Houston
began to embrace the automobile as its primary means of personal
transportation as early as the late 1920's. The Depression and World
War II delayed things a bit, but after the war, the local economy
surged, the City's population exploded, the City expanded the local
highway system and the automobile became an integral part of Houston's
lifestyle.
Will Hogg spearheaded the move to suburban living with the development
of River Oaks. Residents of the suburb commuted to downtown along
Buffalo Drive, the City's first major parkway. The four lane roadway,
which is now Allen Parkway, paralleled Buffalo Bayou's south bank from
downtown to Shepherd Drive. Getting to work in your personal car was a
breeze.
By 1951, a sign of things to come could be seen in the Buffalo Town
House Hotel Tourist Court on the southeast corner of Waugh Drive and
Buffalo Drive.
The
Buffalo Motel, as it was later called, was an automobile traveler's
complex that consisted of a filling station directly on the corner, a
restaurant along Waugh Drive to the west and the motel lobby and
dwellings along Buffalo Drive to the east. Additional townhouse
residential units comprised six buildings at the rear of the property.
This configuration of lodgings, a restaurant and a service
station on a prominent corner of a main thoroughfare is familiar to us
today. Holiday Inn, La Quinta, Motel 6 and many other hoteliers have
joined with the likes of Denny's, the Waffle House and every brand of
gas station to set up along our highways and freeways. It is a scene
that is common now, but in the 1950's, it was avant garde.
In the early 1960's, Gus Wortham's American General Insurance Company
acquired the Buffalo Motel, and construction began on the first of the
five buildings of the American General Center in 1963. The office
complex now occupies a prominent location among the revitalized
neighborhoods and new developments along Allen Parkway. And, the
automobile is still the Houston commuter's transportation of choice.