Letitia

Addicks, known at various times as Letitia, Bear Hill, and Bear Creek, is an area of Houston located at the intersection of State Highway 6 and Interstate Highway 10 in western Harris County. Addicks originated as a railroad stop for the Bear Creek community, which was established around 1850 by German immigrants who homesteaded along Bear, Langham, and South Mayde creeks. A one-room school was built for Bear Creek residents near present-day Clay Road in 1876, followed by a post office in 1878. The Bear Creek German Methodist Church, founded in 1879, initially met in parishioners’ homes until a permanent structure was erected on Langham Creek near the Hillendahl-Eggling Cemetery. The Bear Creek Schuetzen Verein, or shooting club, built adjacent to the church, served as a venue for town meetings, dances, barbecues, traditional German shooting competitions, and other social events. Together, the shooting club and church, which conducted services in German until the outbreak of World War I, formed the nucleus of the community. Additionally, a general store was established by local businessman William Schulz, Sr., at the present-day intersection of State Highway 6 and Patterson Road in 1882. When the first post office burned down in 1884, it was relocated to Schulz’s store, who named the new post office after the community’s first postmaster, Henry Addicks.

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.