1930
With a population of 292,352, Houston was the largest city in Texas and the twenty-sixth most populous city in the nation. Its population had increased 111.4 percent since 1920. Blacks remained the largest minority, numbering 63,337, but their percentage of the city's population had fallen from 39 percent in 1880 to 22 percent in 1930
Houston's Port ranked third nationally in foreign exports. Ship arrivals numbered 2,108, and combined barge and ship freight reached 15,057,360 tons valued at $500,000,000
Industries along the ship channel numbered over forty below the Turning Basin and more than twenty-five above it. They included eight oil refineries capable of processing 194,000 barrels of crude oil daily and representing a $200,000,000 investment
Mayor Monteith's committee to study local unemployment problems set up headquarters at the Hampshaw Building where emergency relief was dispensed
Lyndon Baines Johnson taught school in Houston for two years (1930-1932)
March
Bond issues totaling $13,270,000 are passed
July 4
Balloon races at the Bellaire Speedway draw a crowd of 300,000 people
September 8
"Dad" Joiner brings in the Daisy Bradford # 3, the first producing well in the massive East Texas Oil Field near Henderson
October
The Cruiser Houston ties up at Pier 14
1931
First Texas Prison Rodeo at Huntsville Penitentiary
January
The Port of Houston earned $467,670.16 during 1930 according to figures released by the County Auditor
February
McKee Street bridge across Buffalo Bayou will be 290 feet long--the largest reinforced concrete bridge ever constructed over a Houston Stream
March
A new ferry to serve traffic across the Ship Channel at Pasadena was launched at Buffalo Bayou and Avenue V
April
The San Jacinto Hotel formally opened
May 29
The Custodian and the Tatsuha Maur raced on the waterway leading to the Turning Basin for the honor of carrying Houston's two-millionth bale of cotton
September
Dizzy Dean pitched the Houston Buffaloes to a 7 to 4 victory over the Shreveport sports
October
Houston's Baptist Hospital has the only baby respirator and the only iron lung in Texas. Both were presented to the hospital by a philanthropist
November
The Houston Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Uriel Nespoli makes its debut
1932
January
Benjamin A. Riesner, Sr. dies in Houston at the age of 76
U.S. Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon resigns rather than face impeachment charges brought by Rep. Wright Patman of Texas
U.S. engineers approved a project to increase the ship channel's depth to 32 feet and its width to 400 feet
The Port recorded 2,153 ship arrivals with a combined barge and ship freight of 13,296,246 tons
Adverse business conditions brought the auction sale of the Esperson Building, the Post-Dispatch Building, and the Sam Houston and Warwick Hotels
The value of building permits issued dropped to $2,900,000
February 25
The recondition U.S. Frigate Constitution arrived in Houston for a 4 1/2 day visit at the Turning Basin, where 110,406 went aboard
April
Hundreds of Houstonians were on hand at the Turning Basin on the Ship Channel to see the arrival of four submarines of the U.S. Navy
May
Houston held its first "Fat Stock Show" at the old Sam Houston Hall
1933
State legislature passes a law prohibiting "Caucasians" and "Africans" from boxing and wrestling against each other
Oscar F. Holcombe again Houston's mayor
Alongside the ship channel the giant grain elevator stood empty in mute testimony to depression conditions. It handled 2,967,981 bushels in 1932, but Houston would not again export grain until 1938
With the beginning of the "bank holiday," Houston stores offered their own checks as "change." the streetcar company opened a credit department, and theaters accepted I. O. U.s
March 16
The Equalization Agreement was signed, settling a long dispute over freight rates between Houston and Galveston
April
Under the impact of the depression, charter changes reduced the city council to an approval body and concentrated power in the mayor's hands
June
City authorities rejected plans for a Southern Pacific Station because blacks and whites would have used the same ramps to reach trains
July
The Houston offices of the Home Owner's Loan Corporation opened
August
County Judge Ward, besieged by applicants for permits for beer licenses, said he will be unable to issue any permits before Friday, September 1st
September 29
Houston's first legally-produced beer in fifteen years came form the new Gulf Brewing Company plant
October 16
A series of thirty-two channel lights was put into use, permitting twenty-four hour use of the waterway. Night navigation increased from 110 ships in 1930 to 943 ships in 1936
November
Epsom Downs, Houston's $600,000 racing plant, is unveiled to the public
December
Houston's own beer "Grand Prize" is back on the market after a hiatus of 14 years
December 11
Registration of the jobless began at the City Auditorium, while the National Reemployment Office had already assigned 7,500 to Civil Works Administration projects and had 6,000 more applicants on file
December 15
By this date, the Harris County Board of Welfare and Employment had provided jobs for 8,000 men
1934
Outlaws Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow slain in Louisiana by Dallas County sheriffs and Texas Rangers
The Intracoastal Canal is completed in the Houston area
Efforts to relieve unemployment were hindered by striking oil field, textile, and packing house workers
The Public Works Administration allotted $250,000 for county road work and $403,000 for sewers
Ship arrivals at the city's Port reached 2,489, and the combined barge and ship freight was 19,292,629 tons
Houston Colored Junior College became Houston College for Negroes
February
Houston is recognized as the oil refining capitol of the world
April 30
Houston's Junior College officially becomes the University of Houston
August
Work has started on the $184,000 improvement program for Memorial Park. The improvements include a golf course and club house, picnic grounds, and play grounds
September
A $1,219,000 loan from the Public Works Administration for building a new city hall was approved
September 15
The new $3,000,000 Southern Pacific Railroad Terminal, Grand Central Station was officially dedicated
November
Oscar Holcombe was re-elected mayor for his sixth term
Gene Autry of Tioga makes his first film as a singing cowboy
1935
James V. Allred inaugurate as governor
February
The first eighty-three families took up residence in Houston Gardens, a federal subsistence project north of the city
By mid-year, depression relief amounted to $400,000 from local agencies, $1,215,000 from state agencies, and $6,648,000 from the federal government. Houston was not hurt by the fact that one of her most extraordinary citizens, Jesse H. Jones, was chairman of the Reconstruction finance Corporation (1933-1939)
The Senate approved $3.4 million for deepening the ship channel to thirty-four feet
May
The first graduating class of the University of Houston received its degrees in a ceremony at Miller Memorial Theatre. 75 students wee awarded diplomas.
July
Houston's first exclusive air mail collection box has been installed at Main and Rusk
October
Houston's Jesse Jones was honored at the House of Representatives with the unveiling of a life size portrait of Jones which will hang in the Capitol
October 11
Houston's longest and ugliest depression strike began when longshoremen went out with a general Gulf ports stoppage. Strikebreakers kept the port operative until the strike ended on December 13, 1935
November
Construction began on a new City-County Hospital funded by the Public Works Administration
December
First Week
Heavy rains sent Buffalo Bayou over its banks, causing perhaps the worst flood on record with 36 feet of water higher than normal
Houston ship channel dredged to admit seagoing traffic
1936
April 21
In a statewide observance, the centennial of the Battle of San Jacinto is celebrated at the battlefield
The Port recorded 2,732 ship arrivals with a combined ship and barge freight of 23,800,415 tons
The M.D. Anderson Foundation, a trust to benefit public, advance knowledge and alleviate human suffering , is established by Monroe D. Anderson of Anderson Clayton Company, an international cotton brokerage. Upon his death in 1939, the trust received nearly $20,000,000
Ben Taub and Julius Settigast donated a total of 110 acres for a new Houston University campus southeast of downtown Houston
Building permits worth $18,500 were issued
City officials began discussing flood control measure with U.S. Army Engineers
March
Houston's first parking meter is installed in front of the city hall for demonstration purposes
June 1
The Port's solicitation agency became the Houston Port and traffic Bureau, as the Port commissioners sought new business
June 11
President Roosevelt visits Houston and receives a tumultuous reception when he delivered an address at the San Jacinto Battlefield
November
The new elementary school in Pecan Park bears the name of Joanna Kent Southmayd, organizer and teacher of the first school in the Houston district in 1834
1937
R. H. Fonville took office as mayor
April 21
The Memorial Shaft was dedicated at San Jacinto Battlefield as Jesse Jones sealed the corner stone
June
During the first half of the year, Houston moved to eighth in the nation in new building, with completed construction valued at $11,844, 385
June 1
William Walcott Strong, a representative of organized labor, was appointed as a member of the five-man Port Commission
October
Buffalo Bayou's downtown "bottleneck" is cleared of debris in the first step of an extensive flood control program
October 28
The new Jefferson Davis charity hospital for blacks was completed
November
Houston's magnificent $2,000,000 Sam Houston Coliseum is dedicated
December
The new Jefferson Davis Hospital is opened to the public
1938
Houston ranked fourth among the nation's ocean ports, registering 3,077 ship arrivals with a combined ship and barge freight of 26,737,394 tons
Building permits were issued valued at $25,000,000
April
The new Music Hall in the Sam Houston Coliseum is dedicated
July
Howard Hughes, Houston's globe-circling aviator, landed in Houston as a crowd of 15,000 people cheered
October
Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker flew Mayor Fonville and five Eastern Airlines officials on the inaugural flight of the new passenger and mail service connecting Houston, New Orleans, and San Antonio
1939
Houston becomes the first port in the South and the third in the nation
Houston ranked first in Texas in, among other things, population, new and total car registration, telephone connections, number of electric meters and appliances, number of gas meters, school enrollment, and newspaper circulation
Houston's Port recorded 3,078 ship arrivals, along with a combined barge and ship freight of 28,174,710 tons
A WPA survey showed that almost 80 percent of the vehicles entering the downtown area were private cars carrying 72 percent of the people entering. Buses and streetcars represented 2 percent of the vehicles, but carried only 15 percent of the people
January 2
Oscar Holcombe took office for his seventh term as mayor
February
Harris County voters approved a $500,000 bond issue for a flood control and drainage program that would ultimately cost $23,000,000
May
Formal dedication of Houston's first municipal swimming pool is held at Stude Park
May 27
The University of Houston moved to its new campus, occupying its first building on the St. Bernard Street and received a WPA grant of $553,284 to fund a heating plant and other improvements
A ruling: Houston wins the right to control a 25,000 foot wide strip of land along the ship channel for 20 miles from the city limits coupled with state laws granting surrounding cities nearly unrestricted authority to annex
The City Hall was built by the WPA
1940
Houston ranked twenty-first in the nation with population of 384,514. It was a 31.5 percent increase over 1930, and the black population was now 86,302. Houston also had registered 170,000 motor vehicles
Ship arrivals fell to 2,809, but freight tonnage remained near the 1939 level with 27,385,589 tons
Five steamship lines discontinued service to Houston, as the war disrupted shipping
Building permits worth $24,253,888 were issued
The city possessed a $22,000,000 public school system with 2,250 teachers, 74,000 students, and 115 buildings. All facilities were segregated
February 20
A board of army engineers and Federal representatives announced approval of a $32,000,000 Harris County's flood control plan
March
The first diesel locomotive of the Houston Belt and Terminal Railroad is placed in service
April
The bus system replaces a 60-year tradition of street cars. An agreement was reached between the city and the Houston Electric Company for abandoning streetcar lines and inaugurating an all-bus transit system
June 9
The last electric streetcar to operate in Houston completed its final run
July 21
With all appropriation of $585,000 from the U.S. Housing Authority, local authorities began a second low-rent project in Houston, San Felipe Courts. It was inspired by a survey which revealed 25,680 families living in substandard housing
October 16
The nation's first peacetime draft called 77,177 Harris County men to registration offices
PROGRESS DESPITE DEPRESSION
By Marvin Hurley
EFLECTING the growth during the
prosperity of the 1920’s, the United States recorded a population of 122,775,046 in
1930, and Texas had 5,824,715, with urban population having increased to 41 percent of the
total. Having expanded to 72.2 square miles to accommodate its growth, Houston had a
population of 292,352 in 1930, having more than doubled in ten years. It had increased its
national ranking to 27th among cities of the country. Harris County had 359,352 people,
surging into first place among Texas counties over Dallas and Bexar counties. In 1929 the
county had 475 manufacturing plants with 26,21 3 employees.
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The Museum of Fine Arts, circa 1931. |
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The Intracoastal Canal system in 1934 linked Houston with the entire Mississippi River system of navigation, involving 9,812 miles of inland waterway spanning mid-America from Sioux City and St. Paul to Chicago and Pittsburgh. The University of Houston, founded in 1927 as a junior college, with Chamber of Commerce encouragement attained senior university status in 1934, and was on its way to its present position as second in size in the state, with almost 20,000 students, now being a part of the State University system.
With expanded air service being provided by Braniff and with the Port of Houston pushing up to rank second in tonnage in the nation, Houston’s optimistic outlook in coming out of the depression was dealt a staggering blow in 1935 when unprecedented rains overflowed Buffalo Bayou and inundated sections of downtown Houston in the worst flood the city ever suffered. With the too obvious need of flood control measures dramatizing its efforts, the Chamber of Commerce took immediate action to protect the city from this hazard in the future. Emergency measures were followed by the step-by-step development of a countywide flood control program on which the Chamber of Commerce has worked very closely with Harris County since that time.
The Centennial Year for both Houston and Texas in 1936
supplied the motivation for the Chamber of Commerce to initiate activities resulting in
the construction of the nation’s tallest monolithic monument to memorialize the
Texans who fought in the Battle of San Jacinto. This 570-foot structure, including the
125-foot-square base, was completed in 1939, and houses the San Jacinto museum.
Eastern Airlines inaugurated service into Houston in 1936, and during the same year, the City of Houston took action on a strong recommendation from the Chamber of Commerce and bought land for runways and hangars to build Houston’s first municipally owned and operated airport. The Fort Worth & Denver Railway’s 100-mph diesel-powered streamliner began Houston to Dallas-Fort Worth runs.
Then at the close of the decade, after Europe appeased its way into World War II, Houston’s leaders, recognizing that Houston with its industrial complex and with the resources of its area would become an increasingly strategic arsenal, met at the Chamber of Commerce to plan a program of cooperation with the national defense effort. It was also during this critical year that an all-bus transit system replaced street cars in the city.
When the Houston Chamber of Commerce took stock at the end of the year, it found the Port of Houston second only to the Port of New York in tonnage, and that the area was gaining increasing recognition as a desirable site for the location of industries and distribution facilities. A survey had shown that 62 percent of the city’s population were more or less directly dependent upon the petroleum industry and its related business. Wright Morrow, president of the Chamber of Commerce, considered this a challenge for achieving greater diversification in the community’s economy.
Agriculture was still basic to the economy of the area, and the convention business was being recognized as a major new industry. While the outlook for the city was optimistic, it was realized that within the last year the map of Europe had been changed, with a great part of the world plunged into another war. None could then foretell what shocks civilization might be called upon to endure or what adjustments might result from the conflict.
y the end of 1939, Houston was no
longer a frontier town. While it still had youth and vigor, and while it had more than its
share of vision and resolution, it was beginning to have some of the problems of maturity.
A much more comprehensive highway and thoroughfare system was needed for the still
relatively new automobile age. Early signs were beginning to show up of deterioration, of
the need for renewal and rehabilitation. Industry was becoming a significant factor in the
economy, and the need was recognized for greater diversification in Houston’s
economic base. The air age was being felt, and Houston’s airline service was not
adequate even for that pioneering period in airline passenger and cargo history.
Having weathered the depths of the depression better than most American cities, Houston was ready in 1939 to meet its challenges—but, this would have to wait. As the nation steeled itself for the war effort, Houston found itself very much a part of the world conflict. Both Houston and the Houston Chamber of Commerce had enlisted in the service of their country for the duration of World War II.
