Brays Oaks, Houston facts for kids
Brays Oaks, once known as Fondren Southwest, is a neighborhood in Southwest Houston, Texas, United States. The Brays Oaks Management District helps manage this area and nearby places like Westbury. The City of Houston also has a "Brays Oaks Super Neighborhood," which has slightly different borders.
Contents
A Look Back at Brays Oaks' History
How Brays Oaks Began
The land that is now Brays Oaks used to be a large ranch. It belonged to Walter Fondren, Sr., who was a successful oil businessman.
Growth and Change in the 1970s and 80s
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, many apartment buildings were built in the area, which was then called Fondren Southwest. At first, most people living there were White and Jewish. Young professionals, like people starting their careers, moved into these new apartments. This brought a lot of money to the area, and many nice restaurants and shopping centers opened. Even some players from the Houston Rockets basketball team lived here!
However, in the mid-1980s, the oil economy in Texas faced problems. This caused property values to drop, and the apartment complexes started to struggle. The young professionals moved away. The fancy restaurants also left because their customers were gone. Apartment owners lowered rents and offered deals to attract new residents. Many families, including African-American and Hispanic families, moved into units that were originally for single people or couples. Many apartments changed owners often, and these new owners were sometimes more interested in making money than keeping the buildings in good shape. By the late 1980s, the number of White residents went down, while the number of Black and Hispanic residents went up.
New Beginnings in the 1990s and 2000s
By the mid-1990s, things started to improve. Property values began to rise again, and more middle-class families from different backgrounds moved into Fondren Southwest. Around the 2000s, some Orthodox Jewish groups also moved to the area.
In 2005, local leaders worked to create a special group called the Fondren Ranch Management District. This group was later renamed the Brays Oaks Management District. This name change was a way to give the community a fresh start and a new identity.
In 2009, the district started a big plan to make the area look nicer and help people recognize it more easily. They placed large, heavy boulders in the green areas along the roads to add to the beauty. In 2011, the district grew even larger, including more parts of the community.
What Brays Oaks Looks Like
Size and Location
The Brays Oaks district is entirely within the City of Houston and Harris County. It covers about 15 square miles (39 square kilometers). It is located between major roads like Interstate 69/U.S. Route 59, Bissonnet Road, U.S. Route 90A/Main Street, and South Post Oak. In 2011, about 73,000 people lived here. Several neighborhoods, such as Braeburn Valley West, Glenshire, and Westbury, are part of Brays Oaks.
Long ago, Brays Oaks was mostly houses. Gessner Road was just a dirt path! One resident said it felt like "living in the middle of the city, but in the country."
Homes in Brays Oaks
In 1990, about 60% of the homes in Fondren Southwest were apartments, and 40% were single-family houses. More than half of the homes were rented, while about a third were owned by the people living in them. Many of the apartment buildings were not originally built for families with children.
Businesses and Jobs
In 2005, the original Brays Oaks area had between 200 and 300 businesses. This number includes apartment complexes, as they are considered commercial businesses by the state. Foodarama, a grocery store chain, has its main office in Brays Oaks.
Who Lives in Brays Oaks
The Brays Oaks Super Neighborhood, which is a specific area defined by the City of Houston, had about 64,548 people in 2015.
- About 45% were Black (not Hispanic).
- About 33% were Hispanic or Latino.
- About 13% were White (not Hispanic).
- About 6% were Asian (not Hispanic).
- The rest were from other groups.
In the late 1980s, the number of White residents in Fondren Southwest went down, while the number of African-American and Hispanic residents went up. Between 1990 and 2000, the area changed from being mostly White and Jewish to mostly Black.
Brays Oaks is also an important center for Orthodox Jewish life in Houston. There are three Orthodox synagogues (places of worship) here: Chabad Lubavitch Center of Houston, Young Israel of Houston, and Congregation Beth Rambam. There are also two Orthodox Jewish day schools and an Orthodox Jewish girls' high school in the area.
Learning and Education
Schools for Kids
Most of Brays Oaks is served by the Houston Independent School District (HISD).
Many elementary schools are located within the Brays Oaks management district, including Anderson, Bell, Elrod, Foerster, Gross, McNamara, Milne, Parker, Tinsley, and Valley West.
Two middle schools in Brays Oaks, Fondren Middle School and Welch Middle School, serve parts of the area. Students in some parts of Brays Oaks might also go to Meyerland Performing and Visual Arts Middle School or Sugar Grove Middle School.
For high school, most students go to Westbury High School in Brays Oaks or Sharpstown High School. A small part of the area goes to Bellaire High School.
A small section of Brays Oaks is part of the Alief Independent School District. Students there go to Best Elementary, Klentzman Intermediate, and Olle Middle School. For high school, they are chosen by a computer lottery to attend Alief Elsik High School, Alief Hastings High School, or Alief Taylor High School.
There are also several state charter schools in Brays Oaks, like YES Prep Bray Oaks (for grades 6-12), The Varnett Public School Southwest Campus, Meyerpark Elementary, Girls and Boys Prep, and La Amistad Academy.
A Brief History of Schools
Many schools in the area opened between the 1960s and 1990s. For example, Westbury High School opened in 1961, and Fondren Middle School opened in 1966.
In the 1980s, more and more students moved into the area, and schools became very crowded. This happened partly because some apartment buildings that used to be for adults only started allowing children to live there. For instance, Elrod Elementary had a big jump in students in 1986.
New schools were built to help with the growing number of students. Milne opened in 1991, and Valley West opened in 1996 in a former grocery store building!
Colleges and Universities
Houston Community College (HCC) has a campus in Brays Oaks called the Brays Oaks Campus, which is part of its Southwest College.
Libraries for Everyone
The Dr. Shannon Walker Neighborhood Library of the Houston Public Library (HPL) is the main library for the Fondren Southwest area. It's named after astronaut Shannon Walker.
Brays Oaks used to have a separate building for the Frank Neighborhood Library, which opened in 1983. However, officials found out that the building was in a flood zone. To keep using it, they would have needed to spend millions of dollars to raise the building or build a flood wall. Instead, the city decided to move the library into the Brays Oaks Towers, which saved money.
The Morris Frank HPL Express Library was then set up inside the Brays Oaks Towers. This new location is smaller but still offers many books and services. The library system plans to open a new, larger library called the Walker Branch in Westbury, which will replace both the Frank and Meyerland branches.
Fun and Recreation
The Brays Oaks district has many parks and places for fun, especially after it grew in 2011.
Marian Park and Community Center is a great spot. It has a fitness center, an indoor gym, meeting rooms, and a volleyball court. Outside, you can find a basketball court, a walking and biking trail, a playground, and a lighted sports field. Other parks in the area include Braeburn Glen Park, Chimney Rock Park, Hagar Park, Haviland Park, Glenshire Park, Willow Waterhole, and Westbury Park. The Westbury Civic Club also runs a community garden.
The Brays Oaks Logo
The logo for the Brays Oaks district shows an oak tree with many branches, water, and a yellow sun.
- The tree stands for strength.
- Its branches represent all the different groups working together in the Brays Oaks community.
- The tree's roots show how committed these groups are to the community.
- The water represents the Brays Bayou, a waterway nearby.
- The sun symbolizes the community's dedication to making the area better and brighter.
Famous People From Brays Oaks
Some well-known people have lived in the Fondren Southwest area, especially in the Northfield neighborhood:
- José Cruz (a famous baseball player)
- Rudy Tomjanovich (a well-known basketball player and coach)
- Don Wilson (a baseball player)
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