Sugarland is an obvious one but have you ever wondered why the Heights are the Heights or Pearland and Tanglewood? Thanks to Mentalfloss.com, we now know how the most known Houston neighborhoods got their names.
Here’s a few interesting ones.
ALVIN
In 1872, the Santa Fe Railroad hired Alvin Morgan to supervise its cattle operations in the area, and he built the community’s first house. The town originally was called Morgan, but Texas already had a Morgan, so Alvin was the next best thing.
BAYTOWN
Baytown is home to Burnet Bay, Crystal Bay, Scott Bay, Mitchell Bay, Black Duck Bay, San Jacinto Bay, Tabbs Bay, and Galveston Bay. That’s a lot of bays.
FIRST WARD, SECOND WARD, ETC.
After John Kirby Allen and Augustus Chapman Allen founded Houston in 1836, they divided it into four geographic territories called wards. These wards were divided without regard to population, using geographic boundaries such as streets and the bayou. The first four wards intersected at Congress Street and Main Street. As Houston’s population grew, the Fifth Wardwas carved out of parts of the First and Second in 1866, and the Sixth Ward was created a decade later from a cut of the Fourth. Each ward elected two aldermen, with the mayor receiving votes citywide. The ward system was abolished in 1915, but that hasn’t stopped members of the community, including the Geto Boys, from using the designations.
HOUSTON HEIGHTS
The Heights is 23 feet higher than downtown.
KATY
There are two theories: Either Katy was named for the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad, which was called the KT by railroad officials, or it was named for a barkeeper’s wife. Which theory you choose to believe probably says something about you.
MIDTOWN
PEARLAND
This community was originally established as Mark Belt in 1893, but within a year the name was changed to account for the pear trees in the region (which was probably a good call).
RICE VILLAGE
Speaking of the Rice family, its most famous son was William Marshall Rice, a Massachusetts-born businessman who endowed Rice University in 1891 before being murdered nine years later in New York City by his butler and attorney. His ashes are underneath a statue on the campus, and the adjacent neighborhood also bears his name.
TANGLEWOOD
Tanglewood was developed by William Giddings Farrington. Nathaniel Hawthorne’sTanglewood Tales for Boys and Girls was one of his daughter’s favorite books.
TOMBALL
Originally called Peck, Tomball was renamed in honor of Thomas Henry Ball, a big supporter of the Houston Ship Channel. In 1914, Ball ran for governor on the Prohibitionist ticket, but his quest was sidelined by his opponent who hired people to take photos of him in saloons and turned Woodrow Wilson’s endorsement of Ball into Washington interfering in Texas.
THE WOODLANDS
In 1972, the Mitchell Energy & Development Corporation created this community among the pines north of Houston. The area had been the site of timber mills for years.
