West Lane Place Civic Association

History of West Lane Place

WLP History - by Spence Stephens, Ann Hastings, Olga McLaren

Memories of West Lane Place
By J. Spence Stephens

I grew up in West Lane Place in the late 1940's and the 1950's. For me, it was an exciting and wonderful neighborhood with many fun filled experiences and wann, friendly people, It was new, remote and offered countless opportunity for youthful adventure and occasional mischief

We moved to #3 Hackberry Lane in West Lane Place on January 4, 1948. We were a family of five - my mom and dad, Emrna and Ted Stephens, my brother Dick who was 13, my sister Anne who was 8 and myself, who was 5. Before moving to West Lane Place, we lived on Kingston Drive (now Greenbriar) near St. Anne's Catholic Church. Everyone thought my Mom and Dad were crazy moving so far away, and to an area that at the time, was only prairie. Then, it was common to refer to West Lane Place as "in the sticks" - and it was. Few imagined that this would develop into an urban, beautiful tree lined little neighborhood in the middle of one of the most glamorous commercial and shopping areas in all of Texas. But Mom and Dad saw the potential of growth in that area and thought it would be a good place to raise children. They were right on both counts.

In 1948, the Houston city limits stopped at the railroad tracks. The Highland Village neighborhood and Shopping Center had just been developed. The shopping center was a relatively new phenomenon on the commercial scene and it was much appreciated by the new arrivals living in West Lane Place. Westheimer road, which was paved only to Post Oak road, was the main traffic artery to town and bus service stopped at Lamar High School. Richmond road did not extend beyond the railroad tracks. What is now Afton Oaks was prairie and a smattering of huge oak trees. Pin Oak Horse Stable and a vacation bible school were located just behind the houses on the west side of Mid Lane. Grady elementary, a simple one room school, was located approximately where the 610 Loop now intersects Westheimer. An icehouse, where some of the neighborhood men would gather for a beer after work was located on Westheimer, just west of the railroad tracks. There were a few small churches scattered around the area, but very little else. The mayor of Houston at the time was Oscar Holcomb.

West Lane Place was developed and built by Jess Little, although he never lived there. Jess was a small, thin man with a tightly drawn face. He always appeared to have a frown, maybe because I caused him so much trouble. I was his nemesis, falling through the roof of a newly built house, playing with his workers machinery and equipment and once starting a brush fire in the neighborhood. Paul McConnel was an associate of Jess Little and he built a house for himself and family on the corner of Bash and Mid Lane. Paul had a bright red face and he always made me think of a firecracker. All of the houses in West Lane Place were "ranch style" which was typical of the housing being built in the boom following World War II. The average price range of the original houses was between $10,000-$15,000. Most were between 1,200-1,500 square feet, single story, three bedrooms, and one-bath homes with a screened in back porch and a single garage. To us, who had previously lived in a small two-bedroom house, this was spacious.

Best of all - it was in a new, vibrant neighborhood and along with that newness came the bond of close friendships that soon developed among the families of West Lane Place.

Most of the original homeowners in West Lane Place were couples with young children and growing families. Everyone was friendly with all their neighbors and many of those friendships continue to this day, even though almost all of those families have long since moved away.

Since it was common for the wives and mothers not to work outside the house they were able to socialize during the day and develop close ties among themselves. They spent time at each others house having coffee, playing cards, exercising together, car pooling and helping watch after each others kids. Based on the social initiative of the wives, they would plan barbecues and other gatherings with neighborhood families. The men developed friendships that stemmed from these gatherings and they would drink beer, have lunch and go fishing together. To a youngster, it was comforting to know that there were so many warm and friendly neighbors around who were closely connected to our own family and were there to help when needed.


The original West Lane Place extended south only to Hackberry Lane. Mid Lane ended just beyond Hackberry. At the end of Mid Lane, where there are now apartments, was a sewer treatment facility for the neighborhood. The plant was a long rectangular building built with a tin siding and roof. Next to the building was the sewer processing tanks, which were concrete cells built above the ground. As kids we used to walk along the narrow sides of the cells that held the sewer, daring each other not to fall off. Where the big concrete drainage ditch along side the railroad tracks now exists, there was a more shallow, unkept and unsightly ditch that was full of snakes, turtles and assorted vermin. This of course was one of our favorite places to play. There we fished for minnows and crawfish, picked blackberries (with which Mom made great blackberry cobbler) and had many mud clod fights across the ditch. Behind the houses on Mid Lane and Hackberry Lane there were other much smaller drainage ditches which held small fish, minnows and crawfish.

Initially, the streets were not paved - they were shell and could get quite bumpy. We had an old 1938 rust colored (actually, I think it was orange) Buick four door sedan that would jump out of third gear and Mom and Dad would have to hold it in gear as we went over the pot holes. Since there were no underground storm sewers, the drainage system was provided by front yard ditches that flooded frequently, making an ideal place for we children to swim and play. We had several big floods that came right up to the house, and we had to put towels under the front door to keep the water out. In our front yard ditch there lived a huge crawfish that we called "Big Red". He was at least six inches long and since he was so old and so big, we never tried to catch him. He just roamed around the neighborhood and amazed everyone at his size.

Bash street, which was not added to West Lane Place until about 1951, was named for a very kindly and respected black worker named Bash who helped build the homes in West Lane Place- When I once locked myself in the bathroom, it was Bash who was called upon to climb through the window and get me out. He and I were great friends and I spent a lot of time around him and the other workers, mostly getting in their way, I believe. But they were always patient with me and taught me a few words of exclamation that I had never heard before.

In about 1953, after the City of Houston had annexed a large section of land west of the railroad tracks including West Lane Place, new streets, storm sewers and water mains were laid. The streets were lowered about four feet and the storm sewers replaced the old front yard ditches. The homeowners on Bash Street decided not to have these improvements by the city and consequently the grade of that street is different.

West Lane Place in the 1950's was probably quite typical of other similar middle income neighborhoods across America. It was a good time to be living and a good place to live. Dog and cat pets were prolific and since most were not confined to the owner's house or yard, they tended to roam around the neighborhood freely. Everyone knew the name of not only everyone else's kids, but their pets as well. Safety and security were not an issue. Few people ever locked their house or car doors. Since the neighborhood was virtually treeless when it was built, everyone felt it their duty to put in as many trees as possible. My Dad and some neighbors went to the woods and dug up a bunch of live oak trees and planted them in the front yards. Most of them remain today. Because the new trees being planted were small, most of the residents tended to over plant and as the trees grew, they had to cut some down.

In West Lane Place in the 1950's legs and bikes were popular modes of transportation. Most walked for leisure and the enjoyment of it rather than exercise. Kids rode their bikes everywhere and frequently made trips to Highland Village Shopping Center to get a 25 cent hamburger and cherry coke or a supply of cinnamon toothpicks at Highland Village Drug Store. Another popular spot was Moses Melody Shop where we would listen to, and maybe buy, a 45-RPM record by Elvis or Jerry Lee Lewis. The girls and moms liked to go to Meyer Brothers (where Tootsies is now) to shop for clothes. A lot of people walked to Highland Village to catch the bus. One of the most noticeable walkers in the neighborhood was Joey Schemick, Joey played the bagpipes and would stroll up and down the streets in the late afternoon in full Scottish bagpipe array. He was heard from blocks away.

Radio was still popular - programs like The Lone Ranger, Dragnet, Blondie and Dagwood, Boston Blackie, The Great Gildersleeve, The Shadow, and others were listened to at night. We got our first TV set in 1952 - a nine-inch set, black and white, of course. Because we were used to spending most of our time outdoors and afternoon programming was very limited, we did not watch much TV. However, there were a few favorite shows we liked to watch, such as Milton Berle, Jackie Gleason, Jack Benny, I Love Lucy, Dragnet, Our Miss Brooks, Amos and Andy and wrestling.

Activities abounded for kids in the neighborhood, and most all of them were outside and spontaneous rather than organized. We played baseball, football and basketball in our front and back yards. Frequently the fathers in the neighborhood would play with us.

"Kick the can", "chase", leg wrestling, arm wrestling, marbles, and "split" (throwing a knife just outside each others feet, going further out each time) were some of our favorite games. We also built our own kites out of newspapers and new them with long strips of torn up sheets for tails. The trees and telephone lines were dripping with our lost kite launches. Walking on stilts was another common form of self-made recreation. We built battle stilts and formed teams, with each team having a guy on stilts and another guy on his shoulders. One team would fight the other and the team that got thrown to the ground lost. Every boy in the neighborhood had a BB gun and it was a common sight to see one of us hiding behind a tree or the side of a house to get a bead on a mighty sparrow. We shot more of those harmless little birds than I'd like to admit. Before Afton Oaks was built we did a lot of hunting there, both with guns and with traps. There were a lot of rabbits around and they were fun to catch.

We also went on frequent exploration trips. One destination was a small lake in the front part of Afton Oaks, which was full of sunfish that we could catch with a net. Another favorite trip was a hike to the three water holding tanks located about two miles south of the neighborhood. 'r'hc tanks are still there and can be seen from the Southwest Freeway. Our most frequent adventure trip was to the railroad tracks where we climbed in, on and around railroad cars that were stopped. We also climbed on slow moving trains and rode them a few miles before getting off to buy some "Lick-um-Aid" at a small store located near the tracks. On one of our adventure trips we visited the Channel 2 TV studio which was located in a Quonset hut on old Post Oak road and were interviewed on Dick Gottlieb's Matinee show. I think he interviewed us just because we showed up.

Every year we built Christmas tree forts after the first of the year and had many mud clod battles defending our fort territory. The forts were either built on a vacant lot somewhere in the neighborhood or behind Bash Street where there was open prairie. After about three weeks the tree forts really became an eyesore. I don't know how they were disposed of, they just seemed to disappear. They must have been a terrible fire hazard.

My sister, Anne had a friend named Bobby Swisher who had a horse that he was riding one day in the south part of Afton Oaks before it was developed and the horse stepped in an open manhole. It was a sad sight to see. The horse broke its leg trying to climb out and had to be shot. The fire department came and pulled him out.

One of my good friends, Bill (Winkie) Watts, who lived on Mid Lane, had a place in the back of his garage that was referred to as the "scout house". That's where we went when we needed to get away and do things that young boys do, like build things that never work. As we got older we went there to play poker and smoke cigarettes. Another good friend, Donald Swor lived right behind us on Hackberry Lane. He and I used to make the rounds together after the construction workers left their job in the afternoon. It was fun to start up the bulldozers and dump trucks. Don's dad worked for a Chevrolet dealership and he always brought home cool cars, like an old English Crosley or a 1954 Corvette. Jimmy Perry was a friend of mine who lived on Bash Street. He and I built a go-cart that was so heavy it would hardly move.

There were some notable weather events that took place in West Lane Place during the 1950's. Floods were frequent and severe until the city put in storm sewers. Our first great flood, which I think occurred in the spring of 1949 or 1950, made the entire neighborhood look like a huge lake. Cars were stalled everywhere and my brother, Dick helped many stranded motorists by pushing their car out of the high water. I remember having a grand time swimming in the floodwaters and then watching several snakes swim casually by me not two feet away. Then there was the great ice and snowstorm that occurred in about
1951. I had never seen snow before and was thrilled, even though it got really cold. Since we had no heat other than a small bathroom heater and the chimney fire, we had to keep warm by getting close to the chimney fire and by putting our wet and frozen feet up on the chimney brick. Long icicles dropped off every tree and from house eves. Sherwood McCall who lived across the street from us gave several of the kids in the neighborhood a sled ride behind his car. Snowmen were everywhere and everyone, including the parents became a kid again, playing in the snow. Mom even made us some ice cream with snow.

Another major event that I recall occurring in the neighborhood was when there was a polio epidemic in America and rumor was that a little boy who lived in the apartments on West Alabama had caught the disease. I had a bicycle paper route for the old Houston Press at the time and delivered papers to that address every day- I had this incredible fear that I was going to catch polio because I was delivering papers to an infected area. Fortunately, Jonas Salk soon came up with a polio vaccine and I forgot about it.

Some of the fondest memories I have about life growing up in West Lane Place are those of families getting together for weekend barbecues. It was always a party atmosphere, with a lot of fun, joking, laughing and of course, great food. Several families would get together at someone's house, and while the parents drank beer or bourbon on the patio, the kids played in the yard. The smells of oak or hickory smoke still bring me back to those good times- There was always plenty of food: brisket, ribs, steak, chicken - and most of the time, all of it at one barbecue. Everybody had their own secret recipe and each thought his own was the best, but never failed to ask the hosting couple "How do you do that? It's sooo good." Homemade ice cream was another big menu item at the weekend barbecues- Vernon Swore, who lived on Hackberry Lane, made the best homemade peach ice cream I have ever tasted. I'm still trying to find its match.

I feel really privileged to have grown up in West Lane Place. My parents were great and I had wonderful friendships. The neighbors were like family and we always knew that we could count on them. There was always plenty to do and good friends with which to do it. Today, Mom and Dad still live at #3 Hackberry Lane. They are 91 and 93 years old.

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This is a proposed history of our neighborhood by Ann Hastings and Olga McLaren. We hope to interview any other people still in the neighborhood who might add memories to an eventual write-up to be passed out to new occupants to the neighborhood.

[History by Ann Hastings]

[As of] June 1998, I [had] lived in West Land Place for 50 years. My parents Marguerite and Frank Byrnes purchased our home at #9 Lana Lane in June, 1948 for $9,500. The builder made them choose between a fire place and a screened in porch. In 1956 my husband Louis Eugene Hastings and I, Ann Byrnes Hastings, purchased # 9 from my parents for $11,500 . With the exception of six months, I have lived at #9 Lana Lane continuously for fifty years. I have seen many changes during these years. When my parents first moved here, our family and relatives would complain that they had to pack a lunch when they came to visit because we lived "half way to San Antonio". Now we are considered within the loop and the city has spread out all around us.
In 1948, we were not even with-in the city limits.

The street names are fairly standard. Lana was the name of Jess Little's daughter. Hackberry is a common tree in the area. Bash is a mystery.
I moved to West Lane Place when I was eleven years old in June of 1948. My dad worked for the builder, JESS LITTLE, as his comptroller. When we moved in, the front part of the subdivision (West Lane Street and Mid Lane to West Alabama) was nearing completion. Lana Lane was just getting started. We were the second house on the street. The first house built on Lana Lane was # 11. It was bought by Jane and Beek Besecker. When we moved in, we had open drainage ditches and the streets were shell with an oil over coat.

In about 1951, West Lane Place was taken into the city of Houston. Richmond Avenue ended at the Rail Road Track, Where Afton Oaks is now, was Greenacres Horse Farm. We loved to go over and watch the horses and riders, and if we were lucky we could help exercise the horses. The back part of what is now Afton Oaks was a thick growth of lovely big old oak trees and a great place for the neighborhood kids to wander, dream, and play.

All curbs and gutters were paid for by the residents. We had to pay so much a front foot for installation. For months, we drove in mud to get to our houses while these were being installed.
The city bus stopped at Lamar High School until 1952. My mother and father had only one car and my mother would put her bicycle in the trunk of the car, drive to Lamar, leave the car for my dad and ride her bike home. When Dad got to the end of the bus line, the car would be waiting for him. I could have ridden the school bus, but chose to ride from Lanier Junior High to Lamar and walk the rest of the way. (I did not like the teasing I got on the school bus.)

Where did we shop when we moved to this far suburb? My mother drove to a Weingarten's Grocery on Westheimer and Hazard area. We were all so excited with Henke and Pilot built a store in the new Highland Village area. That location is now Grotto's Restaurant.
When we moved to West Lane Place, our elementary school was T.H. Rogers. It was located on the south west corner of Westheimer and Post Oak lane. After one day at the elementary school, I refused to return. You see, the toilets were "outhouses" instead of regular inside rest rooms. My mother then drove me into Woodrow Wilson Elementary on Fairview.

At this time, 1948, the Galleria area looked very different. On the southeast corner was a two story white building owned by Mr. Voss. It housed a pool hall and the other two corners were just open fields. The northeast corner later became Weingartens Grocery (now the Container Store). Later a drive in/icehouse opened on Westheimer just west of the railroad tracks and we could get milk and bread there. A year of so later a small fabric and notions shop opened next to the drive in grocery. Now an office complex is located there across Mid Lane from Jack in the Box.

When we moved to West Lane Place in 1948, it was treeless except for some native persimmons. All the trees you see now, were planted by home owners. My mother would dig up trees from her parent's farm in Montgomery County and transplant them to your yard. There were lots of spider lilies growing wild. Part of West Lane Place had been a rice farm. We think part of West Lane Place was what appeared to be a dump.

West Lane Place had it's own sanitary sewer treatment plant in 1948. It was located on Bash Street. I remember it being surrounded by wild persimmon trees and spider lilies. This was a great place to run and play - and have a type of freedom not known to city children today. As kids we used the new construction like other children used the city playgrounds, hide and seek, in and out of the houses. The framing of new houses was used like a jungle gym and were great for make-believe games.

One of the last spots to be built was the southeast corner of Mid Lane and West Alabama. In fact, we all believed it would be left as a park area for the neighborhood. This is where we played baseball, kick the can, and had a general gathering of teenagers. I remember everybody bringing blankets and radios and listening to the Houston Buffs games in the summer evenings. Now apartments are on these lots.

My mother and dad were in a square dance club with neighborhood couples. The Lewis' at #23 Lana, the Beseckers at #11 Lana, Dr. and Mrs. Badger at #20 Lana were some of the couples. They danced outside on the driveways of two car garages.
During the Pin Oaks Horse Show, we were serenaded by the band that played for the show. The sound carried beautifully to our backyards and we would take advantage of it by having cookouts. This area is now occupied bv Home Depot, apartments, and the abandoned Incredible Universe [now Houston Community College].

Few people had fenced backyards on Lana Lane until the early 1960s. Therefore as a teenager and as my children grew up in the 1960s, we had the run of many backyards. Where we live on the curve of Lana Lane are four yards. This made one great play area for my sister and me, and for my children Bill, Nina and Ken.
Chill and Sam Lewis lived at #23. Their children were Mark and Mimie. Gene Hastings and Sam Lewis made a wonderful fort. The children spent many nights out there. However the telling of "bloody bones" stories scared the faint of heart back into their houses. The hurricane of 1964 tore it down plus many trees and fences in the neighborhood.

Our drainage ditch was put in around 1955 and we have not had any serious flooding since then. When curbs and gutters were put in the streets were lowered two or three feet to facilitate the drainage. We have not had any major flooding since this time.

The residents of West Lane Place have been very civic minded. We have fought long and hard to improve the neighborhood schools, to maintain the neighborhoods high quality of life. From curbs and gutters to street lights which we paid for our selves, to renewing the deed restrictions which we paid to register residents from personal donations, to fighting the federal governments when they wanted to change Richmond Road in a manner that would have made the entrance to Mid Lane difficult or impossible to negotiate (an overpass over the railroad), we have risen to the occasion.

We leave the neighborhood to move closer to our children in Montgomery County. We think we leave it better than we found it.



[History by Olga McLaren]

Theron, Olga, and Christopher McLaren moved to West Lane Place and #20 Lana Lane on Labor Day week end 1965. We rented the house from Stuart and Ollie Kinsinger. Ann and Gene Hastings at #9, Mickey and Tessie Matkin helped us unload our U-Haul truck. Cab and Lyndall Link lived next door at #22. Our son Chris was three years old. We moved here from Dallas and chose the neighborhood because of the safe street, the fact that at that time Will Rogers (with Peggy Evertt as the principal) was an excellent school, and Looscan Library was a good local library.

I'm sure Chris would say that the most important feature was the brand new Jack-in-the-Box on the corner of Mid Lane and Westheimer. This was our first fast food outlet in the area. Hamburgers were 19 cents. The H.L. & P. easement, drainage ditch and railroad tracks were also important. Our kids all loved walking the pipe across the drainage ditch and doing what we'll never know (thank goodness). Our rent house was two bedrooms and one bath. It had no central air or heat, no washer or dryer connections and our rent was $120 per month.

Other new things in Houston at that time or shortly after were the Astrodome, Neiman Marcus and Galleria I, and Jones Hall.

Highland Village was very different from what it is today. Our post office was where P.F. Chang's is now. Weiners was where Tootsies is. We had a drug store with an old fashion fountain where Anthony's is, and as Ann mentioned our local grocery store was where Grotto's is located. Our favorite discovery was Neilsen's Deli which was situated where Harold Powell now is located facing Drexel. Thank goodness it didn't move far away and now is at Richmond and Mid Lane. It was a wonderful if different neighborhood in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Now it is still a wonderful neighborhood with new homes and
the original homes living side by side.