Southside Place

A poor farm, then a park

Before there were houses, there was the Harris County Poor Farm, a county-owned home for the indigent that occupied this ground from 1895 to 1922. As residential development spread toward it, county commissioners decided the land was too valuable for public use and built a new county home east of the city.

In 1924 Edward Lillo Crain, the developer of Southside Place, bought the southern tract of the old farm along with frontage on Bellaire Boulevard, about 107 acres for $101,542. He planned modest, uniformly designed houses under the banner of his Crain Ready-cut House Company, and he built the park before anything else. It had a 30-by-75-foot concrete swimming pool, a wading pool, a bath house, a tennis court and play equipment, and the deed restrictions reserved it "for the exclusive use and benefit of property owners." For a town this size, the park is not an amenity; it is the plan.

In 1932 Crain deeded the park to the Southside Place Park Association, which owned and ran it for 80 years before ownership passed to the city. The Texas Historical Commission marked its story in 2022, and the marker stands at 3743 Garnet Street, a good place to start a walk.

A town of its own

Southside Place incorporated in 1934 with about 600 residents, and it had its own post office by 1940. It counted 1,835 people at the 2020 census. The development opened on Easter Day in 1925, and the town marked its 100th anniversary in April 2025.

For a town this size, the park is not an amenity; it is the plan.

Small as it is, it is a full city. It runs its own police, fire, parks and public works, and its volunteer fire department traces its roots to 1931. It runs its own water system, a mix of well water from a city-owned well and treated surface water bought from Houston.

In the 1980s, the Handbook of Texas notes, the heart of the community was the park and a narrow commercial strip of about three dozen businesses. The Braes Heights Shopping Center, a mid-century modern strip in Southside Place, was named Best Strip Mall of 2012 by the Houston Press.

Next door

Southside Place sits almost entirely between West University Place and Bellaire, and Bellaire Boulevard, the same frontage Crain bought in 1924, runs through it on its way into Bellaire. A small part of Southside Place is zoned to Bellaire High School. Its edges also blur into the neighborhoods around it: blocks 1 and 2 of Braes Heights Section 1, part of the Braeswood Place area, lie inside Southside Place.

The City of Southside Place's site is southsideplacetx.gov.

Sources

• Texas Historical Commission marker "Southside Place Park," via HMdb: https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=287009
• Handbook of Texas Online, "Southside Place, TX": https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/southside-place-tx
• City of Southside Place: https://www.southsideplacetx.gov/
• City of Southside Place, history and city services: https://www.southsideplacetx.gov/765/Southside-Place-History
• City of Southside Place, Water and Waste Water: https://www.southsideplacetx.gov/958/Water-and-Waste-Water
• Wikipedia, "Southside Place, Texas" (Braes Heights Shopping Center, Braes Heights Section 1): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southside_Place,_Texas
• Wikipedia, "Bellaire Boulevard": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellaire_Boulevard
• Wikipedia, "Bellaire High School (Texas)" (zoning): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellaire_High_School_(Texas)

En español

Southside Place es una ciudad independiente de 1,835 habitantes, casi rodeada por West University Place y Bellaire, dentro del Loop 610. Antes fue parte de la Granja de Pobres del Condado de Harris, entre 1895 y 1922. En 1924, Edward Lillo Crain compró unos 107 acres por 101,542 dólares y construyó primero el parque, con piscina, piscina infantil, cancha de tenis y juegos. En 1970 el primer camión de bomberos de la ciudad se convirtió en juego infantil, y desde entonces le dicen Fire Truck Park. El marcador histórico está en 3743 Garnet Street. La ciudad se incorporó en 1934, cumplió 100 años desde su fundación en 2025 y tiene su propia policía, bomberos y parques. Bellaire Boulevard la cruza, y una pequeña parte está asignada a Bellaire High School. Sitio: southsideplacetx.gov.