1960
The Houston International Airport is rendered inadequate.
Houston's population of 938,219, nearly twice as many as the 596,163 counted in 1950, ranked it seventh in the nation. The city's metropolitan area included 1,243,158 people, making it the sixteenth largest. Houston grew seven times as fast as the average major city in the 1950s
Houston's port recorded 4,529 ship arrivals with a combined barge and ship freight tonnage of 57,132,659 tons
Houston remained primarily a commercial-distributive rather than a manufacturing center. Nationally, 27 percent of the labor force was involved in manufacturing, while the figure for Houston was 19.6 percent
Congress appropriated $19,000,000,000 to deepen the ship channel
A Civil Aeronautics Board examiner recommended Houston be placed on the proposed southern transcontinental route, thus giving the city direct jet service between Florida and California. The city purchased a 4,000-acre site for a new municipal airport
A committee set up by the mayor recommended zoning for the city
MarchRoy Rogers and Dale Evens host the televised Chevy Show from the rodeo arena in Houston
April
Rice Institute became Rice University
May 4
Black students from Texas Southern University initiated the first sit-in in Texas, trying to force equal lunch counter service
JulyHoustonians flood Washington with telegrams in a last minute attempt to save the homesite of Lorenzo de Zavala, a patriot of the Texas Revolution
August 4
District Court Judge Connally labeled the school board's desegregation plan a "palable sham and subterfuge." He ordered desegregation to commence in all first grades in September 1960 and to proceed at one grade per year thereafter
August 26
Houston was in the midst of a great building boom. To date for the year, the city had issued building permits worth $192,322,336, a jump of $50,000,000 over the same period for 1959
September 1
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the Houston School Board's appeal to defer integration of public schools
September
Integration of first grades in Houston schools began with twelve black children attending "white schools," but it was occurring under restriction so limiting as to severely curtail black attendance in " white schools." For example, no black student could enter if the child had an older brother or sister in an all-black school. Thus, six years after the historic Supreme Court decision, only 12 out of the city's 46,000 black children enjoyed its benefits
The Houston International Airport is rendered inadequate
John F. Kennedy of Hyannisport, MA and Lyndon Baines Johnson of Johnson City, Texas, elected president and vice-president of the United States
A. J. Foyt of Houston wins the first of his seven U. S. Auto Club racing titles
Houston Oilers pro football team wins the first American Football League championship
Allen Drury of Houston awarded Pulitzer Prize for novel Advise and Consent
The census' decennial tally records 938,219 Houstonians, nearly twice as many as the 596,163 counted in 1950
NovemberThe Hermann Park Zoo has acquired a rare spitting cobra named Marie who will grace the new $116,000 reptile house to be opened next month
1961
The Port of Houston completed most of a $12,500,000 expansion program that included new docks and transit sheds, and an automatic bulk materials handling plant capable of processing, 1,000 tons of dry bulk an hour
The unprecedented construction boom continued at the rate of $377,000,000 worth of building a year. Included were $4,00,000,000 square feet of downtown office space
Construction proceeded on a $244,000,000 master highway program with the opening of several major interchanges
Houston's murder rate of 10. 9 per 100,000 was 2 1/2 times the national rate, and 3 1/2 times that of New York City
January
The new Business Technology Room of the Houston Public Library is formally dedicated
January 27
The City Hall cafeteria began serving blacks
February 4
The 32-story glass-and-marble First City National Building was opened
April
150 of the air-conditioned "Dreamliner" buses have been ordered by the Houston Transit Company
April 12
Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the 1st human in space, orbiting the Earth one time
May
The school board refused to rent space in a junior high school for an American Civil Liberties Union display, because the group's "feelings are not in keeping with the thinking of the people of Houston"
May 5
Astronaut Alan B. Shepard, Jr. becomes the first American in space with a 15-minute sub orbital flight
July 14
Robert Welch of the John Berch Society called Houston one of his two strongest cities
September
Hurricane "Carla" struck the Gulf Coast, bringing one of the most destructive storms in modern Houston history
September 19
James E. Webb of the National Aeronautics Space Administration announced that Houston had been chosen as the site of the new $60,000,000 Manned Spacecraft Center
A Civil Aeronautics Board issues rules that end the Dallas monopoly on east-west air routes
Construction begins on a new Houston Intercontinental Airport in northern Harris County
December
Lewis Cutrer is reelected Mayor after a runoff with Louis Welch
1962
The Port of Houston recorded 4,276 ship arrivals with a combined barge and ship freight of 58,604,886 tons. The major exports by value were wheat, cotton, and construction and mining machinery
The Stanford Research Institute drafted a master plan for a downtown Civic Center which called for a $50,000,000 investment on a 147-acre site and completion by 1980
Houston had almost exactly the same population as Baltimore but 64 percent more automobiles
Work began on the $100,000,000 Intercontinental Airport
January 29
The 12-story World Trade Center was officially opened. The first of its kind in the United States, it was intended as a focal point for port activity with offices for consuls, exporters, and freight forwarders among others. The World Trade Club, the Houston World Trade Association and the Institute of International Education
January 31
U. S. Judge Joe Ingraham ordered desegregation of Sylvan Beach, a county park
February
The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo celebrates it 30th anniversary
February 20
Astronaut John Glen becomes the first American in orbit
April 10
Major League baseball arrived in Houston when the Colt . 45s (Astros) played their first game
May 7
Mayor Cutrer ended discrimination in all city owned buildings
June
Houston endowment, Incorporated, offers the city $6,000,000 to build a new downtown center for the performing arts
July 1
The last member of the Manned Spacecraft team arrived in Houston, completing the transfer from Langley Field, Virginia
The building boom continued as building permits for January through August totaled $240,000,000
Fall
NASA initiated a "brainpower" exchange with local universities; professors began visiting the MSC labs, scientist and the classrooms
August
Houston's record breaking string of nine consecutive days of 100 degrees or over has ended
September 11
President John F. Kennedy inspected the MSC facilities and spoke at Rice Stadium
November 6
Houston remained the nation's only major unzoned city, as voters turned down another proposal in a referendum
December 28
The Federal Court of Appeals in New Orleans overturned Houston's brother-sister rule, which prohibited registration by a black child in a "white school" if the child had an older brother or sister in an all-black school
The Rice Institute changes its name to Rice University
The Rice Institute begins admitting students of all races, introduces tuition fees, and for the 1st time becomes eligible to participate in federally funded programs
Houston becomes the center of the manned space explorations of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and receives the sobriquet "Space City"
1963
A survey by Dr. Warren Rose revealed that the direct and secondary income impact accruing from all port-related activities amounted to $442,000,000, and that 11 percent of the city's labor force was employed as a direct or secondary result of port activities
The ship channel now represented a $2,550,000,000 investment and was served by six railroads, thirty-eight trucking lines, one hundred steamship lines, thirty-five freight forwarders, eight barge lines, and nineteen stevedore concerns
The 21-story 500 Jefferson Building , the 44-story Humble Building , and the 35-story Tennessee Building were among the ten new structures opened which increased office space by 41 percent
While the national ratio of wholesale to retail employees was 1:2.7, Houston's ratio was 1:1.5, stressing the city's role as a distribution center
The movement away from center city continued. In 1940, 70 percent of the doctors, 76 percent of the engineers, and 30 percent of the architects worked in the central business district. In 1963 the percentages were 14 percent for doctors, 24 percent for engineers, and 10 percent for architects
The new Ben Taub Hospital for city-county patients opened
February
Frank Atkin, a student at Jesse H. Jones Senior High School is sent home from school for wearing his hair in a ducktail
May
Houston's first major league baseball no-hitter is pitched by Don Nottebart of the Houston Colts against the Philadelphia Phils
July
Ollie Harris, a black, joined the school administration
August
NASA was spending $1,000,000 a month on contracts with about 500 local firms for various services
August 7
A 353-day strike against the Shell Oil Company refinery and chemical plant ended
October
Houston has not had a single case of polio reported in 1963
September
Rice University became the first U.S. university to establish a Department of Space Science
The school board reaffirmed a decision to bar black children from kindergarten
September 1
The University of Houston became a state funded school under a nine-man board appointed by the governor
September 16
Houston Baptist College admitted its first class
November
Bill F. Elliot became the first Republican elected to the city council since Reconstruction
Councilman Louis Welch wins the Mayor's post in Houston, gaining 44,950 votes, nearly 16,000 votes more than his nearest opponent. He will remain Mayor until 1974
November 19
University of Houston made blacks eligible for intercollegiate athletic programs
November 21
President and Mrs. John F. Kennedy had a private dinner in the International Suite at the Rice Rittenhouse Hotel. It was Kennedy's last supper
December 27
Chancellor Ludwig Erhard of West Germany was made an honorary citizen and given the key to the city
The completion of several large buildings downtown, increases
office space in the city by 40 percent and foremost among these is the
Cullen Center
1964
Louie Welch takes office as mayor of Houston
Houston Port was the nation's third largest , moving 59,152,653 tons of freight and recording 4,257 ship arrivals
There were 587,000 registered automobiles in Harris County because 95 percent of Houston's residents depended upon private auto transportation
January 27
Carolyn White became the first black employed at City Hall
January 28
The city dropped the item of race designation on job applications
February 4
The Humble Oil Company announced plans for a $900,000,000, 7,250-acre industrial complex at Bayport
The Houston Port Commissioners announced plans to build a $13,400,000 port and ship channel to serve the planned Humble industrial complex
March 3
The Houston Symphony under Sir John Barbirolli was well received by the audience and critics after a performance at Philharmonic Hall in New York
March 9
The Rice University trustees won a court fight to alter the trust instrument drawn by the institution's founder so as to permit the entrance of non-white students
April
Tornado-like winds sweep across Harris County causing death and destruction
Summer
An encephalitis epidemic resulted in 18 deaths and 179 suspected cases by the end of August. As a result, in November the voters approved the creation of a county-wide mosquito control district with a tax levy to support it
June
NASA completed its move into the Clear Lake facilities
July
Candace Mossler inherits the bulk of her husband's $15,000,000 estate
September
Seven hundred black students integrated the public schools
November
Several members of the Houston Police have been discovered to be John Birchers
November 10
The fiftieth anniversary of the "Deep Water" port was celebrated with a telephone message from President Johnson which set off a charge to break ground for three new piers
November
Voters approved an arrangement with the Trinity River Authority for the construction and operation of water-gathering and storage facilities, which would supply adequate water for industrial use in the future
1965
Reapportionment left Houston with a third congressional seat, three new senators, and seven new representatives to the state legislature
Harris County employment stood at 600,000 with wages and salaries totaling $3,300,000,000
February
Houston is going to have to build some new roads out to the new Supersonic Airport because it is virtually isolated due to access road shortage
April 9
The First Major League baseball game was played in the Harris County domed stadium, the Astrodome. Built at a cost of over $45,000,000, it is 710 feet in diameter, 218 feet high, and totally air conditioned
May
85% of the black students boycott five black high schools to protest the slow pace of integration in Houston
May 10
Nine hundred black students, led by the NAACP, boycotted high schools in a bid to speed up integration
May 15
Blacks, led by Rev. W.A. Lawson, pressed for public school integration and rallied to protest a projected bond issue which, in effect, would have financed segregated facilities
May 20
Voters approved a school bond issue which would essentially finance segregated school facilities despite black opposition
June 21
After a Justice Department warning, the school board voted four to three to integrate all grades by 1967 and seek federal aid for Houston's schools
July
The Bureau of Census redefined Houston's metropolitan area to include Brazoria, Fort Bend, Liberty, and Montgomery counties along with Harris County. An area of 359.7 square miles, with a population of 1,695,000 was added to the metropolitan district
September
The first football game played in the Harris County Domed Stadium ends with Tulsa beating U. of H. 14 - 0
November 12
Four hundred students from Texas Southern University rioted on Wheeler Avenue after a pep rally
November 20
After four previous rejections and amidst considerable excitement, voters approved the creation of a hospital district with taxing powers as a means of financing public hospitals
December
The Houston Chronicle, the city's evening paper, was sold by the Houston Endowment, Inc. to John Mecom in an $85,000,000 deal that also involved the Rice Hotel and other downtown properties
The first enclosed sports stadium in the world, the Harris County Domed Stadium, or the Astrodome, opens 7 miles southwest of downtown and is immediately claimed by Houstonians to be the "Eighth Wonder of the World"
YEARS OF DIVERSIFICATION
By Marvin Hurley
rowing anxiety in the midst of
plenty characterized the period from 1960 to 1965. Never before had the economy of the
nation experienced such a sustained period of growth. After a few months of uneasiness
when hopes for the "soaring sixties" began to encounter some doubts, upward
trends began which were to persist throughout the next five years, and 1965 ended on a
note of continuing and confident strength. But while the economy glowed in bright hues,
this became a period of growing uncertainty. Cold war flamed into conflict in Vietnam.
Bonds of international cooperation began to break up. Balance-of-payments problems led to
strict regulations. And racial tensions spread throughout the United States.
The Chamber of Commerce stepped up its activity on a balanced program to meet community needs and possibilities, making annual modifications in program and organization to keep in step with the changing requirements of a fast-moving age and a dynamic community. Its activities became increasingly area-wide in their consideration and results.
Evidence of growth was found everywhere. Beginning with 1961 and extending through 1965, the period showed an increase of 213,000 in telephones, a net increase in five years of more telephones than there were installed in the Houston district altogether in 1945. The period also saw a gain of 88,000 scholastics in the county, requiring 3,500 new school rooms. A total of 95,000 persons were added to the work force during these five years. During this period, Houston’s Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area was increased from Harris County alone to include Brazoria, Fort Bend, Liberty and Montgomery Counties as well.
The most
dramatic event of these years of diversification for Houston was the advent of the Space
Age, with the coming of the NASA Manned Spacecraft Center in 1961. Then the transfer
of the Mission Control Center to Houston in 1965 focused a world spotlight on this city
for sustained periods during manned flights in space. The Spacecraft Center has already
involved a construction program well in excess of one hundred million dollars, a direct
annual payroll in excess of $40,000,000, and the attraction of contracting and servicing
industries with a combined payroll approximating that of the Center itself.
Houston maintained the buoyant confidence of a frontier town, with creative excitement in the air. Houston most likely has had more urban renewal, with less credit for its achievements, than any other city in the nation during the last twenty years. While other cities were waiting for the "federal bulldozer" to level certain condemned areas, Houston was clearing block after block to make way for modern buildings and other upgraded land uses. While other cities were struggling with the relocation of people displaced by urban renewal, the home-building industry of Houston went right ahead giving those of all income levels a choice of housing. Rehabilitation as well as tearing down and rebuilding are a way of life in Houston—so much a part of the day-to-day routine that few have actually considered this to be urban renewal. Among the one-word descriptions that have been applied to Houston are: "challenge", "opportunity", "confidence", "dynamism", ‘‘courtesy’’, "culture", and "creativity."
For many years, Houston has been trying to carry out the challenge inherent in a statement by President Lyndon B. Johnson. He said:
"We have learned—too often through the hard lessons of neglect and waste—that if man brutalizes the landscape, he wounds his own spirit; if he raises building which are trivial or offensive, he admits the poverty of his imagination; if he creates joyless cities, he imprisons himself. And we have learned that an environment of order and beauty can delight, inspire and liberate men."
Economic data submitted in briefs to the Civil Aeronautics Board in connection with air-service cases indicate the economic importance already achieved by Houston. From 1954 to 1963, Houston’s increase of 84.2 percent in value added by manufacture ranked first among the nation’s fifteen largest standard metropolitan statistical areas. Houston also ranked first in the rate of population increase for these areas, with a growth of 76.7 percent from 1950 to 1964, and it ranked second only to Los Angeles in its net population increase for the same period.
From 1945 to 1965, there were substantial shifts in the distribution of personal income from various sources in Texas. Income from farming, for example, declined from 11.2 percent of the total income of Texas to 4.4 percent, while personal income from manufacturing, trade, government and professional services showed substantial increases in their percentages of the state’s total. Finance increased from 1.3 percent to 3.1 percent. From 1958 to 1963, retail trade in Houston increased 24.5 percent, compared to 17.8 percent in Dallas, 6.6 percent in Fort Worth, and 12.5 percent in San Antonio. The ability of Houston’s central business district to maintain its retail importance is indicated by the fact that from 1958 to 1963, retail trade in this core district declined only one-tenth of one percent in Houston, compared to a drop of 17.3 percent in Dallas’ central business district, 14.7 percent decline in Fort Worth’s and 1.8 percent decrease in San Antonio’s.
During this five-year period, Houston built 23 major office buildings, with a total of 359 floors and 6,648,000 square feet of office space. Under construction at the end of 1965 were three major office buildings, aggregating 64 floors and 950,000 square feet of office space. Thus, Houston built more office space from 1961-1965 than it had in its 116-year history through 1952. Houston has demonstrated in recent years that total community development calls for a strong and effective balance and an active teamwork of the governmental, private and volunteer sectors. For many years it has been demonstrating the truth of a statement by the 1965 president of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States "Private investment must be the keystone to the arch of the total community development. If there is to be private initiative and private planning, they must be backed up by private investment. The fact remains that no matter how much help you may get from outside, the job of developing your community to its full potential is the job of local people." After some uncertainty during 1960, the new year of 1961 opened on a strong note of economic optimism that continued despite disturbing developments on the international scene. President Kennedy proposed an Alliance for Progress to raise living standards in Latin America, but the Castro regime soon made it necessary for the United States to end diplomatic relations with Cuba. A few months later an ill-advised and inadequately-supported anti-Castro invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs was crushed. The Communists sealed off East Berlin with a wall. The Soviet Union startled the world, and challenged science and education in the United States, when Cosmonaut Yuri Gargarin became the first man to orbit the earth. A few months later Astronaut Alan B. Shepard, Jr., making a sub orbital trip, became the first American in space. The Soviet challenge prompted quick expansion of the research and development program of our own federal government. Budget provisions for the federal government’s entire research and development program climbed from $1,400,000,000 in 1953 to $6,100,000,000 in 1960 and to $17,000,000,000 in 1965. The nation’s total research and development expenditures, public and private, climbed from $10,500,000,000 in 1960 to $22,000,000,000 in 1965.Records for the 1960 decennial census showed a population of 179,323,175 for the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii, and a total of 9,579,677 for Texas, up 24.2 percent since 1950. The population of Harris County was 1,243,158, up 54.1 percent in ten years; and for Houston, the growth in the decade had been 57.4 percent, up from 596,163 in 1950 to 938,219 in 1960. During this period, the rate of Houston’s increase was approximately seven times the 8.2 percent average for the nation’s larger cities.
Employment passed the half-million mark, and housing starts slacked off slightly as a trend toward high-rise apartments became apparent. A major office building program was getting under way, with the Americana Building, the First City National Bank Building and the World Trade Center being completed during 1961, with construction under way on seven other office buildings. P. H. Robinson, president of the Chamber of Commerce, said:"Many American cities today suffer severe heart trouble. Old-age blight, attacking the heart of the downtown areas, rapidly spreads its infection outward. But current downtown construction in the heart of Houston probably totals more than a quarter of a billion dollars in multi-story projects recently completed, under way or announced. Including suburban and Medical Center-area construction, the totals would probably rise to more than $400,000,000. Present building programs will probably add five million square feet of floor space to rental properties in downtown Houston."
Listing the objectives of the Chamber of Commerce for 1961, President Robinson gave major emphasis to industrial development, with primary stress on consumer-products manufacturing, including both durable and non-durable goods. Efforts would be continued, he said, on major airlines cases still pending before the Civil Aeronautics Board and for the earliest possible development of the new Houston Intercontinental Airport. Increased emphasis would be put on tourist development and on conventions, which had already become a major industry for Houston. Efforts would be launched to get a new delineation for the Houston Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area, and new emphasis would be given to world trade and to expansion of Houston as a headquarters city.
 |
|
NASA launches Cdr. Alan Shepherd, Jr. in Mercury 3 spacecraft Freedom 7 to become the first American in space with a sub-orbital flight lasting 15 min. 22sec. on May 5, 1961. |
Not long afterwards, an Humble executive in an appearance before the Executive Committee pointed out that the project involved the general community interest. He said the West Ranch lands had been described as "the largest undeveloped area of its kind in North America capable of industrial development". The Board of Directors of Humble was about ready to announce the development program for the area when a series of extravagant annexation measures by adjacent municipalities left the property inside of three separate in-corporations. Because of this, the development that had been planned was threatened with being delayed for three or four years.
A series of events was creating a situation that would influence this development. Speaking in Houston in March, 1961, Colonel John P. Stapp, who had flown faster than any other man at the time, told an audience at the University of Houston that man is physically capable of space travel. Until that time, Houston had given little thought to the frontier of space. A short time later, Russia orbited a man around the earth. Early in June, while on a trip to Washington, I heard rumors of some type of new installation for the nation’s space effort, and made calls at the office of Vice President Johnson and upon Congressmen Albert Thomas and Bob Casey. While the project was still in the planning stage, I was assured that Houston would receive consideration as a location for the project. I was advised that Houston should make every effort to convince any site-selection team visiting the area that it could fully and completely meet the criteria that would be under investigation.
The inspection team conducted its investigation a few weeks later, receiving full cooperation from the City of Houston, the Rice University, and the Chamber of Commerce. George R. Brown and Morgan J. Davis were especially effective in working out site arrangements with Congressman Thomas. On Tuesday morning, September 19th, announcement was made from Washington that the space laboratory, as it was first designated, would be built on property given to Rice University by the Humble Oil and Refining Company in the Clear Lake area, and that the installation would cost about $60,000,000. Within the hour, I had talked to Colonel John "Shorty" Powers, public affairs officer of the NASA Space Task Group at Langley Field, Virginia. We agreed to air-express Houston literature that afternoon for a Houston information office at Langley Field for the benefit of those who might be transferred to Houston. We arranged with local newspapers to send several copies of each edition to this information office, and wired NASA Administrator James Webb, offering the facilities and services of the Chamber of Commerce in connection with the move from Langley Field to Houston.
The next day, we sent two members of our staff to Langley Field with movies and slide presentations to meet with the personnel of the task force. It was estimated that 1,600 would be employed in Houston the first year, and that employment would reach 3,500 by the end of the third year of operations. On October 3
rd, a group of NASA representatives, headed by Robert R. Gilruth, visited Houston for off-the-record conferences. With him and Walter Williams were Colonel Powers and six of the seven Mercury astronauts. Shepard and Grissom had already made sub-orbital flights, and Glenn was getting ready for his orbital flight. These first visitors were followed by Martin Byrnes, NASA representative, who began making arrangements for office space, personnel recruitment, housing and construction. Houston was thus launched into the space program.Houston had been selected in keen competition with at least 20 other cities. The determination of the location was based on fourteen critical points; and, after a thorough inspection of local facilities, NASA’s four-man inspection team found that Houston "more than meets the criteria, according to Deputy Director John Parsons of the NASA Research Center at Ames, California. These criteria included: industrial complex to support project, availability of water transportation, labor market including skilled craftsmen and scientists, accessibility of modern communications, general community facilities, access to colleges and universities, abundant electric power, mild climate, good water supply, 1,000 acres of usable land (soon increased to 1,600), sound over-all economy able to absorb the facility, low site development costs, reasonable operating costs, and availability of ample interim facilities.
A 32-year fight for adequate coast-to-coast air service culminated March 14th when the Civil Aeronautics Board announced its decision in the Southern Transcontinental Service Case. This service was made even more urgent by the Manned Spacecraft Center location. This case had been initiated several years before when a group of Houston leaders conferred in Washington with the Civil Aeronautics Board to present evidence of the inadequacy of Houston air service. This decision granted a single-carrier transcontinental service between Florida and California points with Houston as the only intermediate stop, plus additional schedules by two other carriers. National Airlines would fly a Miami-Houston-Los Angeles route, as well as one from Houston to San Francisco. Continental Air Lines was authorized to fly non-stop Houston to Los Angeles as well as serve a multi-stop route. American Airlines was given a route between Houston and the West Coast with a stop at Phoenix.
Before service could be inaugurated under this authorization, however, the Chamber of Commerce prevailed upon American, Continental and National to supply a three-way interchange service between Florida and California with a stop at Houston. The historic first flight under this arrangement took place June 11th, thus inaugurating, for all practical purposes, the Southern Transcontinental Route service.
Houston’s emerging importance as a major air center and gateway was given still another boost during the year when the master plan for the development of the Intercontinental Airport at the 6,128-acre Jetero site was adopted by Mayor Lewis Cutrer and the City Council on October 11th. Early in the year, the Aviation Committee had inaugurated an effort to accelerate the purchase of right-of-way for the North Belt between the Eastex Freeway and Interstate 45 for access to the new airport and for provision of construction funds for the 8.5-mile section to be included in a bond issue at the earliest possible date.
Civic activities were being expanded by the Chamber of Commerce; and, in order to clarify its position with reference to suggested programs of urban renewal under federal provisions, the Board of Directors adopted this policy statement: "The basic responsibility for urban development rests at the local level. Renewal projects like new construction depend upon sound investments by business and industrial organizations and individuals through the private enterprise system. The Chamber of Commerce should provide leadership for community analysis, long-range plans for orderly development, promotion of programs to make the community a better place to work and live, and to coordinate constructive influences for community progress.
"Local governmental jurisdictions should plan, finance and maintain essential public facilities. The state government should cooperate with local government in dealing effectively with problems of community and area development. The federal government should coordinate its policies and programs with community development planning of local and state governments, relinquishing to states appropriate tax sources that will make it possible for state and local governments to finance public facilities that traditionally have been a responsibility of government rather than of private financing."
In reviewing the cultural accomplishments of Houston in the June, 1961, issue of "Houston Magazine", General Maurice Hirsch concluded: "Houston has come of age in its cultural life without losing the vigor and inspired objectives of youth. The time has passed for Houston to be culturally on the defensive or apologetic. Certainly and fortunately we are still in a frontier area and we are young; but, therefore, we are not hidebound in useless tradition nor weakened with calcified cultural senility. We are sufficiently bold and independent not to accept mediocrity merely because it is familiar or old, but also not to refuse excellence just because it is different or new.
"Our cultural accomplishments are great, but our aspirations are ever greater. Houston has provided for those who now live here and for those who will come after us not only the physical surroundings of cultural opportunity, but a pervading spirit which breathes into that environment the beauty of gracious and exalted living. The future is our field, and we have created here in the present a stalwart and satisfying and inspirational foundation upon which to base the unlimited expansion in cultural life that our future affords.. .Houston now can proudly proclaim what we here possess and cherish: a city of commerce in its broadest meaning—and in its finest aspects, a city of culture."
Looking at 1961, in review, it was an eventful opening to begin Houston’s years of diversification. Houston’s population passed the 1,000,000 mark on September 18, just one day before Houston became headquarters for the nation’s man in space program with the location here of the NASA Manned Spacecraft Center. The space program inaugurated a new era of research and development activities for the Houston area. The city’s east-west air service was established on a satisfactory basis with the decision by the Civil Aeronautics Board in the Southern Transcontinental Service Case. Voters approved a general obligation tax bond issue to finance construction of the Harris County Domed Stadium. The City of Houston approved a master plan for the development of the Intercontinental Airport. Plans were completed for the transformation of the West Ranch property into a gigantic planned development, although formal announcement was withheld for a time.
"Proud as we are of our population growth, we are even prouder of the fact that we have never lost sight of our over-all objective to make Houston a community which all of us, in all walks of life, are proud to call home," said President Robinson. "The community scored advances in a wide range of civic undertakings during the year in pursuit of this objective."
During 1961, efforts to attract more of the growing volume of tourist business to the Houston area were increased through the Tourism Action Committee of the Chamber of Commerce. It completed a study of historic places in the Houston area, compiled information on guest ranches, developed a current-events calendar, and published travel brochures on Houston in French, German, Spanish and Italian. Industry invested more than $400,000,000 during the year in the area in 228 new and expansion projects. Encouragement was given to Air France to exercise its bilateral rights to operate into Houston.
An appraisal was made of three international trade and goodwill trips, sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce to Central America, the Caribbean area, and to Europe. The Executive Committee decided to discontinue such projects until it would be possible to enlist the participation of those more directly involved in international affairs and world-trade matters. The Highway Committee completed a comprehensive "Local Street and Road Finance Study", calling for long-range planning and financing programs for the construction of needed streets and roads in Houston and throughout Harris County. This was a companion study to an earlier study, "1975 Freeways and 1925 Thoroughfares."Strongly supported by the Chamber of Commerce, the Texas Legislature under the leadership of Senator Robert Baker and Representative Chris Cole acted to make the University of Houston a state-supported institution, beginning in 1963. With an enrollment of 11,000, this University was already second only to the University of Texas in size in the state. It was estimated that the master plan for flood control in Harris County would be completed late in 1969, and that work already done had saved the area more than $40,000,000 since the disastrous flood of 1935.
A survey of church activity in 1961 showed more than 1,200 congregations, with more than 1,800 rabbis, priests and preachers. Metropolitan Houston had $12,400,000 in church construction in 1960, up from $9,200,000 in 1959, and a total of $87,840,188 for the decade of the 1950’s. Enrollment in the public schools of Harris County for the 1959-1960 school year was 247,217, compared to 134,620 in 1950-1951, and 95,855 in 1940-1941. Dr. Philip C
. Hoffman succeeded General A. D. Bruce as President of the University of Houston. Dr. Kenneth S. Pitzer became Rice University’s third president. Houston’s Rapid Transit Company, in new hands, received the first 100 air-conditioned "Dreamliner" buses, placing them in service on September 10, 1961.At the annual meeting of the Chamber of Commerce in December, Dr. Robert R. Gilruth, Director of the NASA Manned Spacecraft Center, made the first announcement of the Gemini phase of the space program. "To get on with Project Apollo," he said, "we need more experience with orbital flights around the earth and with space rendezvous." He made the announcement while paying tribute to the Chamber of Commerce for its outstanding cooperation with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in helping the Manned Spacecraft Center to get established here. On May 25, 1961, President Kennedy had outlined a new national objective-a manned landing on the moon and return to the earth before the end of the decade.
With the United States committed to a program of space exploration, with the economy of the country increasingly influenced by automation and science-oriented activities, and with confrontation with the Communists over Cuba and the situation in Viet Nam deteriorating, the United States faced 1962 confident only in the growing strength of its economy. The Russians removed their missiles from Cuba after a firm American stand under the leadership of President John F. Kennedy. Despite rioting, James H. Meredith enrolled at the University of Mississippi under the protection of United States marshals. The highlight of the year, however, for the nation and for Houston came early in the year when Astronaut John H. Glenn, Jr., became the first American to orbit the earth. The country needed a hero, and Colonel Glenn met the need.
Under the leadership of George T. Morse, Jr., the Houston Chamber of Commerce continued its emphasis on the diversification of the area’s economic base throughout 1962. The expanded industrial-development program marked the beginning of a series of contact trips by delegations of Houstonians to a number of industrial centers. Increased activity in the fields of conventions and tourists led to the development of preliminary plans for an independent agency to promote these growth industries. Activities through the new World Trade Center and increased international air service contributed to the further development of Houston’s potential in international trade.
Having long recognized that Houston could not build a wall around itself insofar as the surrounding area was concerned, the Chamber of Commerce further developed the area concept of economic development. Efforts at the Washington level were increased to get a redefinition of the Houston Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area to include contiguous counties. Conferences were held with area groups, and Chambers of Commerce in nearby cities and towns were urged to name representatives to attend the regular meetings of the Gulf Area Development Committee of the Chamber of Commerce. "Houston Magazine" developed a series of articles on the Houston eight-county complex.
The move of the NASA personnel to the new Manned Spacecraft Center operations in Houston, however, dominated interest in local development. Houston was caught up in the explosive pace of technology both in the United States and elsewhere in the world, as demonstrated most dramatically by the Vanguards, Explorers, Pioneers and other space vehicles in this country and by the Sputniks, Luniks and Vostoks of the Soviet Union. More than a dozen buildings in the southeastern quadrant of Houston were cleared for use by MSC personnel, while the cattle were driven off the 1,600-acre site near Clear Lake and construction started on this tract of virgin land. When the workday ended on Friday, June 29, 1962, NASA closed the doors on its Manned Spacecraft Center operation at Langley Field, Virginia; and on Monday morning, July 2
nd, MSC went to work, full force, in Houston.The Chamber of Commerce organized an area-wide welcome for the NASA personnel for Wednesday, July 4th. It was a family-affair throughout, with top executives of MSC and the astronauts and their families riding in open automobiles through the downtown streets. No local people rode in the parade, but on the reviewing stand were city officials and Chamber of Commerce representatives from Houston and the adjacent area. The parade concluded at the Coliseum, where a barbecue luncheon was served, with 30 serving lines, to 7,500 NASA personnel and members of their families. This was followed by a short formal ceremony and a star-studded entertainment program.
In welcoming the group, President George T. Morse said: "It is my real pleasure to welcome all of you to the Houston area and to our ceremonies here today. We are delighted that you will make your homes in our community, that you will be our friends and our neighbors. We are honored that our nation s manned explorations into space will be directed from your headquarters here. Needless to say, we are glad you came. We are tremendously proud of all of you for the contributions you have already made in the field of manned space flight, for the successes which you have achieved to bring honor and glory to our nation and to the Free World. Yours is perhaps the most challenging assignment that any people anywhere have ever had—the conquest of outer space. It is an assignment to which all of you bring complete dedication of purpose and unsurpassed talents to more than meet the goals which have been set for you. We in the Houston area join with the people of our nation in prayer for your continued success.
By September 19, 1962, on the occasion of the first anniversary of the announcement of the location of MSC in Houston, NASA reported 1,300 people working in Houston. A total of 29 space-related companies had already established representation in the area. Speaking in Houston in September, President Kennedy said: "During the next five years, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration expects to double the number of scientists and engineers in this area—to increase its outlays for salaries and expenses to $60,000,000 a year, to invest some $200,000,000 here in plant and laboratory facilities, and to direct or contract for new space efforts at a rate of one billion dollars a year from this space center alone."
A measure of the accuracy of President Kennedy’s forecast is found in the fact that employment at the Manned Spacecraft Center reached 4,900 by the close of 1965, with salaries totaling $48,000,000 for the year, and with 4,800 related contractor personnel earning $34,000,000 for the year. It has been estimated that 65 additional jobs have been created in Houston commerce and industry for each 100 jobs connected with NASA activity, or a total of 6,300 additional "first impact" jobs. Since each employee is estimated to represent 3.59 people, NASA had added an estimated 57,500 to the population of the Houston area by the close of 1965.
While the impact of the Manned Spacecraft Center has been felt throughout the Houston area, it has been especially noteworthy in the Clear Lake area, where a whole new economic complex has been created from an almost treeless coastal plain, The population of the area jumped from 6,520 in 1960 to more than 30,000 in 1965. Clear Lake City, already projected on a 15,000-acre tract by the Humble Oil and Refining Company when NASA selected its site, is expected to be a community of from 75,000 to 80,000 within 15 to 20 years, while the Bayport industrial area is projected for an investment of $900,000,000 and the creation of 15,000 jobs within the same period. The 670 acre Nassau Bay development, across NASA No.1 from the Manned Spacecraft Center, is being built as a balanced community of residences, apartments, shopping centers and office buildings.
The formal beginning of Humble’s Clear Lake City project came in February, 1962, when plans were released calling for an ultimate investment of up to $500,000,000 to produce a completely balanced community, with a master plan providing for residences, regional and neighborhood shopping facilities, cultural developments, apartments, schools, churches, medical facilities, parks, playgrounds and a golf course. This is a prime example of the "new city" concept.
Houston’s stature as an aviation center was enhanced by a number of developments during 1962. Air France inaugurated direct service to Europe, with a stop in New York. A group of 15 French executives arrived from Paris as Air France guests on April 24th, and a Houston group left for Paris the following day to mark the opening of this three-flights-a-week service. Later in the year, Braniff and Pan American began a daily jet-interchange service to London and Frankfurt by way of Dallas and Chicago, thus raising to 14, including KLM’s four weekly flights, the number of weekly round trip flights from Houston to Europe. With Delta Airlines providing service to Caracas, and Pan American to Mexico and Latin America, Houston in 1962 had five international carriers. Progress continued on the Houston Intercontinental Airport, and the Chamber of Commerce was pressing for provision of access roads as well as urgently needed roads in the NASA area. In May, the Federal Aviation Agency announced that one of its major air-traffic control centers would be located on the new airport. It would be designed to consolidate the control stations at San Antonio, El Paso and New Orleans, with an estimated 305 to be employed in the $4,000,000 facility that was scheduled to be operational in September, 1964.
To meet Houston’s growing office space needs, within a five-day period there was opened more space than had been opened in any full year in the city’s history with the exception of 1953 and 1956. This record was set with the formal opening of the Sheraton Lincoln Building, the Federal Office Building, and the new Post Office Facility. Also opening during the year were the 3801 Kirby Building, Columbia Gas Building, Houston Office Center, Office City, and Fannin Bank Building.
During the year, the Chamber of Commerce supported a $40,700,000 city bond issue, a $39,000,000 school bond issue, and a $9,600,000 bond issue to complete the financing for the Harris County Domed Stadium. The latter had been characterized, unflatteringly, by a national finance journal as "turkey under glass". To meet one of the needs of the growing scientific community, the Chamber of Commerce initiated plans for the development of a technical-information center in Houston.
In efforts to meet such expanding needs in this rapid-growth area, the budget for the City of Houston increased 340 percent from 1940 to 1960, with the Harris County budget increasing 196 percent for the same period, and the Houston Independent School District budget increasing 141 percent. Announcement was made during the year that Houston Endowment, Inc., would underwrite the complete cost of $6,000,000 for a new performing arts center, on the site of the old City Auditorium, and present it to the city.
By the close of 1962, Houston had increased its stature as an apartment city, with more than 30,000 apartments having been built in 10 years, and with the current trend going toward high-rise apartments. During the 10-year period from 1952 to 1962, Houston increased total office space by 149 percent.
"On the 22nd of November, 1963, three shots rang out under a Texas sky—and the brightest light of our time was snuffed out by senseless evil. The voice which had always been calm even in the face of adversity was silenced. The heart which had always been kind even in the midst of emergency was stopped. And the laugh which had always been gay even in reply to abuse was heard no more in the land." In these words, Theodore C. Soreness described the tragedy that dominated developments during 1963. The night before this tragedy, 4,000 Houstonians had attended a dinner at the Coliseum to pay tribute to their national leader who was in Houston to join them in paying tribute to Harris County’s veteran Congressman, Albert Thomas. The man who was to take up the awesome responsibilities of the presidency the next afternoon, Lyndon B. Johnson, was here for the Thomas dinner.
While this was the climax, there were other significant developments during 1963. The French, under President De Gaulle, vetoed the British application to join the Common Market. The Ngo Dinh Diem regime was ousted in South Viet Nam, as the United States commitment there began to take on larger proportions. The United States signed a nuclear test ban treaty with Great Britain and Russia. Gordon Cooper, Jr., orbited the earth 22 times in 34 hours and 20 minutes. The United States Supreme Court generated a decade of controversy by outlawing school prayer in New York and later ruling that no state or locality might require recitation of the Lord’s Prayer or Bible verses in public schools.
Throughout the Houston area, in 1963, commercial and industrial expansion continued to add strength and diversification to the economy. The metropolitan work force topped 600,000 for the first time and bank deposits totaled $3,000,000,000 for the first time. Industrial and commercial additions and expansions included 371 projects involving $425,000,000 in new investment. Major construction was under way in the central business district, at the Texas Medical Center, and in the Manned Spacecraft Center area.
Under the presidency of Claud B. Barrett, the Houston Chamber of Commerce focused its attention primarily upon community problems, upon the need for a study of local government, the necessity of a solution for the city-county hospital problem, steps to expand convention and tourist activity, and with continuing efforts on water supply, industrial and commercial development, freeway and thoroughfare construction, the new airport and domestic and international air service, the Civic Center, and expansion of world trade.
Said President Barrett: "We have reached a point in the development of Houston where we must face up to some situations that urgently need the attention of every citizen of our city and country. We need to recognize the seriousness of some trends and developments before they grow and multiply to a point where they get out of hand to the detriment of all of us. The pattern and extent of development has changed to such a degree that steps should be made to adjust county government to current conditions. In 1944, a Grand Jury on which I served as foreman looked into this matter, and we recommended the appointment of a committee of responsible citizens to study possibilities for the consolidation of some of the functions of local government in the interest of economy and effectiveness."
The growing needs for governmental services with the attendant rising costs emphasized the need for efficiency and effectiveness in state and local government. In the ten-year period 1956 through 1965, revenue receipts in Texas more than doubled, increasing from $913,422,792 to $1,849,689,754, or an increase of 102.5 percent. Expenditures for state government purposes also doubled in this period, from $805,686,551 to $1,610,278,049, an increase of 99.9 percent. Tax collections by Harris County grew during the same period from $14,936,358 to more than $24,000,000, and City of Houston tax collections from $29,459,652 in 1955 to $55,667,974 in 1965. Taxes collected by the Houston Independent School District climbed from $22,405,004 in 1955 to $43,824,706 in 1965.
The long interest of the Houston Chamber of Commerce in the modernization of local government finally began to see some tangible steps being taken in 1965. At the request of Governor John Connally, the Texas Research League undertook a study of the public-service structures of local government units in the twenty-one metropolitan areas of Texas. In recommending the study, the Governor said:
"The objective of the proposed study would be to determine what appropriate steps should be taken, at both local and state levels, to modernize and improve the administration, planning and financing of public services deemed essential to the social and economic well-being of the inhabitants of these urban areas." He also asked that the study attempt to define the relationships of federal programs to local public services.
While the League’s study will concentrate on local government in the metropolitan areas, it is hoped and expected that the results of the study will be of interest and value to local governments throughout the state, many of which may some day find themselves a part of new metropolitan areas as a result of the state’s continued rapid growth.
Concurrent with this study, and in many respects supplemental to it, three additional movements got under way in the Houston area. A 16-member study committee was created to do the groundwork for a planning commission to serve a seven-county Gulf Coast Area. This was an important additional step in the development of the area concept instituted several years before by the Chamber of Commerce. The Harris County Commissioners Court also appointed a citizens group of 19 county leaders to study realignment of the four commissioner precincts and other ways of streamlining county government. And, to complete the overview of local government, the city council named a Charter Commission to study municipal government.
