Second Ward (also known as Segundo Barrio, Spanish for "second neighborhood",Lomax, John Nova. "Houston 101: Sig Byrd, Houston's King of True-Life Noir." Houston Press. Friday November 20, 2009. Retrieved on September 4, 2012. or Segundo in short;Garza (2011), p. 15. historically Das Zweiter in German) is a historical political district ward in the East End community in Houston, Texas. It was one of the four original wards of the city in the nineteenth century. The community known as the Second Ward today is roughly bounded by Buffalo Bayou to the north, Lockwood Avenue to the east, and railroad tracks to the south and west, although the City of Houston's "Super Neighborhood" program includes a section east of Lockwood. .
The Second Ward, which initially had a significant German American population, today has mainly Mexican American residents.Davis, Rod. "Houston's really good idea Bus tour celebrates communities that forged a city. " San Antonio Express-News. Sunday August 3, 2003. Travel 1M. Retrieved on February 11, 2012. Many Mexican-Americans moved into the area following World War II and the subsequent white flight from the area. The northern end of the community is largely industrial, leading to massive warehouse complexes along the Bayou. There are also many industrial buildings, some of which have found new life as lofts, on the western edge of the neighborhood nearest to Downtown and Daikin Park.
Many buildings in the community were constructed in the 1920s and bear the art deco style. In recent years, there has been major civic improvements including new street lights and pavement, as well as the beginnings of gentrification as professionals and others move from both the distant suburbs and other, more expensive Inner Loop neighborhoods. Residents of all ages frequent the Ripley House Community Center.
History
After incorporation of Houston in 1837, the Second Ward was established as one of the original four wards of Houston through charter statutes passed in 1839 and 1840. The boundaries of the Second Ward were Buffalo Bayou to the north, Main Street to the west, Congress Avenue to the south, and the city limits to the east. The Second Ward elected two aldermen to represent them in municipal government.
The Frost brothers, Samuel and Jonathan, started developing the first subdivision in Houston shortly after the Allen brothers acquired the Houston tract. Samuel ran a hamlet outside of town on his homestead, which included a blacksmith shop. Jonathan inherited the fifteen-acre tract after his brother died of cholera. Jonathan platted Frost-town as a small subdivision within a bend of Buffalo Bayou. The surviving Frost brother succeeded in selling seventy percent of the lots by 1840, about the time that Frost-town was incorporated within the city of Houston.McWhorter (2010), p. 38.
The Second Ward contained an important meeting place for Houston's Catholics. John Odin arrived in Houston in 1841, when he established the first Catholic parish, St. Vincent de Paul, Houston. The next year, the parish opened its first church at the southwest corner of Franklin Avenue and Caroline Street. The complex included a rectory and a school.
By 1860, the Second Ward included some of the wealthiest people in Houston. William J. Hutchins and William Marsh Rice each reported wealth of at least $700,000 to the census taker in 1860. In addition to these wealthy residents who resided in town between Franklin and Congress avenues, Robert Lockhart and John T. Brady lived in remote neighborhoods, far east in the Second Ward. Lockhart was a merchant and grist mill owner who married into the Francis Lubbock family, and resided on a large homestead known as "Lubbock's Grove." Lockhart's personal estate in 1860 was comparatively modest compared but still substantial at $105,000. Brady, another wealthy Second Ward resident, was an attorney, state legislator, and investor.McWhorter (2010), pp. 38−39.
The Second Ward, in the 1800s, had a heavily German American community. Thomas McWhorter, author of "From Das Zweiter to El Segundo, A Brief History of Houston’s Second Ward," wrote that "Second Ward became an unofficial hub of German-American culture and social life during the nineteenth century."McWhorter (2010), p. 40. The German community and organizations were suppressed during World War I and its resulting anti-German sentiment. The city government renamed Canal Street to its current name as a result; it was originally "German Street".McWhorter (2010), p. 41. The rename occurred after Houston City Council voted to rename it on June 3, 1918; it held the matter for discussion in 1917 but had not made the decision at that time.
Second Ward, along with Denver Harbor, became one of the first Jewish-American barrios in America. It began taking in African immigrants in the early 1900s. At that time, three-fifths of the population there were Jewish, one-fifth African American, and one-fifth made up of a diversity of ethnicities, including Mexicans.Maria Cristina Garcia, Agents of Americanization: Rusk Settlement and the Houston Mexicano Community, 1907-1950 (Texas Historical Association, 2000), p. 125. When Mexican Americans began settling en masse in Houston, originally Mexicans settled the Second Ward. Jesus Jesse Esparza of Houston History magazine said that the Second Ward "quickly became the unofficial hub of their cultural and social life."Esparza (2011), p. 2. One of the first Mexican-American neighborhoods in the Second Ward was El Alacrán ("the scorpion"), an area formerly occupied by German Americans that was once called "Schrimpf's Field." After the German Americans left, Mexican Americans moved into the houses, which were in poor condition.Esparza (2011), p. 3.
By the 1920s, Mexicans became the majority in the neighborhood. Anglos, Jews, and blacks moved out of the Second Ward. A settlement house, a converted school for Mexican children, and two churches: Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church and the Mexican Methodist Episcopal Church, opened.Rodriguez, Nestor, p. 31. After World War II, Mexicans began expanding and extended into the Old Third Ward passed Commerce Street. Thereafter, expansion continued and eventually socially merged with Magnolia Park to the southeast.San Miguel (2005), pp. 4-6.
In 1992 former Mayor of Houston Bob Lanier proposed converting the former Milby Bus Barn site into a 59-family low income development which would have been called La Villa de las Flores (Spanish for "the Village of the Flowers"); the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, Texas used the site as a bus barn from 1976 to 1983. In 1993 workers doing preliminary jobs discovered unused storage tanks, prompting testing for dangerous chemicals. Soil tests revealed petroleum and lead; the lead was 300 times the amount of safe concentration for a homeowner. Local residents received testing. The city began a cleanup in June 1993, replacing 58,300 cubic yards of topsoil and installing "groundwater recovery systems" to remove water contaminated with motor fuel and chlorinated solvents. Fugro Environmental Inc. reported to the City of Houston that the cleanup put the site in compliance with Environmental Protection Agency standards. In Summer 1999 the Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission reported that the former Milby Bus Barn site was safe. By August 1999 the site remained vacant.Liskow, Samantha. "Paradise Lost." Houston Press. August 26, 1999. 1. Retrieved on April 25, 2009.
In 2004 Felix Fraga, a former city council member, said that at one point in time, people kept moving out of the Second Ward.Kever, Jeannie. "Pride lives on in city's six historical wards." Houston Chronicle. September 7, 2004. Retrieved on October 20, 2011.
By 2006 many lofts and townhouses were constructed in the Second Ward; this was the first time in history that the Second Ward had townhouses. Fraga said "I think people moving in will say they're moving into the Second Ward."
In 2007 several interns with the architecture firm SWA Group presented proposals on how to improve the Guadalupe Plaza area to the Greater East End Management District offices.
In 2015 a group called the Carnalismo Brown Berets de Houston - CNBB campaigned against gentrification of the Second Ward.Smith, Camilo. "Houston Brown Berets waging a fight against gentrification in the Second Ward" (Archive). La Voz de Houston. August 13, 2015. Retrieved on August 14, 2015.
Demographics In 1860, there were 906 people in the Second Ward, with 482 born outside of the United States, making up 53% of the total, and the remainder born in the United States; those U.S.-born included people from immigrant families. 53% of the total population were people of German descent born outside of the United States. Other residents originated from Algeria, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Cuba, England, France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Nassau, Poland, Switzerland, and Scotland.
As of the 1910 U.S. census, the Second Ward had 405 German nationals, 91 Russians, 79 Italians, 65 Austro-Hungarians, 62 English, 50 Mexicans, 28 Irish, 21 French, 13 Scottish, 12 Swiss, 12 Canadians, 11 Swedes, 10 Norwegians, 7 Greeks, and 7 Poles.
Government and infrastructure
The Houston Fire Department Station 17 Second Ward, located in Fire District 8, serves the community."Fire Stations." City of Houston. Retrieved on May 8, 2010. Firehouse 17 opened in the former Station 2 at Sampson at York in 1926. The station moved to its current location at Delano at Navigation in 1983."Fire Station 17." City of Houston. Retrieved on May 8, 2010.
The Houston Police Department's South Central Patrol Division serves the neighborhood.
Houston Housing Authority (HHA) operates the public housing facility Clayton Homes,"Clayton Homes." Houston Housing Authority. Retrieved on January 2, 2019. "1919 Runnels Houston, Texas 77003" which is in the Second Ward.
The Second Ward is in both Texas's 18th congressional district , whose current Representative is Sheila Jackson Lee, and Texas's 29th congressional district , whose current Representative is Sylvia Garcia.
Harris Health System (formerly Harris County Hospital District) designated the Ripley Health Center in the East End for the ZIP code 77003. - See ZIP code 77003. See this map for relevant ZIP code. In 2000 Ripley was replaced by the Gulfgate Health Center."Gulfgate Health Center" (Archive). Harris County Hospital District. Accessed October 17, 2008. The designated public hospital is Ben Taub General Hospital in the Texas Medical Center.
Education
Primary and secondary schools
Area students attend schools in the Houston Independent School District."'Stros open Enron stadium in 'Classic' business decision." Houston Business Journal. Sunday December 17, 2000. 3. "Mama Ninfa Laurenzo hosted a party this week for 150 children between the ages of six and 10 years old from Anson Jones and Rusk Elementary schools in the Second Ward." Retrieved on February 6, 2012."Rusk EL Boundary Map." Houston Independent School District. March 28, 2002. Retrieved on February 6, 2012."Anson Jones EL Boundary Map." Houston Independent School District. November 22, 2001. Retrieved on February 6, 2012.