The "new" rail line coming through this busy neighborhood is really a reinvention of the old rail line that served this region when it was settled. This location was developed in the early 20th century as a community known as Central Park. At the time it was an emerging area of Harris County about half way along a streetcar line that connected the growing city of Houston to the declining community of Harrisburg. The remnants of old Harrisburg, founded by the man for whom the county was named, are a few miles down the road.
Central Park was developed by the Magnolia Park Land Company. The work followed from the success of the adjacent Magnolia Park development which had become an independent city five years before the taking of the 1914 photos that make up the historical part of the image on this page. The company marketed the land by touting the beauty of the area to homeowners and promoted its accessibility to Houston by the Harrisburg Road streetcar which could reach downtown in only 20 minutes for a five-cent fare. Magnolia Park, Central Park and Harrisburg would all be subsumed into the City of Houston by 1926.
With the completion of the new Metro line only a short time away, the denizens of the bustling area will soon be able to reach town by streetcar again for the modern fare of $1.25.
The cache location is just about where the brick column on the right stood.
Photo by J.R. Gonzales of the Houston Chronicle