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BELLAIRE,
TEXASHarris County,
Texas Gulf
Coast
6 Miles SW of Downtown Houston
On
Loop 610
Bordered by Houston on three sides
and West University Place to
the East
Population: 15,642 (2000) |
History in a Pecan
Shell
The city of Bellaire was once a ranch belonging to William
Marsh Rice, the founder of Rice University. The ranch was bought in 1908 and
subdivided by the South End Land Company, whose president was William Wright Baldwin.
Baldwin was also vice-president of the Burlington Railroad and is said to have
named Bellaire after a town in Ohio.
The property was barely more than
prairie, but Baldwin invested in infrastructure and improvements, hoping to lure
northern residents down to live and farm on small plots. Part of Baldwin’s improvements
included the construction of Bellaire Boulevard which remains a direct conduit
to Houston’s
Main Street and the Texas Medical Center. |
Electric
streetcar
TE photo, December 2007 |
The Westmoreland Railroad
Company operated an electric streetcar (shown above) down the center of Bellaire
Boulevard from late 1910 until September,1927. The car on display is not an original,
but a representative model – purchased in Portugal in the 1980s.
In 1910
Missouri horticulturist Edward Teas opened his nursery on Bellaire Boulevard –
a business still there on the eastern edge of town. A post office was granted
in 1911.
In June of 1918 Bellaire obtained a city charter. The population
at that time was a mere 200, but by 1940 it had grown to 1,124.
Houston
annexed the properties surrounding Bellaire on the last day of 1948. The following
April Bellaire adopted a mayoral – city council type of government. The population
had risen to over 10,000 by 1950 and the city remained primarily a residential
community with the exception of light business and some expanded corporate building
from the late 70s and early 80s.
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