NO LONGER IN THE SHADOWS
The Astros purchased the land where a blue Victorian house and historic train sit, breaking ground this week on a new development
In the shadow of Minute Maid Park stands a little blue Victorian, dwarfed like the house in “Up” by the massive scale of the buildings surrounding it — three sports stadiums, the convention center and its nearby hotels and skyscrapers. But not for long.
The Houston Astros purchased the 1.738 acres where it and a historic locomotive sits through an affiliate for $17 million in 2019 and broke ground this week on what will eventually become a retail and residential development. Meantime, the storied home and train will be relocated; an excavator dismantled the small retail strip where HTX Fan Tavern and Home Plate Bar & Grill once stood Tuesday afternoon. The plan short
term is to use the land as a parking lot, said Anita Sehgal, Astros senior vice president of marketing and communications.
The design for the mixeduse development has not been finalized.
The city of Houston will pay for moving the blue-andwhite wooden home, known as the Cohn House, one block north of Minute Maid. Arthur Cohn, its first resident, helped found what is now
Rice University.
The two-story home, built in 1905, is a symbol of the neighborhood’s previous incarnation as a highend neighborhood called Quality Hill. It is now listed in the National Register of Historic Places and was once the headquarters for St. Francis Charities.
Its upcoming move will not be its first — it first resided at 1711 Rusk St. After nearly a century, during which it watched the stylish residential community turn into an urban center for business and tourism, it was moved to 1720 Texas Ave. to make way for the expansion of the Avenida de las Americas between the convention center and Minute Maid Park. Catholic clergy sprinkled the home with holy water and blessed the structure before its move in 2003, in honor of its decades as a center for Christian charity.
Now, the home has once again been set on steel girders in preparation for travel — and its coming move probably won’t be its last.
The house will likely be moved to a city park east of U.S. 59, said Mary Benton, director of communications for Mayor Sylvester Turner.
The fate of the train, a steam locomotive known as the Southern Pacific 982, is still under discussions, said Bill Capdevielle, president of the Texas Railroading Heritage Museum.
“We’re thrilled to help find a home for the 982 that serves the people of Houston and honors its heritage, having been built in 1913,” he said. “We don’t know yet what the final picture is going to look like. … We are discussing a potential location in Tony Marron Park.”
Many Houstonians have fond memories of playing on the train from when it was located in Hermann Park starting in 1957. “Kids used to crawl all over it,” Capdevielle said.
Prior to that, Engine 982 used to shuttle throughout the Southeast, was called into national service during World War II and was afterward used mostly on the Houston-to-Shreveport line, where it was nicknamed the “Rabbit” by its crewmen. The train traveled an estimated 3.5 million miles over its career, according to Chronicle archives.
By the 1950s, as dieselpowered engines became more popular, steam engines were retiring from service. Local rail buffs saved the 982 from the scrapyard by convincing the city to provide a home for it. It is one of only two historic steam engines of its kind, according to Chronicle archives, and resided at Hermann Park until it was moved in front of Minute Maid Park, on the former site of Union Station, Houston’s main train terminal. (The site’s history is also why the Astros celebrate home runs with a whistle from a train perched high above the field.)
When city council approved of some of the plans for the land in May of 2020, said Benton, the Astros agreed it would begin its mixed-use development within four years and bring the plans to the city for review.