Lots of the old neighborhoods that surround downtown are ghettos and few rarely travel through them so Id thought Id take some photos of a rarely viewed part of Houston. I also have some night photos of downtown that I took later that day. Enjoy.
These first photos are from the fifth ward directly north of downtown.
This is in downtown, an old factory building thats been there since 1905, its going to be a new parking lot yay!
This is just east of downtown, basically right by Minute Maid Park.
On the other side of 59 from downtown, a lot of the vacant old industrial lots and some blocks of old houses are being torn down and replaced with this utter crap. There is seriously blocks upon blocks of these terrible looking apartment buildings popping up on both the east and west side of downtown. I really hope that in the future our inner city doesnt become one monotonous tin neighborhood, but Im afraid its heading in that direction.
This area is located just southeast of downtown.
Rice University
Catholic School downtown
Humble, north Houston.
Skyline of The Galleria Area
Houston Museum of Natural History and Science
Just west of downtown.
Random other photos Ive taken over the years of Houston.
A loft building downtown that was half destroyed in a flood during the 1930s.
Folgers Coffee Factory and The Ship Channel in the back.
One of my friends that used to go downtown with me to take photos back in highschool, I dont really remember where downtown this was but its probably been torn down since.
Main Street
This was from last year, I was just walking around downtown and turned around a corner and there must have been 5k people in this crowd, it was pretty amazing.
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There’s no greater abomination to mankind and nature than Ryan Home developments.
Last edited by photoLith; Jan 12, 2011 at 8:09 AM.
I knew that if was from photolitherland, I had to see it. Some of those neighborhood shots were gruesome. My first thought was that you shouldn't have been in some the places. But, glad you did. Always interesting to see.
I did feel unsafe a couple times and got stared at by many people. They probably thought wtf is this suburban looking kid doing in the ghetto.
A curiosity has to be satisfied. Just be smart and conduct yourself well in places unknown. Obviously, sketchy areas are what they are for a reason but there's treasure there to find.
Its such a shame that so much of the inner city part of Houston is composed of ghettos, theres so much history that has been and is being lost. Most of those houses are still inhabited but they are so far gone that restoring them would cost tons of money. If these hoods ever improve it would be impossible imo to preserve all of the old houses. They almost all will have to be bulldozed, which is just such a terrible terrible shame.
__________________
There’s no greater abomination to mankind and nature than Ryan Home developments.
I like the pics but no way in hell would I ever go into an abandoned house... you never know whats in there or who's in there. I also wouldn't venture off the beaten trail... once you're in the maze you're fair game for anybody who's looking for an easy target. Some places are better left untouched...
Other than that though, this looks about how I thought it would. If I were you I would stay far the hell away from Acre Homes though or any of the projects... I've heard that H-Town's are pretty bad. Nice pictures though. Are you using a DSLR?
^
I use a Nikon D2oo, have been since 2004. Its pretty much ancient in digital camera years and yes thats a DSLR.
I think the worst ghettos Ive walked through are those located in Little Rock. They are real bad, I was walking around one taking photos a few months ago and heard some gun shots and some woman screaming bloody murder. Theres lots of parts of Little Rock that I would never dare venture out of my car with my camera. Theres no areas in Houston that are that bad.
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There’s no greater abomination to mankind and nature than Ryan Home developments.
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I use a Nikon D2oo, have been since 2004. Its pretty much ancient in digital camera years and yes thats a DSLR.
I think the worst ghettos Ive walked through are those located in Little Rock. They are real bad, I was walking around one taking photos a few months ago and heard some gun shots and some woman screaming bloody murder. Theres lots of parts of Little Rock that I would never dare venture out of my car with my camera. Theres no areas in Houston that are that bad.
Fair enough. Just saying though... you only get one life. Use it wisely.
But yea I know what you mean... out here Richmond is the equivalent not-even-with-a-ten-foot-pole city. lol
When I go take pictures in rough areas I wear pretty ratty clothes and never walk around with my camera exposed. But when I do pull out the camera some people do look at me strange but usually if you just keep to yourself people wont fuck with you. I also carry a knife on me when Im on those areas just in case, crazy I know, but I feel its important to take photos of these places before they get bulldozed. A lot of people obviously in these hoods are really nice and some come over and talk to me. I had one guy that saw my taking photos and we talked about photography for a while. And yeah, I know there could be crackheads or whatever living in those abandoned houses but I looked into the windows to see if anyone was in there and stood around there for about 30 minutes to see if anyone was around. I didnt just bust up in there and walk around because you for sure dont want to happen upon a crackhead and have them flip out on you.
__________________
There’s no greater abomination to mankind and nature than Ryan Home developments.
Great photos and there was some nice character to the area. I like to see somenting other than the same downtown skyscrapers over and over. It is amazing though how the single family home is the overwhelming predominant residence in Houston even right up to downtown... huge lots too.
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Well, Houston didnt really take off until after Galveston was ruined after the Hurricane of 1900. The cities population didnt get above 100,000 until the mid 1910s so it didnt get a lot of good urban fabric going like eastern cities unfortunately.
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There’s no greater abomination to mankind and nature than Ryan Home developments.
Wonderful collection of photos and I really respect you for putting yourself at considerable risk for these photos. But a word of advice, don't carry that knife unless you're actually willing to use it...
Some of those pictures look like they are from small, rural towns 10s of miles from any major city. It's unreal they are all within Houston city limits.
Houston city limits extends in some areas about 30 miles into the suburbs, most of these photos were taken within 2 miles of downtown and pretty much all of downtown is completely surrounded by this stuff.
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There’s no greater abomination to mankind and nature than Ryan Home developments.
I guess I was pretty naive, in that I thought all that stuff had been razed and replaced with condos and townhomes. I know a lot of it has. Not sure where you took the photos but I'll take your word for it. I'm sure many people don't know it exists like that. I've driven all over and have missed all that stuff (I won't be looking for it). Thanks for the tour, though.
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I grew up in the suburb of Kingwood on the north side of town, the kids that grow up there and the people who live there and most of the other suburbs for that matter have no idea that a good proportion of Houstons population lives in places such as this. They chose to ignore it and pretend it doesnt exist and or are just ignorant of its existence completely even though they drive by it for miles and miles on their way to a baseball game or to shop at The Galleria.
__________________
There’s no greater abomination to mankind and nature than Ryan Home developments.
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