Houston Heights

Houston Heights, a suburb of Houston four miles north of the downtown area in central Harris County, was built on and named for its site on high land, bordered by White Oak Bayou. It was on the Missouri, Kansas and Texas line. The townsite, originally part of the John Austin grant sold to I. W. Brashear in 1872, stood sixty-two feet above sea level and 1½ miles from Houston's Grand Central depot. Around 1891 Daniel Denton Cooley, treasurer of the Omaha and South Texas Land Company, moved to Houston to plan and manage the new town for company president Oscar Martin Carter, who obtained financing from directors in Boston. Marmion Park was later established at the site of the community's first house, which had been built for Cooley in 1892. The 1,175-acre site of Houston Heights, one of the first planned communities in Texas, was subdivided into residential and industrial districts. The work began in 1892, as workers marked streets and alleys named for American colleges and universities, macadamized Heights Boulevard, and laid an electric street railway system to connect the suburb to Houston. A steam freight line linked up with the Houston and Texas Central Railway to haul factory products.

Adapted from the official Handbook of Texas, a state encyclopedia developed by the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). It is an authoritative source of trusted historical records.