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Midtown Houston is one of the city’s most historic areas. Well established by the mid-nineteenth century, Midtown is a living chronicle of Houston’s past from ante bellum days to the revitalization of today.
Midtown is a recently coined designation that refers to the distinct neighborhoods south and west of downtown, east of Montrose Boulevard, and north of Interstate 59. The oldest and most historic is the old Fourth Ward, dubbed Freedmen’s Town. After the Civil War, the Fourth Ward was one of very few places in Houston where black people could own property. Freed slaves built shotgun cottages and moved in. Now a nationally registered historic site, many of their descendents still live there. In its heyday in the 1920s and ‘30s, Fourth Ward was Houston’s Harlem, with jazz clubs and restaurants lining Dallas street. Some of the cottages remain, along with a few brick-paved streets, but many valuable structures were lost when the area declined from the 1960s through the 1980s. Further south, the neighborhoods of Avondale and Westmoreland were the River Oaks of their day, where turn-of-the-20th-century oil and cattle barons built spacious mansions on tree-lined streets. In the 21st century, these neighborhoods, along with the old Fourth Ward, are again considered some of the city’s most desirable areas in which to live. Their proximity to downtown and established “look” are drawing people back from far-flung suburbs.
In 1994, Midtown was officially declared a Tax Increment Finance District (TIFC), opening the area to renovation and development. Today, many remaining historic structures are protected, sharing brick-paved streets with architecturally cutting-edge townhouses and sophisticated low-rise lofts.
The population is diverse, and includes long-time residents, young professionals, empty nesters, students, and academics. There is room for all in Houston’s second-oldest district.
Midtown is home to wonderful restaurants, from humble barbecue joints to some of the city’s most elegant purveyors of continental cuisine. New upscale retail shopping abounds, sharing space with the established shops of some of Houston’s finest traditional tradesmen. The new light rail system links Midtown with downtown, the Medical Center and the Astrodome complex.
A true blend of old and new, Midtown is a place where life space and economic space come together in the center of a world class city.
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