Montrose is an interesting, colorful, historic neighborhood near downtown Houston that is known all over the U.S. for its Bohemian laid-back attitude. It's charming, weird, artsy, wacky, and always appealing and entertaining. In fact, Montrose has been called the "Greenwich Village of Houston."
Today, Montrose is the home of trendy restaurants and clubs, coffee houses, all-night diners and delis, outdoor cafes, museums, art galleries, tattoo parlors, eclectic shops, beautiful old mansions and 1920s bungalows.
In the early 1900s real estate developers chose a barren prairie land southwest of Houston to develop a new neighborhood for the city's well to do. They named it Montrose, after a town in Scotland. The main thoroughfare, Montrose Blvd., was lined with huge mansions inhabited by the city's elite. All the homes in the area would have expansive lawns and large porches to capture the evening summer breezes coming in from the Gulf of Mexico.
In the 1960s, the area began to decline and the faces of the residents began to change as the city's elite moved to newer neighborhoods in the suburbs. Montrose, or The Montrose, as it is sometimes called, welcomed anyone who marched to the beat of a different drummer. Because of its cheap rents and available housing, the area appealed to hippies, artists and musicians. Gay men and women were attracted by the unique streets, nearness to downtown, underground club scene, and they saw great potential in the bungalows which could be easily restored.
"That neighborhood was kind of the Haight-Asbury of Houston which adapted to be a combination of Haight-Asbury and Castro, putting it in San Francisco terms," states community activist Ray Hill.
"When I moved to Montrose in 1967 I felt like almost like I was home. It was an environment I felt safe in," says business owner Marian Coleman. Another longtime resident said, "In Montrose, no one fit it, and because no one fit it, we all fit in."
By the 1970s, Montrose was living on the edge, and the area became home to the largest gay population in Texas. These men and women converted an older, somewhat rundown neighborhood into a prime entertainment and residential area -- an area where they felt safe to live their lives and be themselves.
"Montrose TX: The Transformation of a Neighborhood" is a television documentary that first aired on HoustonPBS. It is narrated by Ernie Manouse and produced by Sunset Productions.
22 апр 2014
