In 1886, Oscar Martin Carter, a former bank president from
Nebraska arrived in Houston and by 1891 he and a group of investors had established the
Omaha and South Texas Land Company, managed by Carter and a subsidiary of the
American Loan and Trust Company. The company purchased of land and established infrastructure, including streets, alleys, parks, schools, and utilities, worth $500,000. As one of Texas's early
planned communities, Houston Heights was founded as a
streetcar suburb of Houston and attracted residents who did not wish to live in the dense city but had a way to commute back and forth for work. Another appealing factor to potential residents was that the area is 23 feet higher in elevation than Houston, which was experiencing
yellow fever outbreaks along with other waterborne illnesses due to excessive flooding and high levels of
mosquitos. It had its own municipality, established on July 1, 1896 and William G. Love served as the first mayor and J.B. Marmion was the fifth and final mayor. According to the
U.S. census of 1900 the area had 800 residents and had its own school system, hospital and emergency services. By 1919 the city government experienced difficulty collecting sufficient tax revenue to fund the school system and so the small community agreed to be annexed to the city of Houston. Sister M. Agatha wrote the book
History of the Houston Heights, published in 1956. Some of her research stemmed from a document and photograph collection organized by Jimmie May Hicks, the head librarian at the
Heights Public Library from 1931 to 1964. Marilyn Bardsley of
Crime Library stated that the Houston Heights became "decrepit" and "tired" after World War II. On December 13, 1970,
Dean Corll began luring and killing children from the Houston Heights which became known as the Houston Mass Murders. For most of the period of his crime spree, Corll lived in or close to Houston Heights as his two teenage accomplices resided there. Other teens from the area were targeted simply because the two teens knew many of them which made it easier to entice them to Corll's various residences during the period. From the 1980 U.S. census to the 1990 census, the population of the Houston Heights declined by more than 1,000 people per square mile. The Houston Heights Association opened in 1973. From 1980 to 2017,
about 100 houses and other properties in the Heights have been listed on the
National Register of Historic Places. Since the 1990s, and similar to other parts of Houston inside the
610 Loop, the Heights has experienced
gentrification, a process ongoing to this day, as young highly paid professionals (many of whom work in Downtown Houston) have flocked to the area, purchasing and renovating some of the historic homes (and demolishing some of them to build newer, upscale housing). Upscale boutiques and restaurants have opened in the area, giving parts of the streetscape an appearance not too much unlike
Bellaire,
Lower Westheimer or
Upper Kirby, but large parts, such as the entirety of Heights Boulevard retain some of the original identity thanks to the older houses and large trees. The
Houston Heights Fire Station, a former fire station at 12th Street at Yale Street was constructed as Houston Heights' city hall and
jail, and fire station in 1914. After annexation, it served as a city of Houston fire station from 1918 until 1995. The Houston Heights Association took a 30-year lease on the property from the city and refurbished the property. By December 2009 the former city hall was for sale. In 2013
CNN Money ranked the Houston Heights as no. 4 in its Top 10 big city neighborhoods ranking. A section of the Houston Heights was a "dry" (no sales of alcohol allowed) district from 1912 to 2017. File:HoustonHeightsFormerCityHall.JPG|
Houston Heights Fire Station - Former city hall and Fire Station 14 File:Backyard of Station 14.jpg|Backyard of Station 14, 1920s File:HeightsTheater.JPG|A street view of the Houston Heights ==Cityscape==