This policy has allowed the neighborhood character to remain relatively intact even as nearby areas become increasingly more densely built and heavily populated with commercial retail, townhomes, apartments and condominiums.
The First Boom: WWII Expansion
Bellaire was founded by William Wright Baldwin in 1908 after he purchased the 7,449 acre Rice Ranch, and was one of Houston's original "streetcar suburbs", originally serviced by a streetcar running from Houston, down Holcombe and Bellaire Blvd. to the town center, until it was abandoned in 1927.
Development in Bellaire was relatively slow, and it remained a sleepy, residential and agricultural town on the outskirts of Houston until the post-WWII building boom made it an attractive place for returning veterans to establish their families.It is for this reason that most of the original housing stock is made up of humble, one-story ranch homes often on plots of land as small as 5000 square feet (50x100), built between (approximately) 1940 and 1965. The buildout more or less concluded Bellaire's first building boom, and development zoomed further west and south.
The Second Boom: Built By Oil
Facing decline following the 1970s, which proved a tough decade for the Houston area, the location - only a few miles from downtown and in the shadow of the Med Center and Galleria area employment hubs - and Bellaire's well-regarded schools, kept the area somewhat attractive. Development was once again reignited by the oil boom of the 80s as more and more residents were priced out of the "it" areas of the time - River Oaks, et. al. - and ventured outward to greener (and more moderately priced) pastures.
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To preserve open space, protect trees, and ensure proper storm runoff, the city mandated that all new single-family new construction must be either 2 or 3 stories tall. The resulting housing stock from this second era of building (Ranging from the oil boom 80s until the 2006 financial crisis) consists mainly of either acutely banal (right) or excessively ornate (bottom) "McMansions" (often suspiciously identical to the bloated tract homes of suburban Houston) crowded onto a 5-7,000 square foot lot.The second boom replaced approximately half of the original houses in Bellaire, and new constructions powered forward at a breakneck pace until the 2006 financial crisis.
Post-Recession Bellaire and where we go from here
Growing up in Bellaire, it was amazing to me to see the various historical eras represented around me by houses. Perhaps less jarring to most than to someone with a keen interest in architecture, development and building like myself, I was always struck by this dichotomy.
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| The familiar "old. new. old. new. old." rhythm of a Bellaire block |
My parents built their house just as the second boom started to fade. At that time, we were only the second redeveloped property on our block. The houses on either side were built in the mid 1960s, as was the compact red brick home that used to occupy the lot. I can still see that block with all of the original houses on it in my mind, but it's changed significantly even since I left for college in 2010.
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| Everything's bigger in Texas |
second boom cooled off has been good to Bellaire economically. Land values were high before the recession - around $300,000 for the average mid-block lot in 2006. Since Houston's strong recovery, the prices have gone astronomical: those same lots today fetch almost double the price tag.
Meanwhile, my old block continues to be built out (re-built out may be more accurate), as do many others. As the years go on, that "bingo" moment of spotting three houses in a row, each of distinctly different eras and styles, has become more and more prevalent.
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| Bellaire Bingo |
I cannot say that I totally approve of the development patterns in my hometown, nor will I be surprised when the astronomical and always-increasing land values in Bellaire lead dollar-chasing developers and builders to begin demolishing the two story houses of the second boom. But what I can say is that these unique development patterns have created some of the most incredible lot-by-lot housing diversity I've ever seen.
