Super Neighborhoods

82 - Magnolia Park

NAME: Magnolia Park

DATE RECOGNIZED: 11.20.2000

STATUS: Active

COUNCIL DISTRICT: I

MAYOR’S ASSISTANCE OFFICE: East End

CONTACT AND MEETING INFORMATION:
First Saturday, 10:00 am, Odd Months
Hartman Park
9311 E Avenue P, 77012
HistoricEastEnd@gmail.com

LOCATION: Magnolia Park, near the Houston Ship Channel in eastern Harris County, is one of Houston's oldest Hispanic neighborhoods. Magnolia Park borders the Ship Channel just south of the Turning Basin, north of Rusk and east of Terminal Road.

COMMUNITY DESCRIPTION AND HISTORY: Magnolia Park was laid out in 1890 on a 1,374-acre site belonging to Thomas M. Brady, on Harrisburg Road across Bray's Bayou from Harrisburg and seven miles downstream from Houston. It was named for the 3,750 magnolias that developers planted there.

Though whites first inhabited the town, Mexican Americans from South Texas began arriving by 1911, first settling in the area filled by sand dredged from the turning basin and known as El Arenal or the Sands. Most of the new settlers worked as laborers, laying railroad tracks or dredging and widening Buffalo Bayou. Others loaded cotton on ships and railroad cars or helped construct the ship channel.

Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, organized in 1912, provided schooling, and, along with the Heart of Mary Catholic Church, established in 1926, became a community center. By 1920, with an influx of immigrants from northern Mexico, the community had become a barrio with its own business district of Mexican-owned firms.

Magnolia Park was annexed to the city of Houston in October 1926. By 1929, Magnolia Park, surrounded by refineries, factories, textile mills, industrial plants, and wharves, was the largest Mexican settlement in Houston. By 1990, the community was a working-class neighborhood with a population of 14,000.

CIVIC CLUBS: (Updated 9/22/2022)

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