Debbie Z. Harwell, Editor Letter from the Editor: In the aftermath of local storms, many Houstonians claim the frequency of flooding has increased, raising the question: how accurate are those statements? The city’s first flood occurred in April 1837, just eight months after Houston was founded at the confluence of Buffalo and White Oak Bayous. […]
By Nadia Abouzir Running along Buffalo Bayou, Eleanor Tinsley Park was completely submerged after Harvey’s rains. Photo courtesy of J. Daniel Escareño, Flickr. It is no secret that Hurricane Harvey devastated Houston, but how did it impact the city’s individual communities? Floodplain maps offer insight into where the risk is greatest to experience a 100- or 500-year flood, but many of the affected neighborhoods surpassed these thresholds […]
By Anna Mayzenberg Meyerland grew rapidly from its beginnings in 1955. Homes, such as this one on Valkeith Drive (1960), frequently sold before construction was completed. Photo courtesy of the Houston Metropolitan Research Center, Houston Public Library. In the mid-1950s, the 1,200-acre Meyerland subdivision promised to be a new suburban haven for middle- and upper-class […]
By Syed Shahzeb Ayaz Using social media to locate those in need and dispatch volunteers to assist them, Mrs. Gitty Francis (far right), along with her volunteer staff, ran the Hurricane Harvey relief operations of Chabad-Lubavitch, a worldwide Jewish movement with a focus on outreach activities. Photo courtesy of Chabad of Texas Archive. During catastrophes, […]
By Christopher Kessinger Houston’s Democratic Socialists of America chapter came together to help Houstonians after Hurricane Harvey. The volunteers helped out in people’s homes and raised money, which they used for cash cards to help those in need. Photos courtesy of the Houston Democratic Socialists of America Facebook Group. Before Hurricane Harvey made landfall, Houston […]
By Christopher Kessinger Brandi Holmes and Secunda Joseph spoke to Houston History about what motivated them to help those in need during Hurricane Harvey. Photo courtesy of Resilient Houston: Documenting Hurricane Harvey. Activists with Black Lives Matter-Houston and Project Curate, Brandi Holmes and Secunda Joseph formulated their own responses to Hurricane Harvey. The two began […]
By Andrew Davis The scale of Hurricane Harvey was unfathomable. Between the nationwide volunteer efforts, the overtaxed first responders, the drone footage of I-10 looking like the Mighty Mississippi, and the sense that it affected everyone, the storm’s vast impact remains incomprehensible. Reflecting on those heady days, one of the best ways to understand what […]
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.
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 […]
Download the full pdf. Vol. 15, No. 1 (Fall 2017) Letter from the Editor by Debbie Z. Harwell 2 Seeing Frost Town 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 8 The 1947 Texas City Disaster: Changing Lives […]
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