Setting
Sharpstown is in Southwest Houston within the Southwest Management District, formerly known as Greater Sharpstown. The neighborhood is closely tied to the Southwest Freeway, now Interstate 69 and U.S. Highway 59, after developer Frank Sharp donated a wide strip of land through the development for its construction.
That freeway connection linked the area with Downtown Houston and with Sharpstown Center, Houston’s first enclosed, air-conditioned shopping mall. The mall is now known as PlazAmericas.
Planned Community Origins
Sharpstown was dedicated on March 13, 1955. It was Houston’s first master-planned, automobile-centered community, with plans that included not only houses but also schools, shopping, and recreation areas.
The development drew national attention at the time. Its original sections include Sharpstown Sections 1, 1A, 2, 3, and 5.
Homes and Streetscape
Residential Sharpstown includes post–World War II bungalows, modern homes, and traditional houses. The area also has many mid-century style houses on large lots.
Sharpstown Country Club Estates grew west of the Southwest Freeway in the late 1950s and sits near the Sharpstown Golf Course and west of PlazAmericas. Sharpstown Country Club Terrace includes mid-century modern houses, postwar bungalows, and traditional ranch houses.
Changing Community
Between the 1980 and 1990 U.S. Census counts, African-American residents moved into parts of Southwest Houston including Sharpstown, while the Hispanic population increased and many Asian-American residents also moved into the area. A 1992 Houston Chronicle article described Sharpstown as racially mixed, with a strong Vietnamese community.
Sharpstown was affected by the Sharpstown scandal, and crime increased in the 1990s as some apartment complexes deteriorated. By 2005, median home prices in Sharpstown had roughly doubled from 2000, and the neighborhood’s close-in location brought renewed interest in revitalization.
Parks and Notable Places
The City of Houston operates Sharpstown Park and the Sharpstown Golf Course along Bellaire Boulevard.
The Sharpstown Community Center is on Harbor Town Drive.
Prototype 180
In 2010, artist Mary Ellen Carroll realized Phase I of prototype 180 at 6513 Sharpview in Sharpstown Section I. The project involved a 180-degree rotation of a single-family house and its lot, using architecture, land-use policy, and Houston’s lack of zoning as part of the work.
After Hurricane Harvey compromised the structure, Phase II included an “unbuilding” performance in 2017. A later phase was planned to rebuild the structure using salvaged building materials and to create an ethno-botanic garden around it.
What it is like
Sharpstown is a master-planned community in southwest Houston, Texas, recognized as Super Neighborhood 26. Developed in the mid-1950s by Frank Sharp, it was Houston’s largest development at the time and had middle-class homes on curving streets and cul-de-sacs around a shopping mall and country club.
Homes and housing
Sharpstown was Houston’s largest development when undertaken in the mid-1950s, with middle class homes on curving streets and cul-de-sacs surrounding a shopping mall and country club. The area also has densely sited apartments on Beechnut, shopping centers along Bellaire Boulevard, and warehouses and apartments converted for retail space.
Sources: Sharpstown, Houston (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA); houstontx.gov