Residential buildings in East Downtown Houston

East Downtown Houston (EaDo) is a district in

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

, United States. The East Downtown Management District (EDMD), manages the area with offices headquartered at START Houston, a co-working space 1121 Delano Street. The community is located east of

Downtown Houston Downtown is the largest central business district in the city of Houston and the largest in the state of Texas, located near the geographic center of the metropolitan area at the confluence of Interstate 10 in Texas, Interstate 10, Interstate 45, ...

and north of

Interstate 45 Interstate 45 (I-45) is a major Interstate Highway located entirely within the US state of Texas. While most Interstate routes which have numbers ending in "5" are cross-country north–south routes, I-45 is comparatively short, with the ...

(Gulf Freeway).Welcome to EaDo
." ''East Downtown Management District''. Retrieved on August 1, 2009. It is between the

George R. Brown Convention Center The George R. Brown Convention Center (GRB), opened on September 26, 1987, is located on the east side of Downtown Houston, Texas, United States. The center was named for internationally recognized entrepreneur, engineer, civic leader, philan ...

and the

East End The East End of London, often referred to within the London area simply as the East End, is the historic core of wider East London, east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It does not have uni ...

district.Moreno, Jenalia.
Chinatown no longer
" ''

Houston Chronicle The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Texas, United States. , it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. With it ...

''. October 17, 2009. Retrieved on October 19, 2009. The Old Chinatown, an area within East Downtown bounded by

Interstate 69 Interstate 69 (I-69) is an Interstate Highway in the United States currently consisting of 10 unconnected segments with an original continuous segment from Indianapolis, Indiana, northeast to the Canadian border in Port Huron, Michigan, at ...

U.S. Route 59 U.S. Route 59 (US 59) is a north–south United States highway (though it was signed east–west in parts of Texas). A latecomer to the U.S. numbered route system, US 59 is now a border-to-border route, part of the NAFTA Corridor Highway Sy ...

, Preston Street, St. Joseph Parkway, and Dowling Street (now Emancipation Avenue), is the older of the two Houston

Chinatown A Chinatown () is an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Austra ...

s.Patel, Purva.
Pay-for-visa plan could revive Houston's Old Chinatown
" ''

''. August 18, 2008. Retrieved on January 20, 2009. The East Downtown Chinatown is not the same as the Chinatown in southwestern Houston.Rodriguez, Lori.
Opinions vary over naming the growing Asian community on Houston's southwest side
" (). Alternate version without Chinatown map:
DIVERSITY DEBATE / Chinatown outgrowing name / Opinions vary over naming the growing Asian community on Houston's southwest side
" ''

''. Wednesday May 9, 2007. A1.

History

In the 1930s many

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding are ...

immigrants moved to the former Houston Chinatown, then a part of the Third Ward area, from

in an effort to find more inexpensive land. The Cantonese opened several businesses, including grocery stores and restaurants, and held

Chinese New Year Chinese New Year is the festival that celebrates the beginning of a New Year, new year on the traditional lunisolar calendar, lunisolar and solar Chinese calendar. In Sinophone, Chinese and other East Asian cultures, the festival is commonly r ...

celebrations. Immigrants from other East Asian countries, including Vietnam, moved into the Chinatown. In the early 1950s the Chinese Merchants' Association moved to the southeastern edge of

. Many Chinese businesses moved there,Rodriguez, p
38
as a previous Chinatown in Downtown was replaced with commercial development by the 1970s.Knapp and Vojnovic, "Ethnicity in an Immigrant Gateway City," p. 350 (7/27). The EaDo Chinatown solidified as many Asian immigrants, including

Viet Hoa The Hoa people (Vietnamese: ''Người Hoa'', or ) are citizens of Vietnam of full or partial Chinese origin. Chinese migration into Vietnam dates back millennia but most Hoa today derive their recent ancestral Chinese heritage from the 18th ...

, began moving to Houston in the 1970s. By the 1980s a theater, supermarkets, warehouses, a bank, and restaurants were located there. EaDosign

By the late 1980s increasing numbers of Chinese began living in suburbs in

Southwest Houston Southwest Houston is a region in Houston, Texas, United States. The area is considered to be from Texas State Highway 6, south of Westpark Tollway to north of U.S. Route 90. Many Section 8 (housing) complexes are located in Southwest Houston. Hu ...

and

Fort Bend County Fort Bend County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. The county was founded in 1837 and organized the next year. It is named for a blockhouse at a bend of the Brazos River. The community developed around the fort in early days. The ...

.Rodriguez, p
39
In addition, the Chinatown was geographically hemmed in,Rodriguez, p
3839
with surrounding low income African-American and Hispanic neighborhoods and the Downtown area preventing additional growth. Two Chinese religious temples opened about south of the old Chinatown in the 1990s. There had been plans from private entities and the city government to promote and assist the development of the old Chinatown, but the

economic recession In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction when there is a general decline in economic activity. Recessions generally occur when there is a widespread drop in spending (an adverse demand shock). This may be triggered by various ...

harmed those efforts.Knapp and Vojnovic, "Ethnicity in an Immigrant Gateway City," p. 351 (PDF p. 8/27). Anthony Knapp and Igor Vojnovic, authors of "Ethnicity in an Immigrant Gateway City: The Asian Condition in Houston," wrote that "Into the early and mid-1990s, Old Chinatown had considerable promise and this was evident in just its role in promoting tourism."Knapp and Vojnovic, "Ethnicity in an Immigrant Gateway City," p. 353 (PDF p. 10/27). The general development plans never materialized. The sewer system was not extensive enough to handle the proposed development. One major street connecting the old Chinatown with Downtown was closed when the Brown Convention Center was expanded.Knapp and Vojnovic, "Ethnicity in an Immigrant Gateway City," p. 354 (PDF p. 11/27). By the 1990s, many of the East Asian businesses left and had relocated to the new current Chinatown in southwest Houston. In a November 28, 2002 ''

Houston Press The ''Houston Press'' is an online newspaper published in Houston, Texas, United States. It is headquartered in the Midtown area. It was also a weekly print newspaper until November 2017. The publication is supported entirely by advertising ...

'' article John Nova Lomax described what is now known as East Downtown Houston as "a silent, godforsaken stretch of no-man's-land that's not really the Warehouse District, nor the Third Ward, nor the

." Lomax said that he used "that bulky definition" since that by 2000, the name "Chinatown," still used in the 1980s and 1990s, "was no longer apt." The area received its current name in the late 2000s. In 2008 the management district and its namethedistrict.com website asked for suggestions for a new name for the district. Suggestions included "the Warehouse District," referring to the abandoned warehouses, and "Saint E," after St. Emanuel Street, a key street and the location of several bars and clubs. The district selected "EaDo," short for "East Downtown," one of the three most popular suggestions for the name of the district. During the same year Dan Nip, a developer and East Downtown Management District board member, encouraged people to invest in the Old Chinatown area in East Downtown; if a person invests $500,000

United States dollar The United States dollar ( symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the officia ...

s in the Old Chinatown and subsequently creates two jobs for ten years, he or she would become eligible for a EB-5 visa. By late 2009 the East Downtown authority began re-branding the district to reflect its current name. By 2010 a community of artists began to form in EaDo.Anders, Helen.
Emergine EaDo: Houston's newest arts community
" ''

Austin American-Statesman The ''Austin American-Statesman'' is the major daily newspaper for Austin, the capital city of Texas. It is owned by Gannett. The paper prints Associated Press, ''New York Times'', ''The Washington Post'', and ''Los Angeles Times'' internation ...

''. Saturday February 13, 2010. Retrieved on March 20, 2010. In 2022 there were not many Chinese businesses remaining, and there was a proposal to expand

that would remove several former Chinese businesses.

Venues

BBVA Compass Stadium Shell Energy Stadium (formerly BBVA Compass Stadium, BBVA Stadium, then PNC Stadium) is an American multi-purpose stadium located in Houston, Texas that is home to Houston Dynamo FC, a Major League Soccer club, the Houston Dash of the Nation ...

is home for the

Houston Dynamo Houston Dynamo FC (formerly officially, but still commonly, called the Houston Dynamo) is an American professional soccer club based in Houston. The Dynamo compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference. Establi ...

and the

Texas Southern University Texas Southern University (Texas Southern or TSU) is a public historically black university in Houston, Texas. The university is one of the largest and most comprehensive historically black college or universities in the USA with nearly 10,000 ...

football team, which is on a tract of land bordered by Texas, Walker, Emancipation and Hutchins in East Downtown. BBVA Compass is the first soccer-specific stadium in

MLS Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

to be located in a Downtown area. The stadium seats 22,039 and besides hosting soccer and football events will hold other events such as concerts and boxing matches.

Cityscape

It is located southwest of the Second Ward. Helen Anders of the ''

'' said that EaDo "looks like an art installation, with the steamshiplike

as a backdrop, skyscrapers lurking in the background and angular new condos set against low-slung warehouses, some of them still in use for industrial storage." Historically many of the Hispanic residents lived in small houses. The opening of the BBVA Compass Park and Minute Maid Park encouraged development of EaDo, and by 2015 many of the older houses were being replaced by townhouses with wealthier occupants.

Economy

The Kim Sơn headquarters and restaurant is located in East Downtown. What is now EaDo has the former U.S. headquarters of

Schlumberger Schlumberger Limited (), doing business as SLB, is an oilfield services company. Schlumberger has four principal executive offices located in Paris, Houston, London, and The Hague. Schlumberger is the world's largest offshore drilling compa ...

. It uses an

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

style. At one point the building became vacant. Circa 2013, Gaurav Khandelwal and Apurva Sanghavi, then the owners, planned to establish retail stores and offices there, but did not do so. In 2016 David Denenburg acquired the building; he announced plans to restore it and add retail.

Culture

The Texas Guandi Temple () is located in East Downtown. The temple was established in 1999 by a Vietnamese couple,Davis, Rod.
Houston's really good idea Bus tour celebrates communities that forged a city.
''

San Antonio Express-News The ''San Antonio Express-News'' is a daily newspaper in San Antonio, Texas. It is owned by the Hearst Corporation and has offices in San Antonio and Austin, Texas. The ''Express-News'' is the third largest newspaper in the state of Texas, with ...

''. August 3, 2003. Retrieved on February 11, 2012. Charles Loi Ngo and Carolyn.Martin, Betty L.
Neighborhood's Alive tour hits city's multicultural hot spots
" ''

''. Thursday July 17, 2003. ThisWeek 1. Retrieved on September 9, 2012. They decided to build a temple to

Guan Yu Guan Yu (; ), courtesy name Yunchang, was a Chinese military general serving under the warlord Liu Bei during the late Eastern Han dynasty of China. Along with Zhang Fei, he shared a brotherly relationship with Liu Bei and accompanied him on ...

(Guandi) after surviving an aggravated robbery, which occurred at their store in the Fifth Ward. They believed that Guandi saved their lives during the incident. A Vietnamese refugee named Charles Lee coordinated the donations and funding so the temple could be built; Lee stated his motivation was to thank the United States for welcoming him and saving his life when he arrived in 1978. The temple is open to followers of all religions, and it has perfumed halls.

Homeless population

The district has long been known for having a relatively large homeless population. Many of the homeless in the Houston area congregate in East Downtown because of the presence of nearby agencies that provide services (which predate the current redevelopment efforts) and several groups that independently provide food, clothing, toiletries, and other items on nearby vacant lots. Nearly all Houston non-profit and faith-based agencies which provide services to the homeless, including food and shelter, are located within Downtown and Midtown. A major shelter for women and children operated by Star of Hope, a faith-based agency, is located on Emancipation Avenue, between Texas & Franklin; the agency operates a men's facility nearby on the west side of US 59, north of Minute Maid Park. There has been some tension in recent years between developers who want to revitalize the East Downtown district with commercial and residential projects, and the homeless (and homeless service providers). Some have called for the city of Houston to restrict public sleeping on sidewalks and to regulate charitable serving of food. It remains to be seen whether or not current services to the homeless can continue in East Downtown in the face of ongoing revitalization and redevelopment efforts.

Government and infrastructure

Houston City Council The Houston City Council is a city council for the city of Houston in the U.S. state of Texas. Currently, there are sixteen members, 11 elected from council districts and five at-large. The members of the Council are elected every four years, w ...

District I covers East Downtown. Station 10, opened in 1894 in what is now East Downtown;Fire Station 10
." City of Houston. Retrieved on May 8, 2010. the station relocated to its current location in what is now the new

and

Greater Sharpstown Southwest Management District, formerly Greater Sharpstown Management District, is a district in Houston, Texas, United States. The district is split into 6 neighborhoods: Sharpstown, Chinatown, Mahatma Gandhi District/Little India, Westwood, H ...

in 1985.Districts
." Greater Sharpstown Management District. Retrieved on August 15, 2009.

Harris Health System The Harris Health System, previously the Harris County Hospital District (HCHD), is a governmental entity with taxing authority that owns and operates three hospitals and numerous clinics throughout Harris County, Texas, United States, includin ...

(formerly Harris County Hospital District) designated the Ripley Health Center in the East End for the ZIP code 77003. - See ZIP codes 77003
See this map for relevant ZIP code
In 2000 Ripley was replaced by the Gulfgate Health Center.

.

Harris County Hospital District The Harris Health System, previously the Harris County Hospital District (HCHD), is a governmental entity with taxing authority that owns and operates three hospitals and numerous clinics throughout Harris County, Texas, United States, includin ...

. Accessed October 17, 2008. The designated public hospital is

Ben Taub General Hospital Ben Taub Hospital is a public hospital located in Houston, Texas within the Texas Medical Center. Having opened in May 1963, the hospital is owned and operated by the Harris Health System and is staffed by the faculty, residents, and students fro ...

in the

Texas Medical Center The Texas Medical Center (TMC) is a medical district and neighborhood in south-central Houston, Texas, United States, immediately south of the Museum District and west of Texas State Highway 288. Over 60 medical institutions, largely concentrate ...

Transportation

Since 2015,

METRORail METRORail is the light rail system in Houston, Texas (United States). In , the system had a ridership of , or about per weekday as of . METRORail ranks as the second most-traveled light rail system in the Southern United States and the 12th ...

light rail has served the neighborhood at EaDo/Stadium station via the

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 Nanometre, nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by ...

and

Purple Purple is any of a variety of colors with hue between red and blue. In the RGB color model used in computer and television screens, purples are produced by mixing red and blue light. In the RYB color model historically used by painters, pu ...

lines, and the Leeland/Third Ward station via the Purple Line. In addition to light rail,

Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County The Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (stylized as METRO) is a major public transportation agency based in Houston, Texas, United States. It operates bus, light rail, bus rapid transit, HOV and HOT lanes, and paratransit service (u ...

(METRO) operates bus service through the area.

Education

The district is within the

Houston Independent School District The Houston Independent School District (HISD) is the largest public school system in Texas, and the eighth-largest in the United States. Houston ISD serves as a community school district for most of the city of Houston and several nearby and ...

. - This map has the boundaries of EaDo.

High School for Law and Justice High School for Law and Justice (HSLJ), formerly the High School for Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice (LE/CJ in short), is a high school located in Houston, Texas, United States. The school serves grades 9 through 12 and is a part of the Ho ...

is indicated on the map
Residential areas are indicated on this City of Houston super neighborhood map
/ref> East Downtown is within Trustee District VIII, represented by Diana Dávila as of 2009.

Lantrip Elementary School Dora B. Lantrip Elementary School is a primary school at 100 Telephone Road in the Eastwood community in the East End region of Houston, Texas, United States. The school is within the Houston Independent School District (HISD). The school serves ...

, in

Eastwood Eastwood may refer to: Places ;in Australia *Eastwood, New South Wales **Eastwood railway station **Electoral district of Eastwood *Eastwood, South Australia ;in Canada * Eastwood, Ontario *Eastwood, Edmonton, Alberta, a neighborhood ;in the Ph ...

; and Burnet Elementary School, outside of East Downtown, serve separate sections of East Downtown for elementary school. For grades 6 through 8 Yolanda Black Navarro Middle School of Excellence (formerly Jackson Middle School) serves East Downtown, Austin High School and Wheatley High School serve separate sections of East Downtown. The magnet high school

is in EaDo.

Histories of schools

In 1887 St. Nicholas Elementary School at St. Nicholas Church opened, and the school moved with its church to its current location around 1920. A new school building opened on September 8, 1931, with the previous school building, later used by the church itself, razed the previous May 12. Charles W. Luckie Elementary School, located at 1104 Palmer in what is now East Downtown, was a school for

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

s. It closed circa 1943.School Histories: the Stories Behind the Names
." ''

''. Retrieved on September 24, 2008. Dodson Elementary School in EaDo formerly served portions of the community. In 2014 the Dodson school had about 445 students.Mellon, Ericka.
HISD votes to close Dodson, repurpose Jones
" ''

''. March 13, 2014. Updated March 14, 2014. Retrieved on March 15, 2014. That year, the HISD school board was to vote on whether to close Dodson Elementary.

Terry Grier Terence Wyly (Terry) Grier (born 12 August 1936) is a former Canadian politician, lecturer and university administrator. Grier graduated from the University of Trinity College in the University of Toronto in 1958. He served as the New Democ ...

, the HISD superintendent, argued that Dodson needs to close so another school will be located there while its permanent facility is under construction. On Thursday March 13, 2014, the HISD board voted to close Dodson Elementary 5-4. The

Montessori The Montessori method of education involves children's natural interests and activities rather than formal teaching methods. A Montessori classroom places an emphasis on hands-on learning and developing real-world skills. It emphasizes indepen ...

program was scheduled to move to Blackshear Elementary. As part of rezoning for the 2014-2015 school year, some areas in EaDo previously under the Dodson zone were to be moved to the Rusk zone and some were moved to the zone of

.AGENDA Board of Education Meeting March 13, 2014
"

. Retrieved on March 15, 2014. "Current Attendance Boundaries" New 03/06/04 Attachment F-2 March 2014 p. 31/119. ''and'' "Proposed Attendance Boundaries" New 03/06/04 Attachment F-2 March 2014 p. 32/119. In April 2014 HISD trustee Juliet Stipeche declared that there will be another vote on Dodson's closing. At a later meeting, HISD board member Harvin Moore called for a motion that "the item be tabled indefinitely" meaning the closure is finalized and the matter will not be brought up again; the board voted 5-3 for this matter, and the speakers who were scheduled to speak about the Dodson issue were turned away. Prior to its closure, Anson Jones Elementary School, outside of East Downtown, served sections of East Downtown. The school, opened in 1892 with its latest campus constructed in 1966, closed in Summer 2006.

E. O. Smith Education Center This is a list of schools operated by the Houston Independent School District. In the district, grades kindergarten through 5 are considered to be elementary school, grades 6 through 8 are considered to be middle school, and grades 9 through 1 ...

, which formerly served EaDo for middle school, closed after the 2010-2011 school year; East Downtown was rezoned to Jackson.Jackson Middle Attendance Zone
." ''

''. Retrieved on July 26, 2011.

Energy Institute High School Energy Institute High School (EIHS) is a magnet high school in the Third Ward area in Houston, Texas. It is a part of the Houston Independent School District and is the first high school in the United States that focuses on the energy industry.Ra ...

, a magnet school, was formerly in the former Dodson Elementary School in EaDo, where it moved in the summer of 2014. In 2018 it moved to its current Third Ward campus. Previously Rusk School, outside of East Downtown, was a zoned elementary school serving sections of East Downtown. In 1995 Rusk had a student mobility rate of almost 100% because it had a very large homeless population. Rusk had a science and technology magnet program for middle school students. Beginning in the 2016-2017 school year the elementary zoned grades at Rusk began to be phased out. Most of EaDo became zoned to Lantrip with a small portion zoned to Burnet Elementary School in the East End. PreKindergarten through grade were phased out immediately, with 3-5 being phased out in the following five years; elementary grades for Rusk were to be phased out by fall 2019.

Religion

The

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

maintains St. Nicholas Church in East Downtown. It is Houston's oldest black Catholic church.Steptoe, Tyina Leaneice (

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...

). ''Dixie West: Race, Migration, and the Color Lines in Jim Crow Houston'' (PhD thesis for a history degree).

ProQuest ProQuest LLC is an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based global information-content and technology company, founded in 1938 as University Microfilms by Eugene B. Power. ProQuest is known for its applications and information services for libraries, provid ...

, 2008. , 9780549635871. p
195
It is/was considered to be in the Third Ward. By 2012 the church held Swahili masses due to it gaining African immigrant parishioners. In particular it has a group of Cameroonians in the congregation served by the Assumption Cameroonian Catholic Community, so it has services each month tailored to that group. In 2013 the church had experienced multiple instances of copper theft. The archdiocese also maintains the Catholic Charismatic Center in EaDo.

References

* * Rodriguez, Nestor. "Hispanic and Asian Immigration Waves in Houston." in: Chafetz, Janet Salzman and Helen Rose Ebaugh (editors). ''Religion and the New Immigrants: Continuities and Adaptations in Immigrant Congregations''.

AltaMira Press Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group is an independent publishing house founded in 1949. Under several imprints, the company offers scholarly books for the academic market, as well as trade books. The company also owns the book distributing compa ...

, October 18, 2000. , 9780759117129. ** Also available in: Ebaugh, Helen Rose Fuchs and Janet Saltzman Chafetz (editors). ''Religion and the New Immigrants: Continuities and Adaptations in Immigrant Congregations''.

Rowman & Littlefield Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group is an independent publishing house founded in 1949. Under several imprints, the company offers scholarly books for the academic market, as well as trade books. The company also owns the book distributing compa ...

, January 1, 2000. 0742503909, 9780742503908.

Notes

External links

East Downtown Houston
* Sarnoff, Nancy.
'EaDo' pioneers hope rail, Dynamo stadium put area on track
" ''

''. Saturday May 19, 2012. {{coord, 29.750, -95.350, type:city_dim:5km_region:US-TX, display=title Entertainment districts in Texas Neighborhoods in Houston Warehouse districts of the United States