So long Parkwood :(


Another small bit of Houston's landscape is disappearing: the venerable Parkwood Apartments. See this Houston Chronicle story . We have quite a few memories of Parkwood

In fact, two of our children were born while we lived in Parkwood! First was Leah, who was born in 1985. We were living their in transition from our rental house near UH, to moving to Galveston.

We lived in Parkwood a year and a half, and absolutely fell in love with the place. So, when we moved back from Virginia to Houston, but weren't quite certain what we would be doing or where we'd be going next, we chose Parkwood again. and thus, François was born while we were living there in 1995. We lived there 3 years that time, in one of the coveted 2 bedroom apartments. We made many friends in the neighborhood; unlike the modern impersonal beehive apartments you find everywhere, at Parkwood it was a real community, and you really got to know your neighbors.

Why is Parkwood so great? First, let me talk about the trees. Gorgeous, huge, 60 year old oak trees cover the grounds. Baylor, you're gonna be butchering a LOT OF NATURE when you build up your hospital there! And plenty of land. The apartment buildings (4 or 8 units to a building) shared backyards, and I think it was that feature alone that contributed to the spirit of community. Everyone met each other in the backyards. The clothes washing was done back there, and they even provided communal clotheslines for drying. We were allowed to create our own garden in the back, and many residents took advantage of that. So, there were plenty of natural opportunities for neighbors to see each other and chat.

The shared backyard green space was wonderful for the kids -- much bigger than any backyard they'd have at a house (especially our current house!). Our area became especially famous for the annual Easter Egg Hunt we'd organize. We invited all the kids from Yvette's class, and her other friends, and something like 30 kids would show up. They especially liked it because we were so good at hiding eggs - the hunts would last at least 30 minutes -- eggs would be hidden in shrubs, up in tree branches, cleverly hidden in the clothesline pole, up on the wall, window sills, etc. It was quite amusing, and I'd often still find eggs a couple of days after the hunt, they were so well hidden.

What about the apartments? Old school for sure, but superb. Lots of windows in every room. In fact, the whole place conformed to one of Christopher Alexander's patterns: windows on two sides of every room. Casement windows, too; I'm not sure what is is about them, but casement windows just seem to be more exciting ... and better. And, at 1200 sq. ft., the apartment was huge!

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Posted: Mon - October 2, 2006 at 10:45 PM

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