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One of the First Planned Communities in Texas.
Finely executed plan of the of Houston Heights, and a small portion of Houston, published by the Omaha & South Texas Land Company and printed in Boston by Forbes.
The plan shows a community park and an electric streetcar connecting it with downtown Houston. Vignette illustrations of various factories appear to the right of the map, and residences of notable individuals appear on the left.
At the bottom left, a large railroad car manufacturing plant is pictured, along with a detail of the Esplanade. Text inside the front wrapper notes that the development “has its own artesian water works system; its own electric light and power plant, and is sewer- drained throughout” and describes the lands offered as the “most desirable real estate ever put on the market in the Southwest.”
Houston Heights 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.
By 1891, millionaire Oscar Martin Carter and a group of investors established the Omaha & South Texas Land Company, which purchased 1,756 acres, which they quickly improved with infrastructure, including alleys, parks, schools, streets and utilities, worth $500,000. When Houston Heights was founded, it was a streetcar suburb of Houston which attracted people who did not wish to live in the dense city. It had its own municipality until the City of Houston annexed the Heights in 1919,
Rarity
The plan is very rare. We can find no auction or dealer records for this map.
OCLC/World Cat locates only the copies held by the Houston Public Library, SMU/Degolyer Library and Yale. The Houston Public Library copy may be a different map with photographic views.
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