Montrose is an area located in west-centralHouston, Texas, United States and is one of the city's major cultural areas. Montrose is a 7.5 square miles (19 km2) area roughly bounded byInterstate 69/U.S. Highway 59 to the south, Allen Parkway to the north, South Shepherd Drive to the west, and Taft to Fairview to Bagby to Highway 59 to Main to the east. Montrose neighborhoods include Cherryhurst,Courtlandt Place,Hyde Park,Montrose, Vermont Commons, North and East Montrose, Mandell Place and Winlow Place.[1] Montrose is also less well known by the moniker Neartown, encompassing Superneighborhood #24.[2]
Neartown has many of Houston's oldest neighborhoods. The Neartown Association began in 1963.[3] Houston's urban real estate boom starting in the 1990s transformed Neartown and significantly increased property values.
Residential property in Neartown
The City of Houston's Planning Department refers to Neartown as a mixed-use community. Since the 1990sgentrification, musicians and artists are being replaced with higher paid professionals (attorneys, educators, medical professionals) due to higher rents. Montrose has "wound a tortuous course from Silk Stocking and Low Rent and back again."[4] In 1997 Katherine Feser of theHouston Chronicle stated that "Montrose [is] not for starving artists anymore".[5]
TheRiver Oaks Shopping Center, Houston's first shopping center, is located in Neartown, east ofRiver Oaks.[9] Constructed in 1927 and designed by architectHugh Prather, the center, originally known as River Oaks Community Center, was one of the nation's first automobile-orientedretail centers. Its design, with arcs of retail space on either side of West Gray Avenue, was considered a model for future development.[8][10][11] Portions of the historic shopping center were demolished in September 2007 to redevelop the site for bookstore and a parking garage. As of 2008,Landmark Theatres operates theRiver Oaks Theatre, an "arthouse" theater, located in the center. The theater is the last historic movie theater in Houston that is still being used as it was originally designed.[12]
Shops alongWestheimer Road—a major arterial traversing Neartown
Neartown was described in 1973 as "old buildings ranging all the way from Victorian Epic to Ramshackle Plywood." Neartown has European-style restaurants and sidewalk cafés along five blocks of Westheimer with many housed in renovated pre-World War I houses.[4] The Neartown neighborhood along Van Buren Street was theHouston Press "Best Hidden Neighborhood" in 2002.[13]
In 2015 the Houston city government-defined Neartown/Montrose Super Neighborhood had 31,037 residents. 71% were non-Hispanic white, 18% were Hispanic, 6% were non-Hispanic Asians, 4% were non-Hispanic blacks, and 1% were non-Hispanic others. In 2000 the super neighborhood had 28,015 people. 68% were non-Hispanic whites, 23% were Hispanic, 4% each were non-Hispanic black and Asian, and 2% were non-Hispanic others.[14]
The community is within theHouston Police Department's Central Patrol Division,[15] headquartered at 61 Riesner.[16] The Neartown Storefront Station is located at 802 Westheimer.[16] The City of Houston purchased the building used for the storefront with federal community development funds. By September 20, 1990, the Neartown Business Alliance spent around $4,000 per year to maintain the storefront.[17]
Houston Fire Department Fire Station 16 serves the area. The fire station is in Fire District 6.[18] The station opened at the intersection ofWestheimer Road and Yupon in 1928. The station moved to the intersection of Richmond and Dunlavy in 1979.[19]
City Council District D covers Neartown.[20] As of 2008 Wanda Adams represents the district.[21] Since the City of Houston Redistricting of 2011, Neartown has been represented in Council by Ellen Cohen in District C.[22]
The community is located withinTexas's 7th congressional district.[27] Since redistricting effective for the 2012 election, Neartown has been redrawn into the Texas 2nd Congressional District, served by Ted Poe.[28] TheUnited States Postal Service operates two post offices, the University Post Office at 1319 Richmond Avenue and the River Oaks Station Post Office at 1900 West Gray Street, in Neartown.[8][29][30]
Pupils in Neartown are in theHouston Independent School District.[8] Neartown is divided among Trustee District IV, represented by Paula M. Harris as of 2008, Trustee District V, represented by Dianne Johnson as of 2008, and Trustee District VIII, represented by Diana Dávila as of 2008.[38]
Pupils in Neartown reside within the boundaries of three middle-school attendance areas.Lanier Middle School (in Neartown), Cullen Middle School, and Gregory-Lincoln Education Center serve separate sections of Neartown.[44][45][46] All Neartown area pupils are zoned toLamar High School inUpper Kirby.[47]
For a period, Montrose Elementary School was in Neartown.[49] Southmore Elementary School opened in 1921, Wilson in 1925, Lanier in 1926, Poe in 1928, and Wharton in 1929. Southmore was renamed MacGregor Elementary School in 1930 and Lamar opened in 1937. Ryan opened in 1958 afterYates High School moved to a new campus. Gregory-Lincoln opened in 1966 and its current facility opened in 2007.[50][51] Before the start of the 2009–2010 school year J. Will Jones, which formerly served a section of Neartown,[52] was consolidated into Blackshear Elementary School, a campus in theThird Ward.[53][54] During its final year of enrollment J. Will Jones had more students than Blackshear.[55]
PreviouslyRyan Middle School served a segment of Neartown.[56] In March 2013 the HISD board voted to close Ryan Middle School and move all students into the zone of Cullen Middle School.[57] The High School for the Performing and Visual Arts moved to Downtown Houston in 2019.[58]
The administrative offices of theHouston Public Library are located in the Marston Building in Neartown.[8][61][62] The City of Houston spent $1.3 million to renovate the Marston Building to accommodate HPL staff.[63] The administration moved to the building after the Central Library was scheduled to close in 2006.[61]
The Eleanor K. Freed-Montrose Neighborhood Library of Houston Public Library is at 4100 Montrose Boulevard.[64]
Legacy Community Health Services[3] andMontrose Counseling Center[4] are located in Neartown. In 2006 the Metropolitan Multi-Service Center was moved from the Houston Department of Health and Human Services to the Houston Parks and Recreation Department. It became the West Gray Adaptive Recreation Center.[65]
Cherryhurst ParkMetropolitan Multi-Service Center a.k.a. the West Gray Adaptive Recreation Center
Ervan Chew Park, a fenced-in, approximately 9,000-square-foot (840 m2) park, is located at 4502 Dunlavy Street.[66] The park (originally Herbert D. Dunlavy Park) was acquired by the City of Houston in 1945. In February 2000 the park was renamed for Ervan Chew, aChinese-AmericanEagle Scout who grew up in the area and won theSilver Beaver Award, which was delivered byRonald Reagan, in 1986; Chew died at age 42,[67] on January 19, 1999.[68] Chew Park has a basketball half court, small soccer (football) field, a dog park and a baseball diamond. Ervan Chew Park has little league games and dog parties.[69] The Neartown Little League, located in Neartown, holds its games at Chew Park.[69][70] Chew Park was the first park to let dogs run without leashes in a special zone. The Friends of Ervan Chew Park funded the dog zone, which was dedicated in May 2004.[66]
^abDreyer, Thorne and Al Reinert. "Montrose Lives!"Texas Monthly. April 1973. ISSN 0148-7736. Start:Page 56. Cited:Page 57. Retrieved fromGoogle Books on April 2, 2010.
^The National Elementary Principal, Volume 51. National Association of Elementary School Principals, 1945. Page 326. Digitized byGoogle Books on October 27, 2008. Retrieved on January 1, 2010. "Montrose Elementary School, 4011 Stanford, Houston."
^Hopper, Leigh (January 21, 1999). "Prominent businessman Ervan Chew dies at 42 after brief illness".Houston Chronicle. p. 28. - Available onNewsbank,accessed here.
