 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Near Northside, Houston" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(March 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Near Northside is a historic neighborhood located inNorthside,Houston, Texas.[1] Near Northside is primarily occupied by people ofHispanic descent.[2]
In a 70-year period until 2015 the community had been majority Hispanic after initially being made up ofGerman American andItalian American immigrants who settled in the period 1900-1940. It is in proximity toDowntown Houston.[3]
Development of the Near Northside neighborhood began in the 1880s-1890s with the expansion of the nearby Hardy Rail Yards. Immigrants from Europe, primarily Italians, Germans, Poles, and Czechs, moved into the area and it became a working-class neighborhood. With the decrease of railroad traffic and increase in suburban development in Houston, the neighborhood began to decline followingWorld War II. Thereafter, Hispanic immigrants, mostly of Mexican heritage, began moving into the area. The neighborhood underwent alteration from the construction of the ElysianViaduct - a major roadway into downtown, which required the use ofeminent domain to construct.[citation needed]
Near North Side'sMoody Park was the location of theMoody Park Riots. On May 7, 1978, the Mexican American community in the area took to protest following the police killing of Jose Campos Torres (a war veteran who was killed by police while taken into dubious custody). The protests turned to riot and led to more than forty arrests, a dozen hospitalizations, and hundreds of thousands of dollars of property damage to businesses and police vehicles. The aftermath resulted in a continuation of already strained police relations and a mistrust of police by the Hispanic community of Houston. It also led to significant police reforms.[4]
Preservation Texas, an organization dedicated to preserving historic resources in the state of Texas, named Near Northside Neighborhood to list of Texas' most endangered historic places in 2005.
In 2011 the community was listed in theNational Register of Historic Places. The Avenue Community Development Corp. supported the listing.[5]
In 2013, construction began on the expandedMETRORail red line, which runs through the neighborhood with several stations along North Main Street and Fulton Street. The rail began operations on December 21, 2013.
By 2015, with majorgentrification of inner Houston neighborhoods, some residents of one subdivision, Glen Park, advocated for minimum lot size rules in order to prevent largetownhouses from being built in Near Northside.[3]
The boundaries of the Near Northside community areInterstate 45, Hardy Street, Burnett Street, and roughly Cavalcade Street.[5]
Before the development of the interstate system in the mid-20th century, there was an area at the intersection of Hill Street and Lyons Avenue named "Pearl Harbor." The writer Sigman Byrd, active from the late 1940s until the early 1960s, wrote about it, and the writings were published inSig Byrd's Houston.[6]
Near North Side is served by theHouston Independent School District.
Elementary schools serving sections of the community within the Near North Side include Ketelsen,[7] Looscan,[8] C. Martinez,[9] and Sherman.[10]
All residents are zoned to Marshall Middle School andNorthside High School (formerly Jefferson Davis High School).[11][12]
Elementary schools formerly serving the Near Northside include Lamar Elementary,[13] Lee Elementary,[14] and Ryan Elementary.[15]
The newNorthside Elementary School will be built in place of Sherman Elementary on McKee St. HISD plans to level Sherman Elementary and build a new, larger school at its current location in Northside Village. The work will consist of demolishing the existing buildings on the site (including the school building and houses) and construction of a new 86,000-square-foot (8,000 m2) school building to accommodate 750 students.[16]
Northside High is located on Quitman Street.Marshall Middle School is across from Davis. Nearby elementaries are Sherman and the brand new Ketelsen which replaced Lamar and Lee Elementaries.[17]
YES East End, acharter Grade 6 middle school, is actually located in the Near North Side area, northwest of theEast End area.
TheRoman Catholic Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston oversees the Holy Name School, a Kindergarten through 8th Grade school in the area[1]. January 2009 the Archdiocese of Galvesto-Houston announced the closing of Holy Name School.
TheHouston Public Library's Carnegie Neighborhood Library and Center for Learning serves the community.[18]
Harris Health System (Harris County Hospital District) operates theCasa de Amigos ("House of Friends") Health Center at 1615 North Main Street and theThomas Street Health Center (AIDS center) at 2015 Thomas Street; both are in Houston.
Casa de Amigos Health Center opened on August 21, 1970 in the near Northside.[19]
The hospital system designated the Casa de Amigos clinic for the ZIP code 77009 and theAldine Health Center for the ZIP code 77022. The designated public hospitals for these two ZIP codes areBen Taub General Hospital in theTexas Medical Center and theLyndon B. Johnson Hospital in northeast Houston, respectively.[20]
The City of Houston Health Department also operates the Nueva Casa de Amigos ("New House of Friends") Clinic.[21]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)La Nueva Casa de Amigos Health Center 1809 North Main Street Houston, Texas 77009
29°47′10″N95°21′29″W / 29.786°N 95.358°W /29.786; -95.358
