by Marks Hinton
LA SALLE: Rene Robert Cavelier Sieur de – Born in Rouen, France in 1643, he became one of the greatest explorers of the North American continent. In 1682 he completed a trip down the Mississippi River and claimed all of the lands in its watershed as property of King Louis, naming the area “Louisiana” for his regent. In 1684 he attempted a return voyage but missed that great river’s mouth and was wrecked in Matagorda Bay on the Texas coast. He tried to lead the survivors overland to Canada but was murdered near Navasota, Texas by his own men.2
LABRANCH: As the last official act of his administration, President Andrew Jackson appointed Alcee Louis LaBranche as charge d’affaires from the United States to the Republic of Texas. LaBranche served in this position from 1837 to 1840. He was the first foreign minister to recognize the Republic of Texas. He returned to his native New Orleans and was elected to Congress. During the campaign he was challenged to a duel (the only one of his career) and killed his opponent, a Whig from Baton Rouge. LaBranch Street (misspelled since being placed on our city map in 1839) was formerly known as Milton Street after John Milton, the author of Paradise Lost. (See Milton.)3
LACOSTE LOVE: Jean Rene “Crocodile” Lacoste, a Frenchman, is better remembered as the inventor of the short-sleeved cotton tennis shirt with the crocodile logo than for his tennis accomplishments. However, he won the French Open three times (1925, 1927, 1929), the U.S. Open twice (1926, 1927) and Wimbledon twice (1925, 1927).4
LAFAYETTE: It is named for the hero of the French Revolution, Marquis de Lafayette. He had been touring the eastern United States and impressed the citizens of Easton Pennsylvania who founded a college in 1824 in his honor. It opened its doors in 1832 and in 1866 became the first American institution of higher learning to offer a degree in civil engineering. 5
LAFAYETTE: See sidebar America the Beautiful, page 176.
LAFAYETTE: See sidebar Laissez les bon temps roulez (Let the good times roll), page 188.
LAIRD: D. C. – This soldier was the Captain of Company G of the 14th Texas Volunteer Infantry. He saw action with Walker’s Texas Brigade during the War Between the States. 6
LAKE CONROE: About one hour north of Houston is Lake Conroe. This 21 mile long, 21,000 acre body of water acts as a backup water supply for our city as well as a beautiful recreation area. This lake is also known as Honea Reservoir. 7
LAKE HOUSTON: This parkway is named for Lake Houston, a man-made lake owned and operated by the City of Houston. Construction of the 62-foot high earth-fill San Jacinto Dam began in November 1951. The project was completed in December 1953. The lake covers an area of 12,240 acres. 8
LAKESHORE: Located in the small community of El Lago (Spanish for “the lake”) near Galveston Bay, this street recalls the village’s location – abutting Clear Lake and Taylor Lake. 9
LAKEWOOD: Lakewood Yacht Club is one of the oldest yacht clubs in the Houston/ Galveston Bay area. It was founded in 1955. Since 1995 the club has sponsored Keels & Wheels Concours d’ Elegance, the largest gathering of classic cars and wooden boats in the U. S. Occurring the first weekend of May, the event is open to the public. Thousands of enthusiasts and collectors walk the beautiful grounds admiring Duesenbergs, Stutz Bearcats, Shelby Cobras and Chris Crafts. 10
LAMAR FLEMING: He was one of three original partners and the eventual president of the Houston based cotton-trading firm of Anderson, Clayton & Company. Through his association with Monroe D. Anderson, Fleming was actively involved in the creation of the Texas Medical Center. In his honor a street in that world-class complex was named for this civic leader. 11
LAMAR: Mirabeau Buonaparte – He arrived in Texas in 1835. Lamar volunteered for the Texas army and was a hero at the Battle of San Jacinto because his cavalry charge saved the lives of Thomas Rusk and Walter Lane. He was elected President of the Republic of Texas in 1838. (See Collinsworth.) (See photograph on page 191.)12
LANAI: See sidebar Bali Hai May Call You, page 322.
LANCELOT & SIR LANCELOT: He was the most famous and bravest of King Arthur’s Knights of the Roundtable. He became Queen Guinevere’s lover, precipitating the downfall of Arthur’s kingdom.
LANDRUM: John – He was an early settler near Plantersville and one of the planters the town was named for. 13
LANGHAM CREEK: This creek rises in northern Harris County and flows 15 miles to its mouth on Bear Creek in Bear Creek Park. (See Bear Creek.) 14
» LAMAR: Mirabeau B. Lamar’s grave in Richmond, Texas
LANGTRY: See Roy Bean.
LARCHMONT: Because so many streets in River Oaks are named for famous country clubs, it is likely that this lovely lane is also for a well-known golf course. Information at the River Oaks Property Association tends to back this claim. However, I cannot find any country club with this name that still exists and was founded before 1923 (when River Oaks was platted). The same problem exists for Meadowlake, Overbrook and Wickersham. 15
LARUE: A tragic tale, possibly apocryphal, involves a young Houston girl, her grandfather and the City of Houston. According to the Houston Post, in 1904 LaRue Sachs was a resident of the 4th Ward. One day she was run over and killed by a streetcar. The city settled with her grandfather, paying him $2,000. He used the funds to buy a farm just west of the Ward boundary. He developed the property and in 1919 added a north-south street that intersected West Dallas. He named this street for his dearly departed granddaughter and donated the right of way to the city. The story goes that city officials gladly accepted the gift and immediately raised his taxes because of the improved status of the property. So much for appreciating the civic minded! 16
LATEXO: This drive recalls a small town between Crockett and Palestine that was located on the International-Great Northern Railroad that extended to Houston. It was a major shipping point in East Texas. Latexo’s odd name is a contraction of Louisiana & Texas Orchard Company. 17
LATHAM: Ludowick Justin – This ship captain arrived in Houston in 1839. In 1873 after retiring from sea life he opened a furniture store on Main Street that eventually became the dominant company in that business. Latham was the first merchant to install paved cement sidewalks in front of his store. 18
LAUDER: This family owned land in the Aldine area. 19
LAURA KOPPE: This is one of the mystery street names in our city. It has been on the plat maps since 1940. Most likely it was named for a long-time Houston resident. An obituary in the El Paso Times on June 18, 1928 reports the passing of a woman with this name. It states she lived in Houston and was visiting her daughter in El Paso when she died. The Times also reports she was a member of the First United Methodist Church and Eastern Star although neither organization has any record of her. So the question is, what did she do to merit a major street named in her honor? 20
LAUTREC: Henri de Toulouse – One of France’s greatest modern artists, he is remembered for his paintings of the nightlife of Gay Paree. He loved Montmartre and painted the people of that Paris neighborhood – dancers, singers and prostitutes. Lautrec often traded his paintings for sexual favors from the latter group, a practice that eventually resulted in his death from syphilis combined with alcoholism. 21
LAVER LOVE: Rod Laver was one of the world’s greatest tennis players. This redheaded Australian is the only player to win the Grand Slam (U. S., Australian and French Opens plus Wimbledon in the same year) twice (1962, 1969). He claimed 11 Grand Slam titles and was the first tennis professional to win $1,000,000 in prize money. Today the Australian Open is played in the Rod Laver Tennis Center in Melbourne. Your author once had the pleasure of meeting this great champion at the River Oaks Tennis Tournament. Laver won the River Oaks tournament four times (1961, 1962, 1972, 1974). The tennis term “love” means one player has a score of zero in the game being played such as “40 love.” 22
LAWRENCE MARSHALL: Located just north of Hempstead, this road is named for the late car dealer of the same name. The dealership was the home of the famous “Clobberthon” phone that pitchman and later owner, Ray Childress, would
use to say “We clobber big city prices.” When Marshall opened, Hempstead had no large businesses. He employed over 250 people and had revenues of $85 million. The economic collapse of 2008-9 forced the company out of business and had severe economic repercussions on the town.
LAWRENCE: Oscar Martin Carter was the developer of the Houston Heights. He raised a considerable amount of his capital from investors in and around Boston. Randy Pace, Historical Preservation Officer of the City of Houston and expert on the Heights, told me that Carter named this street for Lawrence, Massachusetts. (See Heights and Carter.) 23
LAZY LANE: This is probably the most beautiful street in River Oaks as well as its most prestigious address. Mike Hogg, one of the three developers of that subdivision, named it. He and his sister Ima lived on Lazy Lane. Miss Hogg later donated her home to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and today it houses the Bayou Bend Collection of American furniture. 24
LEAFTEX: See sidebar Howdy Tex, page 263.
LEAGUE: J. C. – In 1893 this gentleman purchased the land where League City is located today. He laid the town out on the Galveston, Houston & Henderson rail line and named it for himself. It was an agricultural center in its early years. 25
LEE: Paul U. – Lee street is named for this early Baytown funeral home director. 26
LEE: T. W. – In 1892 a group of investors founded the seaside resort town of La Porte. This gentleman was among them. Others include I. R. Holmes for whom North and South Holmes are named and A. M. and J. H. York who failed to have a street in their honor. (See La Porte.) 27
LEEK: George W. – This man is another veteran of the Battle of San Jacinto. He was under the command of Captain William Fisher. 28
LEELAND: W. W. – It is possible this street is named for an early Houston resident who lived in the Sixth Ward. W. R. Baker developed that area in 1858. Mr. Leeland acquired two blocks of land there from Baker on January 31, 1859. The street name first appears on the 1866 map spelled as “Lealand.” By 1873 it was corrected to read “Leeland.” 29
LEGGETT: (See Zuber.)
LEHAVRE: This French port was almost totally destroyed during World War II in fighting between German and English armies. Over 5,000 citizens died and 12,000 homes were leveled. Despite this devastation, LeHavre became one of the largest replacement depots in the European Theater with thousands of American troops arriving on their way to the front. 30
LEHIGH: In 1865 industrialist Asa Packer, builder of the Lehigh Valley Railroad and owner of a coal-mining empire, founded this university in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. 31
LEMAC: For some reason developers like to name streets for words that are spelled backwards. Lemac, camel spelled backwards, is one of several thoroughfares that are a result of this odd habit. (See Saxet and Remlap.) 32
LEMKE: Colin G. – See sidebar Houston Streets Named for Men Killed During World War I, page 22. 33
LEMM: The Lemm and Schmidt families have owned this Cypress Creek area ranch since 1861. It is registered with the Texas Department of Agriculture under the Family Land Heritage Program, an honor reserved for farms and ranches with a continuous family ownership of more than 100 years. William Lemm Sr. owned 160 acres of land where the Goodyear blimp base was located. He was a founder of Trinity Lutheran Church in Klein and is buried in the Budde Cemetery. (See Lutheran Church and Bulde Cemetery.) 34
LENTE: See sidebar Learn a Foreign Language on Your Morning Walk, page 125.
LEONIDAS: The Trinity River Lumber Company owned this sawmill town and employed most of the residents until the mill closed in 1924. Like other Montgomery County villages tied to the logging industry it faded away and is a ghost town today. 35
LEVERIDGE: John G. – This East Bernard resident owned a general store there in the early 1900s. He also operated a bank at the same location. 36
LEVERKUHN: This old Houston family arrived here in the 1840s from Germany. They owned property south of Washington Avenue and north of Buffalo Bayou where this street is today. 37
LIBBEY: Frank Sharp named this street in Oak Forest Addition for his daughter, Elizabeth. (See Frank Sharp.) 38
LIBERTY: This road was once the main artery to the town of Liberty in east Texas. Americans settled this area as early as 1818. Sam Houston practiced law here from 1830 until 1850. In the early years Liberty was a port on the Trinity River as well as a stop on the Texas & New Orleans Railroad. In 1925 oil was discovered nearby and Liberty became a boomtown. During World War II German prisoners were incarcerated here at the fairgrounds.39
» LIGHT COMPANY: Deep Water Power Plant in the 1920s
LIEDER: Most likely this street remembers a landowner in the Spring Cypress area who sold 100 acres for $75 per acre to Cypress-Fairbanks ISD in 1940 to build a school. An article in the Houston Chronicle in 1942 called it “one of the most modern equipped and largest school buildings in Harris County.” 40
LIENDO PLANTATION: Early settler Leonard W. Groce named this Waller County plantation for its original owner Jose Justo Liendo in 1853. During the War Between the States it served as a prisoner-of-war camp for Union soldiers captured at the Battle of Galveston. Following the conflict General George Armstrong Custer camped here from September until December 1865. It is one of the few plantation homes in Texas that has been restored and may be visited today. 41
LIGHT COMPANY: At the end of this industrial street, fronting on the Houston Ship Channel at the confluence of Buffalo and Vince Bayous stands the Deep Water Power Station. Opened in 1924, it is one of the oldest in the city. It is currently moth-balled. Officials at Houston Lighting & Power (now Reliant Energy) named the street. (See photograph on page 194.) 42
LILLJA: S. E. – Lillja was a Swedish immigrant who came to Texas via Chicago. He was a blacksmith who settled in the Aldine area. By the time he arrived Aldine had a number of Swedish and German settlers. The family owned land there and operated a poultry farm. (See Aldine.) 43
LINA: She was the wife of Houston merchant and landowner Herman Eberhard Detering. (See Detering and Eberhard.) 44
LINDLEY: Samuel and Joseph – See Old Danville.
LINDSEY: Reverend M. L. – This gentleman was the original pastor of the First United Methodist Church of Katy. This place of worship was established about 1900. Lindsey also served other Methodist churches in the area. 45
LIPSCOMB: Abner Smith – He was Secretary of State in Mirabeau B. Lamar’s Presidency of the Republic. He was also appointed associate justice of the Supreme Court of Texas in 1846 and re-elected again in 1851 and 1856. 46
LITTLE BIGHORN: See Crazy Horse, Custer and Sitting Bull.
LITTLE CYPRESS: This tributary of Cypress Creek rises in Hockley, Texas and flows 14 miles to its mouth on Cypress Creek. It travels through stretches of coastal plain interspersed with forested areas of oak and pine. 47
LITTLE JOHN: He was one of Robin Hood’s merry men in Sherwood Forest.
LITTLE YORK: Now a suburb of Houston, Little York was once a small village on the banks of Hall’s Bayou north of downtown and east of the Eastex Freeway. 48
LITTLE: See sidebar Neighborhoods with Interesting Street Names, page 104.
LIVELY: Located in a Sugar Land neighborhood with streets named Frontier, Old Fort, Settlers Way and Colony this street most likely is named for the schooner Lively that Stephen F. Austin and his band of colonists sailed from New Orleans to the mouth of the Brazos River in 1821. 49
LIVERPOOL-HOSKINS MOUND: Liverpool was founded in 1837 in what became Brazoria County. It was named by a local character named Commodore Nelson for the seaport in England. For a time it was an important port on Chocolate Bayou for transshipment of goods to the Gulf of Mexico. Warren D. C. Hall became the first postmaster in 1846. The post office and Liverpool Cemetery (established 1837) have earned Texas Historical Markers. Hoskins Mound was a sulfur dome discovered in 1920. There was a small community here until the mine played out. The memory of Hoskins has faded into the mists of time. 50
LOCHRIDGE: Thomas – He platted the t
ownsite of Rosharon. Lochridge moved a cotton gin there from Houston to increase employment in the area. An ancillary benefit was the capability of the gin to generate electricity for Rosharon’s first power plant. In addition he operated the first telephone exchange there. (See Rosharon.) 51
LOCKE: This lane is named for Robert E. Locke, an early Houston settler. 52
LOCKETT: Reese - (See Salt Grass Trail.)
» LOGAN: Camp Logan during World War 1
LOCKHART: Robert – He owned several large tracts of land in the 2nd Ward in the 1880s. 53
LOCKHEED: On the property of William P. Hobby Airport, this short street honors one of America’s greatest aircraft manufacturers. Some of their most famous airplanes include the WW II speed demon fighter, the P-38 Lightning, the commercial Constellation, the ill-fated Electra and the workhorse C-130 cargo carrier. 54
LOFTING WEDGE: See sidebar A Neighborhood for Linksters, page 318.
LOGAN: Situated near Memorial Park, this street is named for General John A. Logan, a veteran of the Civil and Mexican Wars. He was also elected a U. S. senator from Illinois. Logan is credited with establishing Memorial Day as a national holiday honoring those men and women who died in the service of our county. The U. S. Army constructed an emergency training center here in 1917 and called it Camp Logan. Virtually nothing remains today of this fort. Most of the structures stood where Memorial Park is located. (See photograph on page 196.) 55
LOMAX SCHOOL: (See Lomax.)
LOMAX: This town and street are named for R. A. Lomax from Illinois who arrived in this area northwest of La Porte in 1895. He donated land for the school in the small community. 56
LONGBOW: This was a favored weapon of medieval times. It revolutionized warfare by extending the range of firepower over the crossbow allowing archers to strike an enemy from a much farther distance.
LONGENBAUGH: This west Harris County road is named for a couple that owned approximately 8,000 acres in this area. The property was initially used for rice farming but its value increased greatly when oil and gas were discovered there. In their will the family established the Longenbaugh Foundation. The income generated from the assets is used for cancer research. 57