1 6 f e I I I 1 9 9 9 £'¥ €I 1 I- : f m 1 BY BRUCK W K B B Collage by Polly Ledum and Ffoi i Hrulka 910191O191O19101910191O19101910191019101910192O19201920192O192O192O192O1920192O19 1 9 10 1 9 2 0 1913 - Houston Symphony organized 19Z5-KTHT, first radio station 1914 • Hermann Park given to city 1926 - First airmail service to Houston 1914 • Opening ol Ship Channel 1928 • National Democratic Convention 1915 -Last No Tsu Oh festival 1929 - Zoning Commission report voted down 1917 • Camp Logan race not • ^ 191V Union Station (now part of Enron Field) 1925 - Hermann Hospital, lirst building in Texas Medical Center 1911 - Southern Pacific Building |now Bayou Lofts) 1926 - Houston Public Library (now Julia Ideson Building) 1913 - Rice Hotel 1927 - Niels Esperson Building 1914 - Arthur Comey park plan for Houston published 1928 - Bayou Bend, River Oaks 1915 - Texaco Building 1929-Gulf Building •IB •Ff? • • HI • 1913 - 16th Amendment establishes income tax 1920 - 19th Amendment gives women (he vote 1915 Panama Canal opens 1920 - America's first commercial radio station goes on the air 1915 - Alexander Graham Bell places first transcontinental phone call 1927 - Lindbergh flies across the Atlantic 1917-U.S. enters World War I 1929 - Stock market crash begins Great Depression W i n I 17 1 T I :•'-• very city as it g r o w s creates its o w n lacing I ioustoti as it enters the new m i l - part of the genius loci. The eight that lol and s w a m p y w o o d s " on the Ciiilt Coast, imths, or. tailing that, .it least a col- lennium laced w i t h the task ol what to low .ire by no means a complete list ol a h o t , steamy region of e x p a n d i n g an E lection of interpretive m e t a p h o r s , call its new N a t i o n a l l-'ootball League the labels that have been slapped on the contracting, clay-botto m land that adjectives, or second names to describe franchise n o w that the old name has been city, but they do show h o w different peo- shares the .Wth parallel w i t h the Sahara itseli In ilsell and to the w o r l d . I [ousron carried off w i t h the team and buried ple at different times have labeled Desert anil is somewhat south of Algiers has plent] "t m y t h s ; some oi t h e m , such somewhere in Tennessee. It's not a small I louston as a w a y ol giving it an identity and Baghdad. as the story ol Judge K o y I l o f h e m / \ matter. Does the team (and hence the that they c o u l d possess. The natural site was never sufficiently building ol the A s t r o d o m e , aspire to the city) w a n t to be identified .is a w o r k i n g romanticized to exclude remaking it into level of c o u n t r y and western allegory in man's t o w n (Steelers, Packers, Oilers, BAYOU C I T Y something more temperate and more personifying the city's entrepreneuria l Cowboys)? An a n i m a l (Lions, Bears, accommodating. To that end, the city spirit. Hut it is the names that have Rams)? A bird (Eagles, Falcons, Ravens)? Like M a g n o l i a City, one of the city's ear- embraced technology, guided by an ethos become attached to the city, w i t h their By its history (Horty-nincrs. Patriots)? Or liest nicknames. Bayou City is a link to thai said no problem loomed so large higher abstraction a n d e c o n o m y of c o n - its machismo (Pirates, Buccaneers, Southern culture in tune w i t h Louisiana, that it couldn't be altered. Displacement cept, that are of greater interest. Gladiators, Titans)? our neighbor to the east. It's an associa- was the n o r m . T h e natural city was swal- Second names, nick names, are often "The pell-mell of nicknames that tion that modern H o u s t o n has attempted lowed by the industrial city. The industri- pure poetry, d i v i n g a second name, a accrues to a city in the course of time is a to d u m p in favor of a more cosmopolitan al city by the post-industrial city. Little label, to something is a way ol shaping its forceful reminder of metropolita n c o m - and progressive sense ol itself, although residential neighborhoods were swal- contents and g i v i n g it an essence. In Italo plexity," cultural geographer Yi-Fu Tuan the name Bayou City remains attached to lowed by big apartment complexes and Caivino'a Invisible Cities metaphorical writes. " I n any large urban center, m u l t i - more than I S'll I louston businesses, and sprawling subdivisions; little d o w n t o w n names — " I s a u r a , city of a thousand farious interests exist and each w i l l push still shows up regularly in the city's news- buildings were hidden by glass towers. wells," ' i . e o n i a , the city that refreshes tin a label that suits it purpose." To put papers as the only identifier editors can The street system was overshadowed by itseli every day," " O c t a v i a , spider web its o w n official spin on the issue, the city think ol that w i l l be easily recognized by high-powered freeways, the outdoors by city" — become surrogates tor geographi- often has its o w n public relations w o n k s the reader. the air-conditioned indoors. H o u s t o n out- cal places, describing cities of pure c o n - come up w i t h slogans tins hope w i l l Houston's n a t u r al site and its grew its roots, emerging in the 20th cen- cept situated in the imagination . stick. Siime of t h e m , such as t w o recent formation recall the surrealist M a r c e l tury as a city Flavored by Texas but not Second names are like the names in a ones for H o u s t o n — " H o u s t o n ' s H o t " Duchamp's d e f i n i t i o n of collage. " W h a t exactly contiguous w i t h it. T h a t may be novel. They are never neutral . " T h e y from the l^SOs and the current is the mechanism of collage?" D u c h a m p why I rarely hear anyone in I louston always signify," novelist D a v i d Lodge "Houston, Expect the Unexpected " — asked. "I t h i n k it a m o u n t s to the chance employ the Bayou I itv sobnouct m o r d i - writes. " T h e n a m i n g of characters is drip w i t h heavy irony. Both are state- meeting on a non-suitable plane, of t w o nary conversation. always .m i m p o r t a n t part of creating ments ol uninspiring fact presented as mutually distant realities." T h e non-suit- I louston is crisscrossed by an i n t r i - them, i n v o l v i n g many considerations and virtues. Both are true, il not authentic. able plane in this case was described by cate t i e t w o r k of sleepy capillaries, but hesitations." T h a t is the k i n d ol problem But other nicknames stand out as a the Allen brothers as a picture o f " j u n g l c anyone w h o has gone l o o k i n g for them fouls out that they are not very much a part ol the city's consciousness. N o t quite rivers, the bayous have been more a problem than an amenity, necessitating hundreds ol perfunctory little bridges to accommodate the expanding n e t w o r k of city streets and highways. They have been Name Game robbed of whatever romantic connota- WHAT'S IN A NAME? FOR HOUSTON, A CHANCE TO EXPLAIN ITSELF TO ITSELF. 9301930193019301930193019301930193019301930194019401940194019401940194019(10194019 1930 1 9 4 0 l'H'1 III iviiisily nl Mansion founded 1947- Texas Medical Center 1935 - Houston College lot Negroes, latei Texas Southern Univeisity. founded 1947 -Texas City disaster 1938 - Jesse Jones founds Houston Endowment 1917-KLEE, lirst TV stalitm 1939 - Last street car goes oul of service 1949-Gull Freeway opens 1930 • Merchants & Manufacturers Building (now UH. Downtown) 1935 - River Oaks Shopping Center 1940 - Houston Municipal Airport (Hobby) 1937 • San Jacinto Monument construction begins 1941 - Downtown VMCA 1939 - Sears-Roebuck on Main 1947 - Baylor College ol Medicine 1939- Houston City Hall 1949 - Shamrock Hotel (demolished) 1949 - Foley's Departmenl Store 1933-FDR's New Deal begins 1941 - Ameiica enteis Woild War II 1933 - "Century of Progress" World's Fair in Chicago 1944 - G I Bill ol Rights promotes housing boom, suburbs 1937 - Hindenberg explodes al Lakehurst.