Name: Nashville, Texas
Address: Nashville, TX

Nashville, TX RoadyGoat

Sterling C. Robertson, the founder of Nashville, surveyed the town in the fall of 1835. It was named after his birthplace, Nashville, Tennessee, and served as the headquarters for Robertson's Colony. Nashville's establishment was part of the early settlement efforts in what is now Milam County, Texas.

Settegast, TX RoadyGoat

Settegast, that little pocket on Houston's northeast side, it’s seen a lot. It started as mostly prairie, part of the larger landscape that defined Harris County. Folks came seeking land, and the railroads really shaped it. The tracks brought commerce, and with it, a community started to form. It was never a booming metropolis, more of a quiet spot where people worked hard. Oil had its impact, like everywhere else around here, but Settegast never saw the dramatic boomtown changes some other areas did. What you see today is mostly residential, a place where folks have put down roots. The echoes of the past are still there though, in the street names and the older homes that have weathered the Texas heat. It’s not a place you’ll find in many history books, but it’s a real place, a piece of Houston's larger story. Settegast grew quietly, steadily, and it's a testament to the people who built their lives there, generation after generation.

Halls Bayou RoadyGoat

This modest channel had an identity crisis before it had a name. For decades it was just "the south fork of Greens Bayou," until the 1880s, when locals started calling it after Clinton Hall, a landowner whose family farmed along its banks. Hall got his name on the map; he just didn't get much of a paper trail. Running roughly 17 to 20 miles from north of Mount Houston Road down to where it spills into Greens Bayou at Brock Park Golf Course, Halls is small — but it punches terrifyingly above its weight when it rains. It's one of Houston's most flood-prone watersheds, hit at least 14 times since 1989. Hurricane Harvey put water in nearly 11,830 homes here; Allison flooded more than 13,000. The gauge clocked its record 7,320 cubic feet a second in 2001, draining less than 29 square miles. That's a lot of water for such a small creek.

Barbara Jordan Birthplace - Houston Fifth Ward

1936

Barbara Jordan, born in Houston's Fifth Ward, was the first Black woman elected to the Texas Senate and delivered one of the most powerful speeches in American political history during the Watergate hearings.

Historical Marker → · 5.0 mi away

Pleasantville

1945

After World War II, African Americans struggled to find housing in much of Houston. Restrictive covenants in some recorded plats specifically excluded African Americans, while in other neighborhoods discrimination was more subtle, yet no less real. In response to the unfair housing practices, Jewish developers, Melvin Silverman and Bernard Paul, collaborated with Black realtor, Judson Robinson, Sr. (1904-1986), to develop a master planned community for African Americans called Pleasantville. This undertaking provided 1,500 homes intended for middle-income African Americans, including veterans and their families. 
 By late 1949, the neighborhood’s first residents moved into the Pleasantville apartments, some awaiting completion of their homes. In early 1950, the first home was built. Homeowners could tailor their home to their own personal specifications. Located on Market Street, the first businesses in Pleasantville were a grocery store, dry cleaners, drug store, and barber and beauty shop. In later years, the community established gas stations, a community center, a library, elementary and junior high schools and several churches. The community center became a social gathering place and popular stop for political campaigns. 
 Among other influential figures, Pleasantville produced Judson W. Robinson, Jr. (1932-1990), Houston’s first African American city councilmember elected after Reconstruction, along with doctors, lawyers, politicians and business owners. Geared towards successful African American families, Pleasantville was the first master planned community of its kind in Houston in the era of segregation. (2017)

Historical Marker → · 3.8 mi away

Zydeco Music in Frenchtown

1920

In the 1920s, Creole families from Louisiana, known as “Creoles of Color,” migrated to Houston, establishing the neighborhood known as Frenchtown. In addition to their culture and language, they also brought their music to Houston. Zydeco, a fusion of traditional creole music and other styles, became an important form of expression for the families that settled in Frenchtown. Traditional Creole music featured an accordian backed by washboard percussion and sometimes a fiddle. This music was an integral part of social gatherings, called La-las, which served the purpose of raising funds for the community. By the 1940s, musicians blended the music, also known as La-la, with jazz and blues to form the distinctive sound known as Zydeco. As the musical form grew in popularity, several frenchtown ven-ues, including the silver slipper, began to showcase Zydeco musi-cians. Another popular club was Johnson’s, established by Charley Johnson; Lonnie Mitchell, manager of the club after Johnson’s death, also performed there. Johnson’s granddaughter, Doris McClendon, later ran the club, changing its name to the Continental Lounge and Zydeco Ballroom. A regular performer was Clifton Chenier, known as the “King of Zydeco.” An innovator, he modernized the style by adding electric guitars, a bass, drums, a saxophone and a trumpet to the more customary musical instruments. Through the years, the population of Frenchtown has become increasingly diverse. However, renewed interest in Zydeco in the late 20th century helped ensure this dynamic neighborhood will continue to preserve its rich musical and cultural heritage. (2007)

Historical Marker → · 3.9 mi away

Jacinto City, TX

1941

Jacinto City is at the intersection of U.S. Highway 90 and Interstate highways 10 and 610, on the Missouri Pacific Railroad near the San Jacinto battleground in central Harris County. It began in 1941 when Frank Sharp built a small subdivision, which rapidly filled with shipyard workers and others employed at local steel mills and war plants. Inch Chandler, the first mayor, opened a grocery, and the community incorporated in 1947 with a population of nearly 3,800. Controversial meetings of the city council led to the formation of three separate chambers of commerce. A city hall and recreational facilities were constructed in the 1950s, and by 1966 the city, which derived its name from the San Jacinto battlefield, had two public schools, a hospital, a bank, a library, and seventeen churches. Most residents worked at local refineries. Schoolchildren attended Galena Park and Houston schools. Residents' complaints of chemical vapors in 1969 may have contributed to the construction of a waste water treatment facility, funded by the Environmental Protection Agency, in 1972. State highway maps in the 1980s showed Whittier school and Furr High School at the townsite. The population rose from 6,800 in the 1950s to 9,500 by 1960, reached a high of 11,500 in 1964, and was 9,343 in 1990. The population grew to 10,302 by 2000 and to 10,553 in 2010.

Tsha Handbook → · 4.8 mi away

Enron Corporation

1985

Enron, a corporation headquartered in Houston, operated one of the largest natural gas transmission networks in North America, totaling over 36,000 miles, in addition to being the largest marketer of natural gas and electricity in the United States. Enron managed the world's largest portfolio of natural gas risk management contracts and pioneered innovative trading products. The company was on Fortune 's "Most Innovative" in the United States listing for several years running and reached #7 on the Fortune 500 list in 2000. Its bankruptcy in December 2001 was the largest such filing in United States history. The name Enron became synonymous with corporate greed and corruption, and its demise cost investors and employees over $70 billion in lost capitalization and retirement benefits. Enron was formed by a merger between Houston Natural Gas (HNG) and InterNorth. HNG was formed from the Houston Oil Co. in the 1920s and provided gas to retail customers in Houston. In 1976 it sold its retail gas business in Houston to concentrate on gas exploration and production and other businesses. By 1984 HNG had assets of $3.7 billion, sales of over $2 billion, and profits of $123 million. InterNorth began as Northern Natural Gas Company, organized in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1930. When InterNorth, with one of the nation's premier pipeline networks with revenues of $7.5 billion in 1984, found itself the potential takeover target of corporate raiders, CEO Sam Segnar sought to buy out HNG, and a deal was announced in May 1985 in which InterNorth would acquire HNG for $2.4 billion. The arrangement stipulated that the merged entities would be known as HNG/InterNorth and be headquartered in Omaha with Segnar as chairman and CEO. However by 1986 Segnar had retired, Kenneth Lay was chairman and CEO, and the company was renamed Enron with corporate headquarters in Houston. The new company had the second largest pipeline network in the United States with over 36,000 miles of pipe stretching across the continent and north into Canada. In 1984 the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission eased some of the pricing restrictions on natural gas and allowed local gas distribution companies to buy gas from anywhere and anyone. Ken Lay rapidly gained a reputation for effectiveness during this period by negotiating Enron's escape from some of the more burdensome and expensive "take-or-pay" contracts from the 1970s. In 1989 Enron created a new way to market natural gas to consumers—the Gas Bank—a concept developed by Jeff Skilling, a consultant at McKinsey & Co. The Gas Bank served as an intermediary between buyers and sellers of gas and became a success. Natural gas was now traded as a commodity, and Skilling left McKinsey for Enron's trading operation in 1991. Enron began to view itself primarily as a trader rather than as a gas producer and began to divest itself of heavy pipeline assets; by 2000 it owned five thousand fewer miles of pipe than in 1985, but its gas financial transactions represented over twenty times its pipeline capacity. Enron extended the natural gas model to become a financial trader and market maker in electric power, coal, steel, paper and pulp, water, and broadband fiber optic capacity. In 1994 Congress gave the states the authority to deregulate gas and electric utilities. The newly opened California market was a major target, and Enron spent $100 million a year to generate business there. That effort was cancelled in 1999, but Enron continued to supply wholesale power to California. The ensuing power shortage in California in 2000 rocked the state, and Enron was accused of manipulating supplies. Eventually two Enron traders were indicted for criminal fraud. In the mid-1990s it appeared that water, like natural gas, was on its way to being deregulated. In July 1998 Enron purchased Wessex Water of Great Britain for more than $2 billion and renamed the new business Azurix. However, economies of scale did not work because there were no means to int

Tsha Handbook → · 6.8 mi away

Floyd, George Perry, Jr.

2020

George Perry Floyd, Jr., whose death at the hands of four Minneapolis police officers caused nationwide protests against police brutality and racism, was the son of George Perry Floyd, Sr., and Larcenia (Jones) Floyd and was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on October 14, 1973. In 1977 his divorced mother relocated and raised Floyd and two sisters in Houston's Third Ward. Floyd (known as "Perry" to family members) grew up in the Cuney Homes public housing project, an impoverished African American neighborhood that experienced crime and gang-related activities. He attended Frederick Douglass Elementary School and James D. Ryan Middle School before going to Jack Yates High School. Floyd, who was well over six feet tall, excelled as a varsity high school athlete in basketball and football and was a tight end on the 1992 football team that played in the 5A Division II state championship game. He graduated from Jack Yates High School with an athletic scholarship to attend South Florida Community College in 1993. By 1995 he transferred to Texas A&M-Kingsville but did not graduate. In Houston, Floyd held a variety of different service jobs while also pursuing a career as a hip-hop artist in the entertainment industry from the late 1990s to the early 2000s. Suffering from depression and drug addiction, he had a record of multiple arrests and was incarcerated. After his release, Floyd worked with a local Christian ministry, Resurrection Houston, in the effort to turn his life around and positively impact his community. He relocated to Minnesota in search of better opportunities in early 2017 and went through a rehabilitation program at an African American-owned organization known as Turning Point. He found steady employment in the security industry within the Minneapolis metropolitan area; his first job was as a security guard at a homeless shelter operated by the Salvation Army. He later worked as a driver and a bouncer at a club called Conga Latin Bistro but lost his job during the spring of 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic instigated stay-at-home orders and the large-scale shutdown of businesses. On May 25, 2020, a Cup Foods grocery store employee contacted the police to report Floyd's alleged use of a counterfeit $20 bill. Four Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) officers arrived and physically attempted to take him into custody resulting in his death. Bystander Darnella Frazier's video recording captured the incident that sparked an extensive investigation. MPD police officer, Derek Chauvin, was convicted for causing Floyd's death due to asphyxia by pressing his knee on his neck for nine minutes and twenty-nine seconds while Floyd lay helplessly handcuffed on the ground and gasping for air as he repeatedly declared he could not breathe. Chauvin's conviction of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter brought a sentence of more than twenty-two years in state prison. The other three MPD police officers on the scene-Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng, and Thomas Lane-were also fired, criminally charged, convicted, and sentenced to prison in connection with civil rights violations that contributed to Floyd's death. From June 6, 2020, to June 9, 2020, highly-respected civil rights activists, law enforcement officers, entertainers, elected officials, community organizers, and countless others attended memorial services held for Floyd in both Minnesota and Texas. His final resting place is in Houston Memorial Gardens in Pearland, Texas. His family received a settlement for $27 million from a civil lawsuit against the city of Minneapolis. His case served as a major catalyst for widespread protest and advocacy concerning criminal justice reform measures designed to combat anti-Black violence, racial injustice, and law enforcement misconduct. Across the U. S., thousands of people actively engaged in protest activities within two weeks of the incident. Within six months, millions of Americans galvanized to for

Tsha Handbook → · 6.8 mi away

Nashville, Texas

Music in Nashville

Songs About Nashville

Artists From Nashville

Rivers & Roads in Song near Nashville

History of Nashville