When we conceived the idea for this issue almost a year ago, we planned to focus on examples of industrial accidents and environmental improvement. That was before Harvey hit.
Archive | 2017
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Lest We Forget – A Photo Essay of Houston Floods
Houston will become “ …beyond all doubt, the great interior commercial emporium of Texas.” Thus bragged the Allen brothers in an August 1836 advertisement. Thirteen months later rains from a hurricane in September 1837 flooded the city’s Main Street to a depth of four feet. This inundation did not deter the city from its predicted […]
Seeing Houston From the Bottom Up: Using Archeology and Archives to Reconstruct a Forgotten Houston Neighborhood
By Jason W. Barrett, Douglas K. Boyd, and Louis F. Aulbach Houston is a dynamic city with an amazing history. The stories written about its past, however, generally focus on the important people and big events that transformed the wilderness along Buffalo Bayou into a modern metropolis. The Allen brothers, steamship and railroad commerce, […]
The Texas City Disaster 1947: Changing Lives in a Heartbeat
By Cheryl Lauersdorf Ross On the morning of April 16, 1947, the SS Grandcamp, surrounded by refineries and chemical plants near the Texas City docks, exploded with a force compared to the Nagasaki atomic bomb, taking the lives of nearly 600 people and injuring thousands more. When a catastrophe like this strikes, reports focus on […]
Habitat for Humanity
Across Houston thousands of families live in substandard housing, for many of them the dream of owning a home is not something attainable. Habitat for Humanity allows Houstonians in such conditions the opportunity of being home owners. This article highlights that process and gives veritable stories of Habit home recipients.
The Day the Earth Shook: Crane Collapse
For author Laura Bernal, July 18, 2008 could have changed her life forever. Her father Martin Bernal was working at Lyondell-Basell when one of the world’s biggest cranes owned and operated by Deep South Crane & Rigging collapsed killing many of their workers. The article discusses what went wrong that day and the aftermath of […]
Air Alliance Houston
Houston’s air pollution has been an issue that has plagued our city for decades. Fast economic and demographic growth have all contributed to the problem. This article covers Debbie Z. Harwell’s interview with Air Alliance Houston’s executive director Bakeyah Nelson. She explains how Air Alliance works to better the air quality in Houston communities.
The Evolution of Houston Bookstores
By Aric Richardson An often overlooked and swiftly fading part of our regional culture is the Houston bookstore. In the 1860s early bookshops in Houston were not only purveyors of books, but were also the main source of printing, news delivery, and music. But what has happened to the bookselling industry between then and […]
Nina Vance & the Alley Theatre
The Alley Theatre has gone through many stages since its creation by founder Nina Vance. This article covers the story about how today’s Alley Theatre came to be in its location on Texas Avenue and the influence that Nina Vance had on the design of the current building.
Attention to Detail: The Architecture of Lucian T. Hood, Jr.
Legendary architect Lucian T. Hood had a career that spanned more than three decades, and style that transcended the modernism of the 1950s and the conservatism of the 1980s. His attention to detail created a reputation that garnered the attention of Houston’s famous and wealthy, designing houses in River Oaks, Riverside Terrace, and Memorial Villages.