Houston Then & Now [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION It was time to make a decision. On April 21. 1836, General Sam Houston and his newly formed army of the Republic of Texas squinted across the Texas prairie at the men sent to gun them down: the Mexican army. The Tcxans were outnumbered, undertrained, and desperate to avenge what they felt was unfair creatmenc by the Mexican government, As the day warmed and the mosquitoes swarmed, their rage came to a head. The Mcxican soldiers, having failed to post a lookout during their afternoon siesta, were awakened by the panicked screams of their leaders and the smell of gunpowder, The Battle of San Jacinto lasted only eighteen minutes, creating a new nation: the Republic of Texas. Houston was officially established on August 30, 1836, just twenty miles from the San Jacinto battleground. Its founders were Augustus C. and John K. Allen, brothers from New York who had befriended General Houston before the Texas Revolution. The Aliens were imaginative and ambitious land speculators. They supported the Texas Revolution with gold rather than lead, contributing money and supplies to the badly underfunded army of the Republic of Texas. When the war concluded, they purchased over 6,500 acres of land near the Buffalo Bayou for less than $1.50 per acre, site after their old friend and new official leader, Sam Houston. naming the n Envisioning a lucrat promoting the town t Byl837,theAllei ve trading post on Buffal 3 anyone who would listen. IS had successfully lobbied fc just a handful of tents, to become the temporary ¦ in other parts of the new republic, land grants wei qualifications. People trickled in as crude frair somewhat rowdy village not atypical of frontii or do business. The bayou they banked on fi difficult to navigate. Even the most basic ai commodities. But in a town started by and for 1 the fu republic's cal oppor ted hnvini nd the adi ted States fnore hope than hassle ir Houston's role as the by Sam Houston's politi Mexico, which necessita momentum continued, a pulsed through the Unii the world. Cotton would mak, by its geography and l^cspite its failed iiffai «ntury brought a modest !hiuhi '5uff;.lo Bay,,,,. Bnizas, ami Col I" I»66. Telephones, public .scl' ^¦iVtoihe Bayo.i City. In th. ofB ly two short years. It w id the possibility of Texas acqu a capital farther to the west. But its c rnalinc associated with establishing a r and Europe. Immigrants poured in frc Hou.sid trade, lii ir with I 1 nn important city during k- of the Texas soil was s. le Confederiicy, the latter u of prosperity. In 1853 Hi .nido, was huilt. First Nati. he Civil War en by North, half of the J iiston's first ra nal Bank was all .ere the fin as crushed iring New ommercial lew nation im around , Insulated :rn forces, lincteenth ilroad, the chartered iiade (heir American cities to build power plants. Efforts accommodating to trade. January of 1901, in the nearby town of Beaumont, in a new age of Houston history; oil. Spindletop, the oil was found, marked the beginning of an economic California Gold Rush pale in comparison. Enterpri Bayou, they immediately began Houston, at the time consisting of ipital of the Republic of Texas. As offered to settlers meeting certain houses sprouted, birthing a rough and ilso started to make the bayou more, a group of wildcatters ushered name of the knoll where the windfall that would make the ig engineers and businessmen rushed to the region by the thousands. Merchants prospered and many financial alliances were formed. Though their enterprises began outside of the city limits, these new oil barons would center their operations in Houston. Despite the Great Depression, the period between 1901 and World War II was a perfect storm of enterprise and economic prosperity for Houston. Accompanying the discovery of oil, engineers finally brought the Houston Ship Channel to a depth of twenty'five feet. In 1915, the first deep-water vessel—the Satilk—landed at its wharf. This one-time tent city now had both unlimited access to a valuable international commodity and an efficient means of delivering it. Over the next two decades, oil refineries sprouted up everywhere along the ship channel. The oil went out, and the opportunities came in. In Houston, culture started to boom. Social i Texas's first fine arts museum was born. Theater every size and variety drew heavy patronage. Ur a high standard. A symphony orchestra was est Victorian architecture style fltwded the streets a ceased to be associated with thei Germany. These families became populous city in Texas. It is true—success really does breed succ brought a growing skyline, luxurious suburbs, infrastructure. The Texas Medical Center Houston saw the construction of Texas's firsi National recognition for Houston's progress its Manned Spacecraft Center to the city. Houston today is part Manhattan, pai Nations. Life in Houston brings the world ti across a Hindu temple, a H; lubs of every variety proliferated and 5, music halls, and dmma societies of iversities were born and began to set iblished. Mansions built in the High > the names of its pioneering families former lives in New York, Massachusetts, and :he fabric of what had just become the most ss. The decades following World War I and dramatic improvements in the cit>''s ,vas founded in 1943. Five years later, freeway. The arts continued to develop. ,vas shown in 1962 when NASA moved ethnic food that without potentii-Despite its u its days of Mcxi following thcin 1 ongoing fight lor