- East Downtown Houston
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East Downtown Houston (EaDo) is a district in Houston, Texas, United States. The East Downtown Management District (EDMD), headquartered at 2612 McKinney Street, manages the area.[1] The community is located east of Downtown Houston and north of Interstate 45 (Gulf Freeway).[2] It is between the George R. Brown Convention Center and the East End district.[3]
The Old Chinatown, an area within East Downtown bounded by U.S. Route 59, Preston Street, St. Joseph Parkway, and Dowling Street, is the older of the two Houston Chinatowns.[2][4] The East Downtown Chinatown is not the same as the Chinatown in southwestern Houston.[5]
Contents
History
The former Luckie School
In the 1930s many Cantonese immigrants moved to the former Houston Chinatown, then a part of the Third Ward area, from Downtown Houston in an effort to find more inexpensive land. The Cantonese opened several businesses, including grocery stores and restaurants, and held Chinese New Year celebrations. Immigrants from other East Asian countries, including Vietnam, moved into the Chinatown. By the 1990s, many of the East Asian businesses left and had relocated to the current Chinatown in southwest Houston.[3]
In a November 28, 2002 Houston Press 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 East End."[6] 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.[7]
In 2008 the management district and its namethedistrict.com website asked for suggestions for a new name for the district.[3][8] Suggestions included "the Warehouse District," referring to the abandoned warehouses, and "Saint E," after St. Emmanuel 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.[3]
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 dollars in the Old Chinatown and subsequently creates two jobs for ten years, he or she would become eligible for a EB-5 visa.[4][9] By late 2009 the East Downtown authority began re-branding the district to reflect its current name.[3] By 2010 a community of artists began to form in EaDo.[10]
On April 7, 2010, the Houston City Council unanimously approved an agreement Wednesday that is expected to pave the way for a new stadium for the Houston Dynamo and the Texas Southern University football team, which is expected to be on a tract of land bordered by Texas, Walker, Dowling and Hutchins in East Downtown.[2][11]
Cityscape
Helen Anders of the Austin American-Statesman said that EaDo "looks like an art installation, with the steamshiplike George R. Brown Convention Center 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."[10]
Government and infrastructure
Houston City Council District I covers East Downtown.[12]
Station 10, opened in 1894 in what is now East Downtown;[2][13] the station relocated to its current location in what is now the new Chinatown and Greater Sharpstown in 1985.[13][5][14]
Education
Dodson Elementary SchoolThe district is within the Houston Independent School District. East Downtown is within Trustee District VIII, represented by Diana Dávila as of 2009.[2][15]
Dodson Elementary School, in East Downtown,[16] and Rusk Elementary School, outside of East Downtown,[17] serve separate sections of East Downtown for elementary school. For grades 6 through 8 Jackson Middle School serves East Downtown,[18] Austin High School and Wheatley High School serve separate sections of East Downtown.[19][20] Rusk has a science and technology magnet program for middle school students.[21]
Charles W. Luckie Elementary School, located at 1104 Palmer in what is now East Downtown, was a school for African-Americans.[22] It closed circa 1943.[23]
Prior to its closure, Anson Jones Elementary School, outside of East Downtown, served sections of East Downtown.[24] The school, opened in 1892 with its latest campus constructed in 1966, closed in Summer 2006.[23][25] E.O. Smith Education Center closed after the 2010-2011 school year; the portion of East Downtown was rezoned to Jackson.[18][26]
See also
References
- ^ "EaDo's Contact Information." East Downtown Management District. Retrieved on August 1, 2009.
- ^ a b c d e "Welcome to EaDo." East Downtown Management District. Retrieved on August 1, 2009.
- ^ a b c d e Moreno, Jenalia. "Chinatown no longer." Houston Chronicle. October 17, 2009. Retrieved on October 19, 2009.
- ^ a b Patel, Purva. "Pay-for-visa plan could revive Houston's Old Chinatown." Houston Chronicle. August 18, 2008. Retrieved on January 20, 2009.
- ^ a b Rodriguez, Lori. "Opinions vary over naming the growing Asian community on Houston's southwest side." (Archive). Alternate version without Chinatown map: "DIVERSITY DEBATE / Chinatown outgrowing name / Opinions vary over naming the growing Asian community on Houston's southwest side." Houston Chronicle. Wednesday May 9, 2007. A1.
- ^ Lomax, John Nova. "Glamorous Youth." Houston Press. November 28, 2002. 6. Retrieved on March 31, 2009.
- ^ Lomax, John Nova. "Say Hello to EaDo." Houston Press. Thursday February 3, 2009. Retrieved on March 31, 2009.
- ^ "Name the District." East Downtown Houston. Retrieved on January 21, 2009.
- ^ "About EaDo." East Downtown Houston. Retrieved on August 1, 2009.
- ^ a b Anders, Helen. "Emergine EaDo: Houston's newest arts community." Austin American-Statesman. Saturday February 13, 2010. Retrieved on March 20, 2010.
- ^ Olson, Bradley. "Council approves deal for new Dynamo stadium." Houston Chronicle. April 7, 2010. Retrievedon April 9, 2010.
- ^ City of Houston, Council District Maps, District I." City of Houston. Retrieved on November 5, 2011.
- ^ a b "Fire Station 10." City of Houston. Retrieved on May 8, 2010.
- ^ "Districts." Greater Sharpstown Management District. Retrieved on August 15, 2009.
- ^ "Trustee Districts Map." Houston Independent School District. Retrieved on November 11, 2008.
- ^ "Dodson Elementary Attendance Zone." Houston Independent School District. Retrieved on January 21, 2009.
- ^ "Rusk Elementary Attendance Zone." Houston Independent School District. Retrieved on January 21, 2009.
- ^ a b "Jackson Middle Attendance Zone." Houston Independent School District. Retrieved on July 26, 2011.
- ^ "Austin High School Attendance Zone." Houston Independent School District. Retrieved on January 21, 2009.
- ^ "Wheatley High School Attendance Zone." Houston Independent School District. Retrieved on January 21, 2009.
- ^ "Information for Thomas Rusk Elementary School." Rusk Elementary School. Retrieved on January 21, 2009.
- ^ Britt, Douglas "Can Mickey Phoenix save Luckie Elementary?." Houston Chronicle. July 3, 2007. Retrieved on August 1, 2009.
- ^ a b "School Histories: the Stories Behind the Names." Houston Independent School District. Retrieved on September 24, 2008.
- ^ "Anson Jones Elementary Attendance Zone." Houston Independent School District. Retrieved on January 21, 2009.
- ^ Home page. Anson Jones Elementary School. Retrieved on January 21, 2009.
- ^ "E.O. Smith Middle Attendance Zone." Houston Independent School District. Retrieved on January 21, 2009.
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