Bayou City History -- Houston

Moving history

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.G.) — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 18:45:00 +0000

OK, here's the scoop. BCH has moved to chron.com.

Why? Well, head on over to the new BCH and find out!

Houston during the Civil War

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.G.) — Wed, 30 May 2007 20:39:00 +0000

I've put a link to a file on my personal Web site that briefly summarizes how Houston fared during the Civil War.

The one-page document, which comes from a city directory published just after the war, doesn't go into much detail. In essence, it says the city was doing pretty well until the war started. Once fighting began, Houston didn't suffer as much as other Southern cities, but much of the city's growth was stunted. As the war came to a close, residents seemed eager to resume development.

***

A few days back, BCH logged its 10,000th visit. Since I've returned to Houston, site visits have increased month after month. Not bad for a little blog detailing Houston's past! Thanks to everyone who keeps checking in. Your comments/suggestions are always welcome.

***

In other news, expect some changes around here early next month. Watch this space.

A stop to street-spitting

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.G.) — Tue, 22 May 2007 18:15:00 +0000

People who spit on the street kill more people than criminals who walk the streets, according to Dr. P. H. Scardino, Houston's health officer.

In a statement released Dec. 12, 1917, Scardino was concerned about tuberculosis, which is spread through the air from one person to another. According to the CDC, the bacteria are put into the air when a person with active TB disease of the lungs or throat coughs or sneezes. People nearby may breathe in these bacteria and become infected.

Scardino was particularly concerned about spreading the disease through spitting. He was especially critical of Houston police officers, as well.

"One thing that stands out strongly in the city of Houston is the promiscuous spitting on the sidewalks, and I say it to the shame of our police officers that I have often seen them do this themselves and absolutely make no effort to prevent others from doing so," Scardino said, as reported in the Houston Post.

Scardino even placed a priority on catching those who should spit on the sidewalks.

"I personally feel that it would be far better for the police officers to prevent people from spitting on sidewalks, street cars and in other public places than to catch a burglar or common criminal, for the man who spits on the sidewalks and in other public places eventually kills more people by the transmission of the disease than all the criminals of the world combined have ever killed," he said.

Scardino's said that because it was winter more people would likely suffer from colds and other ailments. Therefore, immediate care was recommended to prevent something like tuberculosis from becoming an epidemic.

Check your attic...again

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.G.) — Sun, 20 May 2007 15:33:00 +0000

Sunday's Chronicle has a story about renovation work going on at the 1910 Harris County Courthouse. The $65 million restoration will take three years. The courthouse is slated to reopen Nov. 15, 2010 — 100 years after it first opened.

The county isn't sure what the interior looked like prior to the building's renovation in 1954. Anyone with photos or recollections of the interior prior to that year can contact Dan Reissig, special projects manager in the county's architectural and engineering division, at 713-755-5370 or dreissig@pid.hctx.net.

Houston History Mystery VI: The case of the missing trophy

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.G.) — Thu, 17 May 2007 02:36:00 +0000

This is more of a Texas mystery, but this does have a small Houston connection.

In early May 1898, the Hernsheim Trophy went on display at Brown & Wolf on Main Street. The trophy pictured here was awarded to the 1897 Texas League pennant winners.

I contacted Bill O'Neal, noted author of a number of books on Texas and the West, including a book on the Texas League. He was unaware of the trophy and its whereabouts.

I'm not even sure who Hernsheim was.

I'm tempted to believe the trophy is lost.

Taking a tumble

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.G.) — Mon, 14 May 2007 18:27:00 +0000

The April 25, 1850, edition of The Democratic Telegraph and Texas Register mentions a tumble Judge Wheeler took off the second story of "the old City Hotel."

(Newspapers back then were notorious for not publishing first names. This could be a reference to Texas Chief Justice Royal T. Wheeler, but I'm not so sure.)

On April 16, Wheeler was attending a meeting of the Sons of Temperance at their room on the hotel's third floor.

"On descending to the second story, he walked out upon the piazza, supposing he was on the sidewalk a story below, and there being no railing he inadvertently walked off, falling about ten feet upon the pavement."

Suffering only a few bruises, Wheeler was able to take a boat to return to his family in Galveston.

The paper noted it was the third such accident at the hotel, "owing to the culpable negligence of the owners of the building to construct a railing along the piazza."

Then came the punchline:

"It is perhaps fortunate that the Sons of Temperance occupy the upper room, for if the devotees of intemperance were accustomed to meet there, the accidents of this kind might have occurred much more frequently."

The paper went on to mention another man that fell while trying to get a drink at the hotel.

"Jumping up, he cast an angry glance...cursed the high steps, and coolly walked over to get his glass of bitters."

Opening night at the Alabama

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.G.) — Thu, 10 May 2007 20:27:00 +0000

Since the Alabama Theater has been in the news lately, I figured now is a great time to take a look at when it opened. I did a similar write-up on the opening of the River Oaks Theater that you can check out here.

The Alabama Theater opened Nov. 2, 1939, to some fanfare that included fireworks, city leaders and the Elkadettes.

While River Oaks leaders touted their theater as being "Houston's safest neighborhood theatre," the Alabama was advertised as having free parking, ticket prices ranging from 10 to 25 cents, and a Popeye Club for kids on Saturday morning at 9 a.m.

The theater opened with the the 1939 film "Man About Town," starring Jack Benny and Dorothy Lamour.

"The brightly-clad Elkadettes, girls drum and bugle corps sponsored by the Elks Club, furnished music for the occasion and the fireworks and giant searchlights gave the festivities the atmosphere of a Hollywood premiere," the Houston Post wrote.

Mayor Oscar F. Holcombe and County Judge Roy Hofheinz attended opening ceremonies. Others on hand included representatives from the major motion picture studios of the time.

Among the theater's features:

Extra-wide seats cushioned in the new bubble-foam sponge rubber

Broadloom carpeting on the floors

An 86-foot neon sign

New developments on the River Oaks shopping center can be found over at Houstonist.

Check your attic

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.G.) — Wed, 09 May 2007 06:30:00 +0000

Do you have any photos or memorabilia pertaining to Glenwood Cemetery?

If so, the Glenwood Cemetery Historic Preservation Foundation might want to have a word with you.

The foundation recently commissioned a book on the history of Houston's historic cemetery. An author has already been chosen and the book is expected to be published by fall 2008.

"We are seeking historic photographs, diaries, letters, programs, catalogues, deeds, maps, receipts, documents and ANY other memorabilia that depict or mention Glenwood Cemetery and its grounds, monuments and statuary, including sculptors, architects and landscape architects whose work is represented here," according to a foundation e-mail recently forwarded to me by Houston Arts and Media.

For more information, contact the cemetery at 713-864-7886.

A hanging in Waller County

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.G.) — Sun, 06 May 2007 07:22:00 +0000

The May 1, 1897, edition of the Houston Post pieced together reports of a hanging that occurred in Waller County, just outside Sunny Side.

"Dangling from the limbs of a large oak tree are the bodies of six negroes, limp and lifeless," the Post reported. "The scene of this horrible picture is one mile north of Sunnyside and sixteen miles from here."

The article goes in detail to describe the location of the tree. Who knows if it still exists?

"The large tree is on the public road from Sunnyside to Pattison and for years to come this tree will be pointed by passersby as a tree with the records of having held at one and the same time the bodies of six men executed by popular fury, commonly called 'Judge Lynch.'"

Of the six that were hanged, four were brothers and three were teenagers.

They were:
Fayette Rhoan, 21
Will Gates, 35
Louis Thomas, 20
Aaron Thomas, 13
Jim Thomas, 14
Benny Thomas, 15

The six were suspected in the death of Henry Daniels, his stepdaughter Marie Daniels, and a 7-year-old child.

So what led up to the killings?

On April 28, Daniels' Waller County home was burglarized. "Marie Daniels and the 7-year-old child were ravished and old man Daniels clubbed to death, trying to protect those in his charge."

The Post said the child was thrown into a well. Authorities noted her skull had been smashed. The other two were left in a house that was set on fire.

Local authorities, with the help of "bloodhounds from Steele's plantation" helped in finding the Thomas brothers.

The brothers confessed, the article reported, and they implicated others that were believed to be involved in the crime. The men were being held to await an examining trial, but a mob surprised the officers and took the men to the oak tree. A seventh person, Willie Williams, was also taken by the mob, but his whereabouts were unknown.

"As far as can be learned, the mob was composed of white and black men, with the colored element largely predominating.

"Tonight, there is calm after the storm and public opinion is almost universal that if the right parties were apprehended no harm was done."

Apparently, the suspects had previously known Daniels; it did not appear to be a random crime.

The Post said that a Brenham man had been robbed months earlier of $65 (about $1518 in today's dollars). Of that, $30 ($700) was given to Henry Daniels.

"Daniels spent the money, and on Sunday evening last the four Thomas
boys, according to their confessions yesterday, decided to either collect their $30 or kill Daniels."

Word of what had happened in Waller County made its way to Houston by passenger train. Many of the passengers said there had been a great deal of commotion in Hempstead over the hanging.

The article concluded:

"The white citizens of Hempstead, it is said, are upholding the negroes who did the hanging."

Wild over wireless

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.G.) — Sat, 05 May 2007 07:50:00 +0000

You'd think the above Houston Press headline is about the city's plan to install a city-wide Wi-Fi network, eh?

Ending out Radio Week here at BCH is a new blog on Houston radio history called, well, Houston Radio History. The last few entries have seen some interesting posts on the early days of radio from before WWII. Check it out when you get the chance.

A chat with an author

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.G.) — Tue, 01 May 2007 06:26:00 +0000

Christopher Varela informs me that more copies of his book, "Kotton, Port, Rail Center: A History of Early Radio in Houston" is available for purchase.

Anyone wanting a copy can send $21 to:

Christopher Varela
P.O. Box 12810
Houston, TX 77217-2810

Copies are also available the city's visitors center inside City Hall for $16.95. For questions, contact Varela at cvarela2@juno.com.

"Kotton, Port, Rail Center" mostly covers Houston's broadcasting history from the prewar period of WWI to the formation of KPRC and KTRH and other AM stations. Much detail -- most of it available in a book for the first time -- is given to those early amateur radio enthusiasts who helped shape local broadcasting as we know it.

I recently posed some questions for Varela based on his book:

Q: How did you get the idea for a book on Houston's early radio history?

A: I got the idea for the book back in the mid-1990s when I had a conversation with a co-worker who is an amateur radio operator and a historian on radio broadcasting in Houston. I chose to condense my book to the "antique age" of broadcasting before 1930 because I felt that it would be a forgotten part of history and few historians would be interested in documenting it.

Q: What was the most surprising thing you discovered?

A: One of the things that surprised me was the distance these amateur radio operators and first broadcasting stations were reaching. Family legend has it that William John Uhalt of New Orleans, and who would later install station KTUE in Houston, was receiving the faint distress SOS signals from the Titanic as she was sinking some hundreds of miles away in April of 1912. Other Houston amateurs were reaching Europe and the Hawaiian Islands. Given good, atmospheric conditions, Houston's first broadcasting stations could be heard around the nation and into Latin America and Canada. No wonder broadcasting was viewed as an excellent attention getting gimmick at the time. I was also surprised how intimately related radio technology was to television. Without radio, there would be no television and some of pioneer radio broadcasters would go on to invent television. Radio stations KPRC, KTRH and KXYZ of Houston had some of the city's first television licenses. But only KPRC-TV (Channel 2) would realize this next evolutionary step of radio technology.

Q: Your book mentions Howard Hughes' involvement in amateur radio. Was he particularly instrumental to the history of radio in Houston?

A: Howard Hughes had little direct influence to Houston's broadcasting movement. But as an amateur radio operator during the late 1910s, he had the finest radio equipment with an ever-supporting father. Being the fact that he would go on to become a famed 20th century figure, the stories I have in my book of his amateur radio hobby in Houston just add more texture to the history. In 1920, Hughes' father would donate a radio set to the Rice University for its budding amateur radio activity. From this, Rice University's broadcasting station WRAA would briefly sign on in 1923.

Q: Local radio pioneers like Clifford Vick, Jimmie Autry and Will Horwitz have largely been forgotten when discussing Houston history. Is it safe to say Vick and Horwitz were local celebrities in their time?

A: Yes, these broadcasting pioneers were hailed as local heroes during the 1920s. Even as an amateur radio operator, Clifford Vick was recognized as a hero by the Houston Chronicle when he reported up-to-date information on a hurricane which struck the lower Texas gulf coast in 1919. These radiomen introduced an exciting new medium to the Houston public. I would equate their popularity to that of a star athlete or other prominent figure.

Q: I was surprised to learn how much the local business community became involved in radio just after WWI. There were licenses issued for the Houston Chronicle (WFAL), the Houston Post (WEAY) and the Levy Brothers Dry Goods company (WPAN). It sort of seems like the mid-1990s when every business tried to set up its own Web site.

A: Back in the early 1920s, the sole purpose one would establish a broadcasting station was to "advertise" an agenda, whether it be to sell radio sets, air an event from one's venue, or bring one's radio knowledge to light. As you have stated before, it is reminiscent of the World Wide Web craze we have now where one sets up a website to bring ideas to public domain.

Q: In general, how did Houstonians react to those early days of broadcasting?

A: Houstonians reacted to broadcasting with extreme acceptance. To have a radio receiving set in the 1920s would be like having the best HDTV today with a state-of-the-art stereo system connected. As you can see in my book, newspapers, the general public, musicians, public figures, entertainers and the hotel industry gravitated to broadcasting.

Q: Anything else you are working on?

A: I am currently not working on anything concrete. Just ideas that I am developing. Like you, I am looking for stories of Houston's past that have been forgotten or overlooked.

70 years ago

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.G.) — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 06:27:00 +0000

This is the Houston Post radio guide from April 28, 1937.

Houston's safest neighborhood theatre

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.G.) — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 06:35:00 +0000

With today's news that the city will move to designate the River Oaks Shopping Center, the River Oaks Theatre and the Alabama Bookstop as city landmarks, now would be a good time to roll out some information on when the theater opened.

The movie house opened on Nov. 28, 1939, with the Oscar-nominated "Bachelor Mother," starring David Niven, as the first film to be shown at the theater.

About half a page of ads in that day's Houston Post offered congratulations and best wishes to the theater and its operators. One business, Monarch Cleaners on Shepherd Drive, offered all-night service and allowed theater patrons to drop off or pick up their clothes anytime after the show.

The advertisement above described the River Oaks theater as "Houston's newest and safest neighborhood theatre."

The theater's operators promised:

"Pictures shown at the River Oaks will be carefully selected from the lists of all producers for good taste, high entertainment value, suitability for family audiences. Films to be shown at the River Oaks will be selected with your children in mind."

Opening ceremonies featured Houston Mayor Oscar F. Holcombe; Hugh Potter, president of the River Oaks Association; H.F. Pettigrew, of Pettigrew and Worley, who designed the theater; Buck Wynn Jr., who designed the interior; and Paul Scott, theater operator and manager.

A Post article touting the theater's opening mentioned a couple of architectural features:

"The seating arrangement provides wide spaces between the rows so that patrons will not be disturbed with the arrival or departure of others."

"Mr. Potter pointed out that the design of the theater has been conditioned to its location, in a grove of tall oak trees adjoining a residential neighborhood. The building is low so as to conform to a proposed adjoining structure which will contain additional store spaces and office facilities for the River Oaks Shopping Center."

The theater seated about 1,000 patrons.

The balcony stairway was lit with a continuous tube embedded in an aluminum hand rail. "The interior and exterior lighting reflect advancements presented for the first time this year at the New York and San Francisco fairs."

"Bas reliefs to the left and right of the stage are outstanding decorative features of the theater. Said to be the largest castings of their kind in the South, the bas reliefs portray the land and the sea. The work of Mr. Wynn, they have caused considerable favorable comment from artists and sculptors."

On Thursday

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.G.) — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 16:41:00 +0000

Houston Arts and Media is holding its spring fundraiser Thursday from 6 - 9 p.m. at the Saint Arnold Brewery, 2522 Fairway Park Dr. At their Web site is a list of the dozens of items that will be up for auction that evening. Admission is $20.

Never heard of Houston Arts and Media? They're involved a number of projects related to Houston history. One is the Houston Neighborhood Series, which is a series of books that chronicles the history of specific areas of the city.

The other is an ongoing effort to get the oral histories of longtime Houstonians. The recordings collected are handed over to the Houston Public Library and the local universities for preservation.

"Live at Five" turns 30

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.G.) — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 18:54:00 +0000

KTRK has the first broadcast of the 5 p.m. news show available for viewing. It originally aired on April 18, 1977.

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=stationinfo&id=5223619

Abandoned near Austin Street

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.G.) — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 04:13:00 +0000

Tucked inside the Dec. 19, 1897, edition of the Houston Post was a story about an 11-month-old boy abandoned by his mother.

J.H. Wells, a hack driver, said that on Dec. 8, between 6 and 7 p.m., a "well-dressed woman got off the train and engaged his carriage."

While on Congress Avenue, between Austin and LaBranch, she stopped the carriage and asked the driver to go inside a nearby store to buy some ribbons.

When Wells returned, the woman was gone and the baby was left behind.

The Post reported that if the parents of the child could not be found, the State Superintendent of Homes for Homeless Children "will find a home for it in a Christian family."

New for 1897

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.G.) — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 00:20:00 +0000

In 1897, the Houston Post published a series of sketches of buildings that were either under construction or slated for construction. The Frank Dunn store, located at Franklin and Milam, was one of them.

Looking right

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.G.) — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 07:06:00 +0000

I added a couple of new items to the blog's right column. Under "File Cabinet," you'll see a link to a 1913 map of Houston.

Under the "Links Section" is a direct link to the Bob Bailey photo archive. In case you ever wanted to know what the inside of the old Yale Theater looked like, well, now you know!

Look! Up in the sky!

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.G.) — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 04:57:00 +0000

It's a lighted airplane!

Well, at least that's what hundreds of Houstonians thought on March 13, 1918.

The Houston Post reported that someone said "lighted airplanes" were doing stunts over the city at about 11 p.m. that night.

"And as a result, hundreds of persons spent several foolish minutes looking at the stars, under the impression that they were lighted airships from Ellington Field," the paper reported.

(You know, I can't even begin to imagine an era when lighted airplanes gave cause to assemble and look toward the sky.)

Well, one person was certain the planes were doing loops.

"He explained that the sudden disappearance of the light was when the machine turned at the upper turn of the loop," according to the Post.

Most people believed that "until it began to dawn upon the minds of a few that the lights seen were stars and someone discovered that the clouds floating across the sky made these lights disappear and then appear again."

The article ended with a Prohibition reference:

"One disgusted star gazer gave it as his opinion that it was about time that the 10-mile zone law or a bone dry law should be passed right soon."

Skipping school

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.G.) — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 17:30:00 +0000

The March 14, 1918, Houston Post had a small, funny little story tucked inside its pages about a group of students who decided to skip school and go swimming.

I can't say with any kind of certainty where they decided to hang out, but I have an idea. Don't hesitate to offer your own ideas, too.

"All of this happened in the bayou, near the Katy crossing on the North Side," the article stated.

Well, the Katy is known as the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Co. railroad. The Katy crossing could be where it cross the bayou -- "North Side" indicating it could be where the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Co. railroad crossed White Oak Bayou.

If that's true, then we're talking about the area just east of Stude Park, on the other side of Studemont/Studewood.

Anyway, back to the story.

"The boys had their lunches -- intended to have been eaten at recess -- and -- well, who wanted a bathing suit anyway?"

So the boys swam, ate and eventually got thirsty.

"The boys decided that the few docile milch cows grazing along the side of the stream should furnish the 'drinks' for the banquet."

The cows didn't mind, but the same could not be said for the farmers.

"Then the trouble started," the article went on. "The North Side folks of the neighborhood do not object to boys swimming in the pool, but they certainly become irascible when someone milks their cows before dinner. A call for the police was phoned in."

Once police arrived, the boys fled, never to be found.

A different kind of red-light issue (2 of 3)

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.G.) — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 07:45:00 +0000

(Catch up with part 1 here.)

So why was Houston's segregated vice district created?

According to a report by the city's ordinance committee, the city had received numerous complaints from residents of the First and Second wards and the school system.

"There exists at the present time in our city a most deplorable state of affairs with reference to these women," the 1908 report stated. "This unfortunate state of affairs has not existed in Houston until lately."

The committee's report hints at an unofficial vice district that previously existed in the city:

"During a great number of years, probably as many as 25 years, the majority of these women lived to the exclusion of other residents within a district or reservation which, while not declared by law or ordinance, existed in fact."

Actions by the courts and the state Legislature did away with that older vice district and caused many prostitutes to spread throughout the city, which eventually led to the complaints.

But in advocating the creation of the segregated vice district, the committee concluded that:

"The successful and permanent exclusion of prostitution from the limits of a city the size of Houston is impossible. It is a fact of general knowledge that the successful permanent exclusion of prostitution from any city of large size has never occurred in the history of the world...."

Kicking prostitutes out of the city limits would "form clusters on the outskirts of the city, most probably on the principal avenues and street car lines leading out of the city. Electric transit has carried a large portion of the residences of the people to the outskirts of the city. These citizens would have these offensive establishments brought in close contact to their homes and would have the lines of street car communication to their homes ruined by the presence of immoral men and women."

And what about those Fourth Ward residents living near the vice district?

"The district selected is considered from all points of view the best selection that could have been made. The property is of very little value and will be increased rather than diminished in value by the ordinance. No public school is situated in or near it, nor is there any occasion for school children to pass through it in going to school. It is not situated on any public thoroughfare in general use and largely the land is vacant and unoccupied by residents and is of little value, situated in the bends of the bayou and cut up by gullies."

Think about that the next time you drive down Allen Parkway near Eleanor Tinsley Park.

Actually, the whole idea of a segregated vice district wasn't exactly new to anyone. Chicago, New Orleans and Des Moines, Iowa, were a few of the cities to have their own districts. In Texas, "Guy Town" in Austin, "Frogtown" and "Boggy Bayou" in Dallas, the Utah Street reservation in El Paso, "Hell's Half Acre" in Fort Worth, the Post Office Street district in Galveston, the "District" in San Antonio, and "Two Street" in Waco were each of those town's vice districts, according to the Handbook of Texas.

Houston's was referred to as "Happy Hollow."

But as the city geared for war and as attention turned elsewhere, the city's vice district would come to a close in about 10 years. By that time, according to the Handbook of Texas, 60 percent of the women who led households of prostitutes in the vice reservation were Anglo, 35 percent black, and 5 percent Hispanic.

Streetcar shooting

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.G.) — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 07:17:00 +0000

It happened somewhere near Tuam and Albany streets.

On March, 11, 1918, a person the Houston Post described as a "demented negro" reportedly shot two men during an altercation on a streetcar.

The suspect, W.H. Thompson, believed the car's conductor, R.N. Wells, was trying to sprinkle "hoodoo" powder on him.

The trouble started when the man tried to leave the streetcar before it came to a stop. When the conductor objected, the man replied, "You can't work no spells on me."

By this time, the streetcar was at Taft and Fairview, the Post reported.

A few blocks later, near Tuam and Albany, the man fired a gun at Wells, striking him in the shoulder.

Wells jumped from the streetcar. At the same time, an outbound streetcar also came to a stop at the intersection.

George Wilson, an engineer at the Home of the Good Shepherd, was a passenger on the outbound car. When he and all the other passengers learned what was going on, he chased Thompson. During that time, Thompson fired again, striking Wilson in the shoulder.

As a mob of passengers gave chase, Thompson was able to flee into a home on Whitney Street, where he called police and surrendered.

Hearing gunfire, many residents in the area came out armed with weapons as well.

Both Wells and Wilson were taken to St. Joseph's Infirmary and treated for minor injuries.

Thompson, who had been tried about a year earlier for attempting to assault a woman in the 200 block of Hathaway (now Westheimer), was arrested and charged with two counts of assault to murder.

August 19, 1965

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.G.) — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 22:40:00 +0000

A different sort of red-light issue (1 of 3)

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.G.) — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 15:12:00 +0000

On March, 30, 1908, Houston City Council passed an ordinance establishing a segregated vice district.

The Houston Post reported the move was in response to the petitions of several residents throughout the city that action needed to be done to "relieve their surroundings of the immoral element that has overflowed from the places formally understood to be set apart for them."

The City Council resolution states that "such houses are scattered throughout the city and in many cases in residence sections and in the neighborhood of public schools." It went on to conclude that prostitution was creating a "menace to public order and decency, to the sanctity of the home and to the moral welfare of the young."

So where was this segregated vice district?

Rather than list the convoluted boundaries City Council created, I've drawn it out on various maps. This is a Sanborn Fire Insurance map from 1907. Look familiar?

Of course, it's the Fourth Ward. Long before Buffalo Drive, which later became Allen Parkway. The area, made up of mostly scattered dwellings inhabited by blacks, later became San Felipe Courts and the Allen Parkway Village apartments.

Here's how the area looked in 1913:

Note that the district's boundaries changed somewhat between 1907 and 1913. By 1911, the district expanded slightly to include the intersection of Howard and Lamb streets.

As you'd likely guess, hardly any of the streets that made up the sex district exist today with the exception of Crosby, Lamb Street and Nash Street. Both Lamb and Nash barely exist as streets today, as this next image shows:

Once enacted, the ordinance made it illegal for anyone to rent, lease or hire any house, building or room to any female "notoriously abandoned to lewdness, or for immoral purposes" outside the district.

It also was illegal for prostitutes to stand on the sidewalks near the premises, to beckon any person walking by, to walk around the city indecently attired or "to behave in public as to occasion scandal or disturb or offend the peace and good morals of the people."

Hauled into court (part 2 of 2)

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.G.) — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 16:57:00 +0000

So whatever happened to Paul Grosse?

Well, in the months following his arrest for allegedly violating the nation's espionage act, Grosse's case was to be referred to a federal grand jury when it met in mid-March 1918.

But all that likely changed when U.S. Judge William B. Sheppard heard details about the case against Charles Meitzen of Fayetteville.

Meitzen, indicted for violating the espionage act, went to trial in Sheppard's court.

Prosecutors accused Meitzen of:

* Making a false statement (and thereby promoting the success of the enemy) by saying that when Americans are drafted, they won't have to go overseas

* Causing disloyalty by saying, "Whoever volunteers is a ... "

* Obstructing recruitment efforts by advising men to not volunteer but wait for the draft

After testimony finished, Sheppard dismissed the jury and allowed federal prosecutors to explain why Sheppard warranted prosecution.

The Houston Post reported that Sheppard said Meitzen would have had to make his remarks directly at a soldier in order to try the case under the espionage act. The judge brought the jury back and instructed them to return a verdict of not guilty against Sheppard because the evidence failed the support the case.

Prosecutors first brought Meitzen's case to court because they believed it was the strongest among all the other espionage cases.

Seeing what he thought was his best case of espionage fall apart, District Attorney John Green Jr. wanted to have the charges withdrawn in all the other espionage cases pending before the court, the paper reported.

Grosse, whose case was headed to the grand jury, likely had his charges withdrawn, as well.