Talk:Wards of Houston

Broken Link

Posting the following Broken Link:

• Essays about the Third Ward

There was no specific title associated with this link, so I don't know if I can find it again. If anyone knows how to find this link, please let me know or readd to the article yourself. Thanks. Ufwuct 21:20, 19 November 2006 (UTC)

Copied material

I removed this entire chunk of text, (because it appears to have been copied VERBATIM from here (the pdf is not currently available)):

The Sixth Ward was created in 1876 from the northern portion of the Fourth Ward, that is, all of the Fourth Ward that was north of Buffalo Bayou. This is the only historical ward of Houston that did not extend to the historical center of downtown (only a small strip of land would now be inside downtown Houston). The area lies along the floodplain of the Buffalo Bayou and has a large greenbelt to the east containing Sesquicentennial Park and part of Buffalo Bayou Park[1]. Today, the Old Sixth Ward area, once also known as The Sabine, and much of the western-most area Rice Military is known as the West End. Gene Tierney and Howard Hughes are buried in the Glenwood Cemetery on Washington Avenue.

Home to approximately 2,000 Houstonians, the area now called the Old Sixth Ward was originally part of a two-league Mexican land grant made in 1824 to Stephen F. Austin’s son, John. On July 6, 1838, two years after John K., Augustus C. and Charlotte B. Allen founded the town of Houston, S.P. Hollingsworth filed a survey of the area in which he divided the land into large, narrow tracts that ran northward from Buffalo Bayou. By January 1839, portions of the Hollingsworth survey that lay in the future Old Sixth Ward had been conveyed to several prominent Houstonians, including: W.R. Baker, James S. Holman, Nathan Kempton and Henry Allen. By 1858, W.R. Baker and his friends owned or held mortgages on most of the land in this area. Baker engaged the County Surveyor, Samuel West, to restructure his holdings by converting the whole area into a lot and block system. The new survey was laid out to true north, varying from downtown which was platted at a 45 degree angle to true north. The first sale after the re-platting took place on January 31, 1859, when Baker transferred several blocks to W.W. Leeland. Subsequent lot and block sales followed Baker’s plat which remains in use today.

For many years, W.R. Baker served as President of the Houston and Texas Central Railroad whose route approached Houston from the northwest. The railroad’s success greatly influenced the growth of the neighborhood which attracted immigrants seeking employment. Long noted for its ethnic and economic diversity, the neighborhood has at various times been home to Swedish, German, English, Irish, French, Swiss, Italian, Polish, Eastern European, Jewish, African, Chinese, Vietnamese, Mexican, Latin American, and Scottish immigrants. The 1870 census indicates that everyone who lived in this area worked either for the railroad or in a related enterprise such as construction or retail services.

In 1871, Glenwood Cemetery opened at the western edge of the area. It provided a natural, protective boundary that continues in force today. In 1872, Washington Avenue was graded and the number of businesses located there increased. By 1878, the Houston Street Railway (trolley) extended to Washington Avenue where the business district was known as "Uptown" in contrast to the Market Square area which was known as "Downtown." A bird’s eye view of the area drawn in the early 1890s shows the neighborhood to have been fully developed with a structure on almost every lot. By the early 1900s the Sixth Ward was a fully developed community complete with a fire station, a public school, stores, saloons, churches and industrial establishments.

The Houston Chronicle newspaper lauded Fourth Ward North, as Sixth Ward was originally called, as one of the finest and ‘healthful’ places to live in Houston. The area enjoyed the highest elevation in Houston and abundant artesian water, fed by the Beauchamp Springs. Its residents enjoyed proximity to downtown and other attractions such as the popular Highland Park resort at the corner of Houston Ave and White Oak Drive that had excellent swimming and boating facilities, So popular was Fourth Ward North, the Chronicle ran a weekly section on it for several years.

The majority of the houses standing today were built in the 1870s, 80s, and 90s as modest, one-story frame cottages occupied by single families. During the 1880s the majority of the families living in the neighborhood were of German descent. Many of those families lived on farms in the country in northwest Houston where the Spring Branch, Rosslyn, Timbergrove, and Oak Forest subdivision now stands and in keeping with German tradition, they built houses in Sixth Ward as ‘town homes’ They would use these houses while selling their farm produce at the city market downtown, their annual shopping, socializing, and/or attending theatres or opera houses downtown. They used timber from their farms to build these houses.

During the late 19th Century more than half of the houses were owner-occupied. The distinctive Victorian character of these dwellings was enhanced by decorative millwork usually applied to the front porches. As the 20th Century progressed, new housing reflected changes in architectural styles. Bungalows were built among the Victorian cottages, but the essential character of the neighborhood did not change. During World War II many of the original owners had passed on and their houses were converted from single to multi-family tenant dwellings, often owned by absentee landlords. Since achieving recognition as both a nationally and a locally designated historic district, the Old Sixth Ward has witnessed the restoration of many homes to single-family occupancy.

I will readd some of the information, and trim down the wordiness when I find the time. Ufwuct 21:30, 19 November 2006 (UTC)

This appears to be the offending diff, by 66.139.239.195 who appears to have only one other edit, which is also to this article. Ufwuct 21:40, 19 November 2006 (UTC)

A map would be nice

The descriptions are useful, but it's kind of hard to mentally visualize the wards' locations without some sort of a map, whether a historical one from the era when they were real boundaries, or a modern one giving approximate locations. --Delirium 10:29, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

If you would like to know, in the External links, the "Where the Wards are" source has a map. Though it is slightly hazy, it does give a good idea of the boundaries. If you're remarking on article quality (saying the article itself needs a map), I'm inclined to agree, but I'm not artistically inclined. Perhaps you could create it or maybe you could request it at Wikipedia:WikiProject Houston. Ufwuct 22:27, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

Sixth ward Source

Posting source: Group trying to preserve old Sixth Ward character posts front-porch testimonials on YouTube.com. Mike Snyder, Houston Chronicle. January 8, 2007. Will try to add this material later. Ufwuct 19:12, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

Residents

People living in the third ward are acutally mostly low-class in need of finacial support instead of the middle class as stated in the first paragraph.

Also Barbara Jordan is not from third ward she is from Fith Ward she also went to school at Wheatley High School in Fifth Ward.

Do you have a source for the income level of its residents, or are you just basing this on the third ward's reputation? I used to live there myself actually; the third ward encompasses a larger region than just the "bad neighborhoods" people usually think of. -alhead —Preceding unsigned comment added by Alhead (talk • contribs) 08:15, August 30, 2007 (UTC)

Title

This title sounds somewhat odd, and I think it's longer than it needs to be. Why not just call it Wards of Houston? Funnyhat 06:35, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

Proposal

Maybe this article should be primarily about the structure of the ward system and how the formal wards later became distinct neighborhoods, while the actual wards would have their own articles... WhisperToMe (talk) 01:38, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

1991 Population decline

I found: Rodriguez, Lori. "Census tracks rapid growth of suburbia." Houston Chronicle. Sunday March 10, 1991. Section A, Page 1.

Degenerating article

It appears that each ward is being moved back into its own article. This article no longer is very useful. I'm propose that we move each ward back to this article or move each section back to its own article (which has been more or less done already). Postoak (talk) 23:39, 6 October 2008 (UTC)

• There are still two that are left here. We could change the focus of this article to explain Houston's early political system. I'm sure there are plenty of sources about this. WhisperToMe (talk) 19:36, 23 October 2008 (UTC)