Southside Place Park

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Southside Place Park, right there in Harris County. Now settle in, because this one starts with the poor and ends with a fire truck, and that's not a journey most parks can claim. Back before the Houston suburbs crept outward, before the neighborhoods and the deed restrictions and the swimming pools, this particular patch of ground belonged to Harris County.

From 1895 to 1922, it was the Harris County Poor Farm, a county-owned facility for the indigent. A place where people with nothing had somewhere to go. Then something changed.

Residential development started spreading out toward the farm, and the county commissioners looked at that land and made a calculation. Too valuable for public use, they said. So they built a new county home on a hundred acres east of Houston and left this ground behind.

Enter Edward Lillo Crain. Born in 1885, and in 1924 he purchased the southern tract of that former poor farm, along with frontage along Bellaire Boulevard. He had plans.

About 107 combined acres, and it cost him one hundred one thousand, five hundred and forty-two dollars. Now, here's where Crain shows you something about how a developer thinks. He built the park first.

Before the houses, before the residents, before any of it, he put in the park. A thirty-by-seventy-five-foot concrete swimming pool. A wading pool.

A bath house. A tennis court. Play equipment.

Nothing else in the Houston area could match it, and Crain made sure everybody knew that. The Crain ready-cut house company would fill the development with inexpensive, uniformly-designed homes, and that park was the crown jewel in the marketing. The deed restrictions spelled it out plainly: the permanent park and playground was for the exclusive use and benefit of property owners.

In 1932, Crain deeded the park over to the Southside Place Park Association, and that association owned and operated it for eighty years. Ownership eventually passed to the City of Southside Place itself. The park kept growing, kept changing.

Then came 1970, and this is the part worth savoring. The city's first fire truck was retired. Now, some places would have parted it out or let it rust in a lot somewhere.

Southside Place repurposed it as a piece of play equipment and set it right there in the park. From that point on, the place became known simply as Fire Truck Park. A century of swimming and tennis and children climbing on a fire truck that once answered real alarms.

Not a bad life for a piece of ground that started out as a county poor farm.

What the marker says

Southside Place Park is the geographic and civic center of the City of Southside Place, an early Houston suburb. From 1895-1922, the area was part of the Harris County Poor Farm, a county-owned facility for the indigent. However, as residential development spread towards the farm, county commissioners deemed the land too valuable for public use and built a new "county home" on 100 acres east of Houston. In 1924, Edward Lillo Crain (1885-1950) purchased the southern tract of the former poor farm, as well as frontage along Bellaire Boulevard, on which to develop Southside Place. The combined parcel of about 107 acres cost Crain $101,542. Crain developed the park first, with plans to fill the development with inexpensive, uniformly-designed homes under the banner of the Crain ready-cut house company. The park featured prominently in Crain's marketing. Its amenities, including a 30-by-75-foot concrete swimming pool, a wading pool, bath house, tennis court and play equipment, distinguished the development from all others in the Houston area. Deed restrictions stipulated that the permanent park and playground was "for the exclusive use and benefit of property owners." In 1932, Crain deeded the park to the Southside Place Park Association, which owned and operated the space for 80 years. Ownership of the park was later transferred to the City of Southside Place. Over the years, the park has been expanded and modernized. One notable addition occurred in 1970 when the city's first fire truck was retired and repurposed as a piece of play equipment; thereafter, the park became known as "Fire Truck Park." For a century, Southside Place Park has been the defining feature of the community as well as a place of enjoyment and leisure for residents. (2022)