sheriff's office. I always thought a nearby road named N Houston-Rosslyn
was a road headed a compass direction from Rosslyn (near Highway 290
and W 43rd St.) But like so many area roads they are named for the
termination points. - Ken
Rudine, May 2010 |
History in
a Pecan Shell
While
most communities fight annexation, the residents here actually asked
Houston to include them
(as an election ward) after they were left stranded by a hurricane
in the early days of the 20th century.
It was first known as Tomball to honor the man the present
city of Tomball is named after. When
a rival railroad named their station Tomball
in 1907, the town then took the name of Scoville (orign unknown).
A post office opened under that name in for about one year – starting
in 1908. In 1910 the post office was replaced by the North Houston
post office (which closed in 1928).
Mail was thereafter rerouted through Fairbanks.
The town of North Houston had but a single store in 1914 and remained
in that underdeveloped state through the Great Depression. The Handbook
of Texas reports that in the 1980s, all that remained of North Houston
were “two abandoned railroad stations and a few scattered dwellings.” |
 |
Harris County
1920s map showing North Houston
(Click on image to enlarge)
From Texas state map #10749
Courtesy
Texas General Land Office |
The "Lost"
Towns of NW Harris County:
Kohrville | Louetta
| North Houston | Satsuma
If these are ghost towns, why are there so many people here?
Although they now only exist as sign names at large intersections
(Barker-Cypress, Bammel-North Houston, Aldine-Bender, Alief-Clodine,
et. al.). It may surprise non-natives that all of these names once
represented once struggling or proudly self-sufficient towns. Even
the inside-the-loop street of Crosstimbers was once a separate town.
While most people associate ghost
towns with ruins and desolation - these ghosts live among us.
Were aisles seven and eight at your local HEB once a syrup mill? Was
Radio Shack once a livery stable? Best Buy a cornfield or cotton gin?
Are there unmarked graves under the floor of your favorite Mexican
restaurant?
The short answer is this: In many cases these villages were already
ghost towns - or so close to being ghost towns that you could hardly
tell the difference. Most had their life-blood drained from them after
WWII with the
migration of rural families to Houston.
The phenomenon was statewide. Dallas
and Ft. Worth have
their fair share of postwar "absorbed" ghost towns - as do smaller
cities.
Then "Edge City" happened. The relentless march of strip centers,
subdivisions and gated communities overtook these former towns until
only the names and cemeteries remained.
While the subject is worthy of further investigation (exactly where
is the Lily White cemetery behind Memorial City Shopping Center?),
we're happy to include this topic, made possible by generous grant
of time, sweat and reseach by the Team
Rudine.
- Editor
"15
Minutes of Separation" May
12, 2010 column |
| Texas
Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing
Texas, asks that anyone wishing to share their local history, stories,
landmarks and recent or vintage photos, please contact
us. |
|
|
HOME
Texas
Gulf Coast
East
Texas
Central
Texas North
Central
Texas South
Texas
Panhandle
South
Texas
Texas
Hill Country
West
Texas
Texas
Ghost Towns
Texas
Counties
