Hidden treasures: Neighborhoods with history and community exist in Houston's corners

Folded into Houston’s disorganized mishmash of new subdivisions and commercial strips, lucky house hunters can still find a few vibrant, tight-knit neighborhoods that have held on to their history. Here are a few of the best.

Idylwood

Ensconced between a golf course, a convent and a cemetery, this enclave of 300 bungalows seems as peaceful as when they were platted in the late 1920s and the East End marked the edge of town.

Tidy brick houses — many roughly 1,200 square feet with one bathroom — wear intricate orange masonry of a quality you’d be hard pressed to find on anything built in the last 40 years. Out front, young residents push mowers, play with toddlers and walk dogs in the shade of massive trees that also cover the neighborhood’s corner park beside Braes Bayou.

“It’s a real cohesive neighborhood,” says 22-year resident Maggie Mottesheard, “you can actually know your neighbors.”

Glenbrook Valley

When it was built 55 years ago, prices in this neighborhood near Hobby airport could rival those in River Oaks. Every buyer brought their own architect to fill the generous lots with angular eaves, clever brick work, dashes of turquoise and the other distinctive marks of modern architecture from the 1950s and 1960s.

The well-to-do eventually moved on. The area grew worn at the edges, but the longtime residents kept the architectures largely in tact over the decades.

“Poor economics are one of the best preservation tools there is,” says real estate agent Robert Searcy. Little happened in the aging enclave until roughly 2004, when a new wave of mod-crazy couples started buying classic design at tract-house prices.

Today, the neighborhood is more active than ever, with a dedicated brigade of volunteers like Ann Collum cataloging each house and lobbying for historic status.

“We have a lot of professionals moving in,” says Ann Collum, a 37-year resident, “I see the pendulum swinging.”

Garden Oaks

While it may be only a block outside the Loop, driving through Garden Oaks somehow feels like exploring the back streets of a rural Texas town.

Modest houses seem to swim in lots as big as 1,800 square feet. Generous setbacks create a wide swath of unbroken grass between them and un-curbed roads, barely wide enough for two cars to pass. Everywhere, pines, palms and oaks dwarf the roughly 1,500 structures beneath them, and it’s hard to find a house without a porch to enjoy the shade.

A few new houses crop up here or there, but many from the original 1930s development remain, practically antiques for Houston. An active civic club helps keeps the place true to its roots, organizing neighborhood gatherings and raising money for an extra constable patrol and new playground equipment at the nearby elementary.

As club president Mark Klein puts it, “there’s a really good group of people who care about the neighborhood and its culture and have helped perpetrate that.”

• Garden Oaks, Glenbrook Valley, Idylwood
• Ann Collum, Maggie Mottesheard, Mark Klein, Robert Searcy

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