Before Carter's arrival, this section of southeastern Texas had long been significant. First inhabited by Native Americans of the Coastal Plains, the area was later contested by French and Spanish powers in the 18th century. At that time, Chief Canos of the Orcoquisacs controlled the region, skillfully playing the two European powers against one another for many years.
New industries related to oil, gas, and shipping arrived at the turn of the century. Cotton mills, textile factories, and oil refineries grew in the area. One factory, the Oriental Textile Mill, even developed a cluster of small homes for workers near the plant. But the greater portion of Houston Heights was always residential.
The green open spaces, schools, churches, and civic clubs that Carter built from the outset gave residents a shared foundation. That foundation is what the Houston Heights Association, formed in 1973 by concerned business owners and homeowners, was created to protect — when deterioration threatened the neighborhood's stock of turn-of-the-century residences.
Today, Houston Heights is a federally designated Historic Multiple Resource Area, listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1983. More than 100 structures carry National Register status. The neighborhood remains one of Houston's most intact and livable historic communities.
Houston Heights was annexed by the City of Houston in 1919. Though it lost its independent municipal status, it never lost its identity. Residents continued to organize, to advocate, and to reinvest — and when neglect threatened in the 1970s, they formed the HHA to make that commitment institutional.
The Heights today is home to thousands of households who have chosen to live in a neighborhood where history, walkability, and civic engagement are not abstractions — they are daily life. The HHA exists to keep it that way.