This Month's Neighborhood - Bellaire

Belliare

In 1908, William Wright Baldwin, VP of Burlington Railroad founded the South End Land Company to acquire 1,000 acres on the east end of William Marsh Rice's 9,449 acre ranch.   Baldwin wanted the property to divide into small truck farms, which were small vegitable farms where the owner would truck his produce to market.  He named the area "Westmoreland Farms", and he started the City of Bellaire in the middle of "Westmoreland Farms" to serve as a residential neighborhood and an agricultural trading center.

Promotional advertising in 1909, aimed at attracking mid-west farmers to move to the area, claimed that Bellaire or "Good Air" was named for the area's Gulf breezes.  But some believe that Baldwin may have named it for Bellaire, Ohio, a town served by his railroad.

At the time there was a 6-mile praire buffer zone between Houston and Bellaire. But, within two years, Baldwin had invested over $150,000 in capital improvements to turn the treeless prairie into an attractive location for residences and small truck farms.  One of his investments was the formation of the Westmoreland Railroad Company which built an electric streetcare line from Houston's Main Street down the middle of the new Bellaire Boulevard.  One of the original streetcars, known as the "Toonerville Trolley," and operated from December 12, 1910, until bus service replaced it on September 26, 1927 can be seen in the Paseo Park on Bellaire Blvd in the city. 

In 1910, horticulturist Edward Teas drawn to the new city by Baldwin, move his nursery from Missouri to Bellaire Boulevard to implement landscaping plans drawn up for the city.  Bellaire incorporated in 1918, which prevented Houston from annexing them as the city expanded but it also prevented Bellaire from growning too.  In the 1960s 250 houses in Bellaire were demolished to make way for the right of way of the 610 Loop, which bisected the city.  Over the years, Bellaire has grown to a population of approximately 18,000 today. 

As Houston has grown, Bellaire has become a wealthy "innerburb", where older homes are removed to make way for large new 4,000+ sq foot residence.  Today, Bellaire's zipcode shows up on lists of Texas cities with the highest household income, over $200,000/year, and with an average home value of over $800,000.  As of the day I am writing this blog, HAR has 114 homes either active or pending priced at over $1 million, with 45 of those priced over $1.5 million.  On the flip side, there are only 33 properties listed below $500,000, of which 9 are condos/townhomes, 5 are advertised as homes to live in and 19 are listed "for lot value".