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![CEC_Box46_Folder18_Founders[1]](http://houstonhistorymagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/CEC_Box46_Folder18_Founders1-e1363100805701.jpg "CEC_Box46_Folder18_Founders[1]")
Terry Hershey, Community, and Action
More than forty years ago, Terry Tarlton Hershey b [...]
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Galveston Bay
Galveston Bay is the most prominent geologic featu [...]
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The Spring Creek Greenway
This major green corridor, now close to 75% comple [...]
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TEJAS: Environmental Justice
“We’re not against jobs. But, wouldn’t you r [...]
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Frontier Texas Sculptor
Houston proudly showcases many works of art by Fra [...]
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The Romance of Absolute Truth
In 1901, Texas businessman, art patron, and amateu [...]
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Sam Houston Park
The history of Texas and the history of the city o [...]
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Protecting Our Green Heritage
The Spring issue of Houston History, “Protecting [...]
The Hall of Honor: Tier One Athletics
From its earliest days, the University of Houston rose to the top in athletics—not in football or basketball as you might expect, but in ice hockey. The team competed for the first time in 1934 against Rice Institute in the Polar Wave Ice Rink on McGowan Street. ...
Read MoreHiding in Plain Sight: The UH Public Art Collection and Blaffer Museum
As the University of Houston has made its push for Tier One status, what many people do not realize is that since the 1960s UH has been building a Tier One art collection that is one of the city’s best kept secrets. ...
Read MoreOur Treasured Oasis: Preparing for the Hermann Park Centennial
Houston’s Hermann Park has been a treasured oasis of green and blue in the heart of the city since its opening nearly a century ago. George H. Hermann, industrialist, real estate investor, and one of Houston’s first park commissioners, donated land for the park in June 1914, and his estate bequeathed additional acreage upon his death later in the year. Though hard to imagine today, at the time, the heavily forested area extended to Brays Bayou and had little development surrounding it, save for Rice Institute, established in 1912 on the edge of the prairie. ...
Read MoreSPARK PARKS Spark the Imagination
Although Houston may be known for its many cultural and art museums, the handiwork of local artists can also be found in a not-so-usual location – school and neighborhood SPARK Parks, which grew from one woman’s inspiration. ...
Read MoreEmancipation is a Park
During the summer between second and third grade, I fell hopelessly in love with cotton candy. That delicacy excelled as the most perfect experience in my then eight-year-old world. Watching it being made, then touching and finally tasting it was mesmerizing. The notion that a machine could spew out pink strands of sugar fascinated me. I recall the stickiness between my fingers as I snatched at bits of fluff from the huge ball of its sweetness. I remember these pink fluffs turning into red shards that I eagerly stuffed in my mouth. ...
Read MoreMoody Park: From the Riots to the Future for the Northside Community
Moody Park stands four miles north of downtown in the heart of what Houstonians now call the Near Northside, an area that grew up in the 1890s, largely around the Southern Pacific rail yards. Development of the Irvington Addition, where Moody Park is located, started in the 1920s and continued into the 1930s. European immigrants, including Italians, Germans, Poles, and Czechs, called the Irvington Addition home. The western edge of the thirty-five-acre park is bounded by Little White Oak Bayou, to the east is Fulton Street, to the north is the middle-class Silverdale community, and to the south is the Irvington Village Public Housing Project. ...
Read MoreMemorial Park: Nature’s 24 Hour Fitness
The first time I ever ran more than half a mile was during my freshman year at Dartmouth College when it seemed that half the campus was trying out for crew. I never made the team, but one of the things I took away from those weeks of training was a love of running. During one work-out session, the coach told us to do several sets of push-ups and run a three mile trail. It sounded torturous that someone would voluntarily run that distance. Being from Texas, I was not prepared for the difficulty of running the hills of New Hampshire or the effect of the cool weather on my lungs, so I lagged behind during that first run and probably walked about half of it. For the remainder of my four years, I regularly ran that same route along Rip Road, leaving me with some of my best memories. ...
Read MoreSquare Dance — Houston Style
Many people do not realize that a cultural phenomenon has revolved around square dancing in Houston for almost seventy years. Square dance is a folk dance with four couples positioned in a square. Couples 1 and 3 are known as head couples, and couples 2 and 4 are known as side couples. A caller, who does not usually participate in the dance, cues the dancers to complete various movements or steps, which they have learned previously. The sequence of steps varies with the song or pattern being called. The music may be anything from pop to country to Broadway musical or even rock, adding to square dancing’s broad appeal. ...
Read MoreThe River Oaks Theater: Saved From the Wrecking Ball?
For over seventy years the River Oaks Theater has operated at 2009 West Gray in Houston’s affluent River Oaks community. Although the theater has changed over the years, it remains an integral part of Houston, the city’s culture and history, and of the movie industry in the second half of the twentieth century. The River Oaks Theater was the tenth Interstate Theater to open in a seven-year period and one of the last Art Deco buildings constructed in the city. Other historic theaters have been closed and demolished. Like them, the River Oaks Theater has also found its existence threatened. ...
Read MorePostcards from Past Parks
Summer 1971: Driving from Quebec to Boston. Suzy and I slept in the Rambler last night on the side of a deserted road in the middle of Maine. No cars passed in the night, but a moose moseyed by early this morning. Today we made it to our first national park ever--Acadia, with its spectacular rugged shoreline. Great campground with a bottle of wine and neighbors playing Neil Young’s new Harvest album. Big kids loose in a big world. ...
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