Bellaire marks its 100th year as a city

Historian says community owes a lot to its group of hardy settlers

The leafy enclave of Bellaire was incorporated June 24, 1918, and the city’s first town marshal was appointed just weeks later.

Now, the community is commemorating the 100th anniversary of the city and its police department in multiple ways, including free bus tours that teach residents about its history.

Railroad executive William Wright Baldwin founded Bellaire in 1908, and as the town grew, its residents decided to incorporate 10 years later, according to Houston historian R.W. McKinney and Mister McKinney of Mister McKinney’s Historic Houston.

McKinney, who is also president of the Bellaire Historical Society, said the city included the areas from Palmetto to Jessamine, and Sixth (now Ferris) to Fourth (now South Rice). According to an advertisement from 1911, a 50-by 135-foot lot could be purchased for $250, and farming land went for $150 an acre.

The name Bellaire, McKinney said, came from a community along one of Baldwin’s rail lines called Bellaire, Ohio, but later marketing would emphasize the translation “good air” and the area’s Gulf breezes.

Back then, Bellaire was a rural area, and McKinney said most people made their living from crops like citrus, apples or pecan groves. He said Baldwin’s rail line into downtown Houston helped Bellaire prosper.

“What made this area successful really was William Wright Baldwin’s purchase of a rail line that would go east to west, which connects the city of Houston to the city of Bellaire,” McKinney said. “A trolley from downtown Houston would go

all the way down Bellaire Boulevard, which is now called Holcombe, to the west of Buffalo Speedway.”

The electric streetcar line operated from 1910 until 1927, and a restored streetcar sits in the park along the path of the old streetcar line on Bellaire Boulevard.

McKinney said Bellaire owes a lot to the endurance and grit of its roughly 200 original settlers. He said that in 1915, residents came together to rebuild after two-thirds of their homes were demolished by a hurricane. A big freeze destroyed crops in 1917, and two years later, a massive flood caused more damage.

“These milestones really challenged the early pioneers, and if they weren’t that strong, we wouldn’t have a Bellaire today,” McKinney said.

On July 8, 1918, Bellaire’s three town council members appointed J.B. Huddleston as the first town marshal, and since then, the police department has grown to 58 employees, according to Byron Holloway, the current chief of police.

Holloway, who joined the agency in 1976 at age 19, said the Bellaire Police Department continues to change, but its focus on the services it provides has remained constant. He said good parks, schools, libraries and roadways make Bellaire a great place to call home and that “the police department is just a part of creating an environment that allows all good things to flourish.”

The department is a place of stability for the community it serves, Holloway said.

“The Bellaire Police Department has been the one constant in Bellaire: when people don’t know who else to call, they will call us,” he said.

The City Council was scheduled to recognize the 100th anniversary of the department at its meeting July 2.

McKinney has been educating Houston-area children since 2002. Today, his Houston History Bus offers free tours in neighborhoods around the greater Houston area.

On June 22, city officials held a 100th anniversary commemoration as well as a ribbon-cutting for the launch of Mister McKinney’s Historic Houston’s bus tours of Bellaire. The event also celebrated the coming of the new H-E-B Bellaire Market, which opened June 27.

The first Bellaire bus tours started June 24, and McKinney said they will help residents understand their city’s past.

“They offer a glimpse of the past,” he said. “They offer an opportunity to learn what used to be there because Bellaire and Houston are so forwardthinking that they’re always kind of growing and evolving, and we’re not saving things that matter [from] the past.”

The tours are funded through the donations of individuals and organizations.

A New York City-based financial news company this year ranked Bellaire as the wealthiest suburb in Texas among towns and cities with populations of 1,000 to 25,000 residents. It now as a population of around 18,600.

The “City of Homes” was heavily affected by flooding from Hurricane Harvey, with more than one-third of its 6,500 homes having structural damage.

City Manager Paul Hoffmann said residents’ involvement and their “volunteer spirit” are part of what has made Bellaire a thriving city throughout the years.

“They made a decision to live here because it’s a great place to live and raise a family, and they want to keep it that way,” Hofmann said.