Happy Holidays--and an Ima Audio!

Happy Holidays! And a fine 2015!

Ima was born 133 years ago this coming July.

I hope she would  be pleased that she's now on an Audible Book, just out in December.
Get it on Amazon, Audible Books, or iTunes.

River Oaks: “A veritable wildlife sanctuary”

      On January 23, 1925, an advertisement in the Houston Chronicle promised that River Oaks, Houston’s newest residential development, would be a fine place for wildlife, “one that will not be polluted with gasoline fumes and the furry and feathered creatures will not be frightened by the roar of motor cars.”

       Hmmm.

       This was a reasonable hope in 1924, when live oaks and loblolly pines were the only residents of River Oaks. Jungles of underbrush furnished homes for snakes. Wild violets shared the land with oceans of mud. When the first lots were offered for sale, the developers ordered two truckloads of rubber boots so that prospective buyers could tramp around in the muck.

       Individual lots at 64 by 100 feet went for $2,000. For that, in the 1920s, you could live in River Oaks.

       Hmmm. 

A dirt road across a prairie: River Oaks Blvd. 1924.

       “Country Club Estates,” they called it. A 1,100-acre piece of land three miles west of Houston’s downtown. The Hogg brothers and Hugh Potter saw a planned residential park, a haven for affluent homeowners in a city of 250,000 people where zoning was a pie-in-the-sky idea.

       A model of urban planning, the new community would have wide, winding streets intersected by only three cross-streets. There would be parks and cul-de-sacs, and all the utility wires would be laid underground. That was in 1924!

       In July, ground was broken on River Oaks Boulevard, the first street in the new subdivision. At the north end was, and still is--the River Oaks Country Club. At the other end, across Westheimer, Lamar High School was built in 1937. Jokesters were fond of saying that River Oaks Boulevard was the only street anywhere with two country clubs--one at each end!

       River Oaks, once just a muddy road, would become Houston’s premier residential neighborhood, home of the rich and famous.

      

       But in 1924, property on that dirt road on the outskirts of the city was a hard sell.

Christmas is coming, and so is Ima Audio!

 IMA HOGG: THE GOVERNOR'S DAUGHTER is in production as an audio book!
More news to come on this blog.
Meanwhile, Happy Holidays to all.

Will Hogg, where are you when we need you?

      While we don’t yet know all about Ima Hogg’s adventures in Germany, we know what her elder brother was up to, and we shall not see his like again. Who in his right mind would seriously argue for a “fool-proof and sensible city zoning plan” in Houston? Will Hogg, that’s who--in 1927. And that was when Houston had only 250,000 people. But we remained, then as now, resistant to any zoning plan, sensible or not.

       Will did what he could on his own. He bought land just northwest of downtown’s business district for $260,000, because he thought we needed a civic center. He then persuaded the city to purchase the land and pay for it with a bond issue. That area is now occupied by City Hall, the Jesse H. Jones Center for the Performing Arts, Wortham Center, Hobby Center, and the Houston Public Library.  Largely because of Will Hogg, we have Memorial Park, one of the largest city parks in the nation. Will named it to honor Houston soldiers who died in World War I. With his brother Mike and his old UT chum Hugh Potter, Will bought land 3 miles out in the country, west of downtown. That would become River Oaks.

       

      More about that later.

Ima leaves Germany in 1908, and returns, and returns...

     What was Ima doing in 1908 in Germany? She returned to Houston late that year, or perhaps early in 1909. We know that she was in a friend’s wedding in Lampasas in April 1909, and she began to give piano lessons to a small, select group in Houston that year.

       But in the summer of 1910 she returned to Europe with her brother Mike. She kept a journal of their tour, describing cities and sights she wanted Mike to see. The two of them went first to Berlin. They stayed there a week--but there is not one word about what they did or saw there. Ima had lived in Charlottenberg, a suburb of Berlin, for over a year, but she does not mention anything about her stay, or about people she knew.

       Why--when she describes every other stop on their tour in some detail?

      
       When Ima Hogg had a secret, she kept it.

1907:Ima plans to stay in Germany

On January 4, 1907 Ima went to the American Consulate in Berlin, and signed a "Certificate of Registration" allowing her to reside in Germany "for the study of music," as she wrote.

She signed her name with her distinctive signature, always making her first name illegible.

What other secret was she keeping?

(Research in progress!)