Today, the tree-lined south bank of Buffalo Bayou, sitting in relative obscurity less than a mile east of Main Street, shows little of the potential as prime real estate that it held for one of its earliest owners. A 231 feet segment of the south bank, now visually indistinguishable in the riparian vegetation along the bank, was part of a fifteen acre tract that John Wyatt Moody purchased from Augustus C. Allen and John K. Allen in 1837.
John Moody was born in Lunenburg County, Virginia, 65 miles southwest of Richmond, on June 10, 1776, and, as a teenager, he moved with his family to Iredell County, North Carolina in 1790. He married Mary Baldwin in Warren County, Ohio, on March 13, 1806, and after living in several places in Alabama, Moody finally moved his family to Wyumka in the Creek Indian territory in 1833. While there, he became interested in the settlement of Texas, and he came to Texas in May, 1835 with his wife Polly, his three sons Francis, John and William and daughter Dorinda. He settled first in Bastrop, but moved to La Grange in 1836.
Within a short time after his arrival, Moody became an active participant in the independence movement. On December 20, 1835, he was elected as the auditor of the Provisional Government. As the Texas Army was being formed, he was appointed to the Legion of Cavalry on January 9, 1836, with the rank of Major. After the victory at San Jacinto, Moody became the Auditor of Public Accounts for Texas, a position he held during the first two years of President Sam Houston's administration. He was in Houston in the spring of 1837 in an official capacity with the new government of the Republic of Texas as were many others who were drawn to the town by the convening of the Congress on May 1, 1837.
On April 26, 1837, A. C. and J. K. Allen sold to Moody fifteen acres of land "adjoining the City of Houston" and "adjoining the land of Frost," as described in the deed. Moody's property shared a common boundary with the fifteen acres of Jonathan Frost along both the south and east edges of the Frost tract. From the southeast corner of the Frost tract, the Moody property line went due north to Buffalo Bayou. The property line then followed the bayou east for 231 feet to the boundary of the land owned by Samuel M. Williams. The Moody property line followed the Williams property line due south for 1,534.5 feet to a stake in the prairie which is near the modern intersection of Canal Street and Chartres Street. From that stake, the boundary went due west "to a stake near a cluster of small post oak trees in the prairie," which is near the modern intersection of McKee Street and Chenevert Street, before returning to the origin near the Reliant Energy southern property line on McKee Street. The "backwards L" shape of Moody's tract locked in the Frost property, and the long, slender parcel on the east side of Frost's land gave Moody access to Buffalo Bayou.
The description of the Moody property in the deed gives us an idea of what the terrain was like in 1837. The expanse of land south of Buffalo Bayou was a coastal prairie. Clusters of small oak trees dotted the prairie, but the trees did not seem to be a dominant feature of the landscape. A riparian woodland was most likely found along the banks of the bayou.
The price that Moody paid for his land was $1,500, or $100 per acre. Both Jonathan Frost and William Hodge had purchased adjacent tracts of land two weeks earlier for the same price of $100 per acre. With these three transactions, the Allen brothers netted $4,500 for a fairly small portion of the 6,647 acres of the John Austin Survey that they had purchased in August, 1836 for $9,428, approximately $1.42 per acre. True to their profession as land speculators, the Allen brothers sought to sell the land around the town of Houston at more than fifty times what they paid for it.
During the boom town atmosphere that characterized Houston in the first few years of the Republic, everyone seemed to be a land speculator, or wanted to be. The deed records of the county are filled with the notations of land sales, and John Moody actively participated in this practice. It does not appear the Moody intended to live on the fifteen acres that he bought near Frost and Hodge. He owned other property in town and it appears that he lived there. Moody also acquired property and built a home north of Houston on Spring Creek, perhaps intending to make that his residence.
Early in 1838, Moody subdivided his fifteen acre tract, which became known as the Moody Addition, and began to sell lots. Between April 4, 1838 and May 15, 1839, he sold at least twenty pieces of property in the Moody Addition. After the death of Jonathan Frost, who had a home and a blacksmith facility on his property and clearly intended to live there, the Frost family decided to follow Moody's lead and subdivide their tract into lots, too. On March 26, 1838, Samuel Frost, the administrator of the Frost estate, petitioned the probate court to allow him to subdivide the land and sell lots in the Frost tract. Frost began selling his lots on July 4, 1838, and by April, 1839, sixty-six lots were sold.
The large number of lots that were sold within the year in both the Frost and Moody subdivisions indicate that the speculative ventures were successful. And, neither Moody nor Samuel Frost would choose to make their homes near Houston. Samuel Frost moved to Fort Bend County, near Hodge's Bend, soon afterward and was married there in March, 1843. Moody bought land for a farm on Spring Creek. Unfortunately, he died unexpectedly in Houston of congestive fever on August 21, 1839, at age 63.
John W. Moody died intestate and Michael R. Goheen, a Captain of the army at San Jacinto and husband of Moody's daughter Dorinda, was appointed administrator the estate. The probate inventory filed in 1841 showed that Moody did not accumulate much personal wealth, despite his land deals. His personal assets included one silver watch, one four-horse wagon, one lot of cows and young cattle, and various pieces of household and kitchen furniture. His land holdings included a fractional interest in eight separate properties, including a one quarter interest in the headrights and bounty land of six individuals. Although he had an interest in over 6,300 acres of land, his partial interest in the parcels combined with the decline in the value of the land during the 1840's made it difficult to dispose of the his assets. The probate of Moody's estate dragged on for eighteen years until March, 1857.
The Frost and Moody subdivisions proved to be a popular residential location, especially for many of the German immigrants who began arriving in Houston in the early 1840's. Since the Frost subdivision and the Moody subdivision were linked both by their geographical location and the intent of their developers to simultaneously subdivide and sell lots, it seems natural that the name of the neighborhood encompassing both subdivisions would coalesce into a single name. The area became known simply as Frost Town.
The deed of July 20, 1847 conveying land from Richard Insall to John W. Schrimpf illustrates how the Moody Addition was absorbed into Frost Town. The deed states that Insall does "sell and release unto the said John W. Schrimpf the following described property in Frost Town, a suburb of the City of Houston,...Two lots of ground known and designated as lots number fourteen and fifteen in Moody's square number one now occupied as part of the residence of the said John W. Schrimpf..."
By 1869, the Moody tract had a total of twenty-three houses. The tract on the east side of the Frost Town blocks contained only one house, however, the three blocks lying to the south of the Frost Town blocks were heavily developed and contained twenty-two residences. Although the Galveston and Houston Junction Railroad owned the large square tract of the Moody Addition through which the railroad tracks make a diagonal cut, many prominent citizens continued to live nearby. The Heitmann house was located on Runnels Street, east of the G&HJ railroad tracks. The Seneschal house was located on the southeast corner of Runnels Street and Gabel Street, and the Super family lived at the northwest corner of Runnels Street and Schrimpf Street which was on the eastern edge of the Moody tract. Other notable families residing in the Moody Addition were Harris, Benson, Brown, Ettinger, Cook, Reichter, Pallas, Wilson and Donaldson.
During the last two decades of the nineteenth century, the character of the Frost Town area, including its sister subdivision the Moody Addition, changed significantly. As second and third generation Houstonians found their place in society and prospered, they moved to other, more fashionable areas around Houston. They followed the trend of residential development to the south and west of the downtown district. The industrialization of the east side of downtown started with the construction of the Galveston, Houston and Henderson Railroad to Houston in 1859 and the subsequent connection of the GH&H railroad with the Houston and Texas Central Railroad across Frost Town in 1865.
In 1877, the Texas Western Narrow Gauge Railroad began operating from its depot on the edge of Frost Town at Chartres Street and Magnolia Avenue (modern Ruiz Avenue). Through this terminal, a spot situated today under the elevated freeway US59, about three blocks northeast of Minute Maid Park, the TWNG railroad brought agricultural products from the Brazos Valley near Pattison and Sealy to the International Press and Union Compress on the north side of Buffalo Bayou.
By 1885, the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe RR had built tracks along the eastern edge of the Moody tract. Lying parallel to the Texas Western Narrow Gauge, the GC&SF tracks ran north across the bayou to the industrial plants on the north bank. The A. Bering and Brothers Planing Mill was built east of the GC&SF tracks between Runnels Street and German Street (modern Canal Street) to take advantage of the rail connections for the receipt of raw materials and the shipment of finished goods. Richardson's Grist Mill was located east of the GH&H tracks on Runnels Street on a site that, by 1896, became the Kuhlman's Wood Yard and the Kuhlman's Hay and Feed Warehouse.
Other industrial sites arose adjacent to the railroad tracks by 1907, including a mattress factory on North Hamilton Street. Harwell's Iron Works, a foundry that made ornamental iron work for the local building industry, was established on the south half of the eastern block of the Moody tract.
As the residential quality of the neighborhood declined, the simple frame dwellings became tenant and low income housing for blacks and immigrants, many of whom were laborers in the east side industries. Yet, in spite of the industrial development in the area, the number of dwellings on the Moody tract continued to increase. By 1891, there were fifty-four dwellings, most of which were in the three Moody blocks south of the Frost blocks. The number of houses rose to eighty-one in 1907. Twenty-one dwellings were built on the northeast section of the Moody tract, north of Race Street. There were sixty houses in the southern blocks south of Lyle Street along with three small businesses and a school, the Women's Free Kindergarten.
The Women's Free Kindergarten, which was located on the southeast corner of Gabel Street and Maple Place, was a service of the Women's Club of Houston that provided educational opportunities for the children of poor working mothers in Houston's immigrant community. It's location on the narrow, unpaved Maple Place reflected the desire to place the school in close proximity to the people it served. The kindergarten program eventually expanded to provide social programs for adults in the evening, and it was eventually absorbed into the social programs of the Settlement House organization.
By 1924, the Moody tract had reached its high point in terms of housing density, and probably population, too. The number of houses in the section north of Race Street remained constant at twenty-two, but the dwellings and businesses in the south blocks, between Lyle Street and Maple Avenue increased to sixty-eight houses, eleven stores and three businesses.
The industrial development of the area continued as well. The Hartwell Iron Works plant expanded its facilities to include separate structures for a foundry with a coke oven, a pattern shop, a machine shop, a structural and sheet steel department, and other auxiliary buildings. Other businesses, such as the Stower's Furniture Company and the Lilienthal Brothers Company hay and grain storage and machine shop, have located along the rail line.
The influence of the railroad industry in Houston was seen in the construction of Union Station at
Crawford Street and Texas Avenue
in 1910. Significant developments by the rail companies in the
mid-1920's would transform the east side of downtown, including the
Moody Addition. By July, 1927, the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad
had completed construction of a large freight terminal on the section
of the Moody Addition bounded by Lyle Street on the north, Gable Street
on the west, Maple Avenue on the south and the GH&H tracks on the
east. All of the homes and businesses on the tract were demolished to
make room for this huge, modern facility. The MK&T Freight Terminal
had separate warehouses set aside as a Motor Freight Station, an
electric supplies warehouse and a beer warehouse. The eastern side of
the terminal had rail sidings to serve warehouses for the Builders
Supply Company for building materials, tile products and sand and
gravel
bins.
By mid-century, the residential nature of the Moody Addition had completely disappeared. The dwellings on the north end of tract, opposite the Hartwell Iron Works, were demolished. The Hartwell Iron Work itself lay in ruins, encircled by a six foot wire fence, after it was destroyed by a fire. Across the street, the Humble Oil and Refining Company established a Production Warehouse with a pipe yard in the north end of the Moody Addition from Race Street to the bayou.
The construction of the Eastex Freeway in the mid-1950's completed the transformation of the Moody Addition into the what we see today. The elevated freeway, US 59, and its associated off ramps and on ramps consume the bulk of Moody's original fifteen acres. Sections of the former MK&T Freight Terminal lie in ruins and vacant. The Star of Hope's Doris and Carloss Morris Men's Development Center, a social service facility at 1811 Ruiz Street offering sleeping quarters to the homeless, is the only remaining representation of the residential character of this once vibrant, but now forgotten, community.