On September 2, 2002 a group of city officials and Houston’s then-mayor, Lee P. Brown, solidified the fate of an abandoned brick building at 1300 Victor Street in Freedmen’s Town Historic District. Through a significant restoration effort, Fourth Ward’s late-1920s-era African-American elementary school, vacant since 1984, was to become a dual-purpose cultural center and research […]
By Silvia Celeste Martinez What is the current building trend in Houston? Adaptive reuse of buildings has become increasingly popular in an effort to preserve existing structures and simultaneously adapt their function to their communities’ needs. Since preservation activist Minnette Boesel wrote “Historic Preservation in Houston… a History?” which appeared in The Houston Review of […]
By Emily Vinson The KUHT television program People are Taught to be Different had the noble aim of improving intercultural understanding, and showing viewers that people are, at their core, much the same. Against a simple stage setting, elegant dancers interpreted moments of joy and sorrow, anger, and love across cultures, as the narrator provided […]
Houston EMS personnel recall stories of an auto accident on a Houston roadway, most likely on Westheimer near its current intersection with Loop 610. Two ambulances arrived at the scene to find one person dead and another badly injured. The two men who worked for separate private companies, believed to be funeral homes, fought over […]
A year before the City of Houston implemented its ambulance program, a nonprofit volunteer ambulance service went to the Houston home of a five-year-old girl only to find her dead on arrival. Earlier in the day after giving the child cursory care for asthma, the staff at a local hospital sent her home, advising the […]
The Houston Fire Department Emergency Medical Services (HFD EMS) has pioneered emergency medical protocols, leading the way for departments across the country, but behind the history are the individuals who stand ready every day of the year
When someone calls 9-1-1 in Houston, Houston Fire Department EMTs and paramedics respond quickly – and there is hope. This photo essay depicts just a small portion of the reunions that occur each years with emergency patients, their family, and HFD members.
The sound of helicopter blades beating overhead draws one’s eyes instinctively to the sky. Is there a traffic problem? Is it a police chase? Or is someone being rushed to the hospital? Spying the familiar red helicopter, whether the words Life Flight are visible on the exterior or not, the viewer immediately knows someone’s life […]
For 178 years, organized groups of firefighters have battled Houston fires, with the first volunteer bucket brigade established less than two years after the city’s founding in 1836. This photo essay offers a visual chronicle of the department’s history.
In May 2015, Houston native Dr. Tatcho Mindiola, Jr., the long time Chicano activist, sociology professor, and director for the Center for Mexican American Studies, retired from the University of Houston (UH) after forty years of service. Months later he donated his papers, over sixty boxes, to the Hispanic Collections at the University of Houston […]
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