Baytown Nature Center (Baytown, Texas)

USA / Texas / Highlands / Baytown, Texas
 Upload a photo
This takes the majority of the former Brownwood, a suburban subdivision (in the shadow of the massive Baytown Refinery) which was vacated due to flooding problems. Roads and lots for 400 homes were carved out of the bushes on this 450 acre riverfront peninsula in the 1950's. Flooding from a storm surge in 1961 was the first incident which halted further development. Levees and pumps were installed to protect the existing homes, however another flood, caused by Hurricane Alicia, in 1983 caused an evacuation, afterwhich FEMA bought out the residents interests, and the community was condemned. Now turned into a natural preserve.
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   29°45'16"N   95°2'46"W

Comments

  • The name of the 1961 storm was Hurricane Carla. She was a did a doozy of number on the Houston-Galveston area.
  • The flooding problems that the Brownwood subdivision experiences were also caused by sinking of the neighborhood after water was pumped out by local industy, including the nearby Exxon plant to the east. There had been less than 1 foot of subsidence, or sinking of the ground, in the early 1940's, but this increased to 9 feet from 1940's to 1980's after industrial activity in the area was increased. Groundwater was removed from two large underground water reserves, called aquifers, namely the Chicot and Evangeline aquifers.
  • does anyone have picture of the neighborhoos before it sank
  • I grew up in Brownwood Subdivision in Baytown, Texas. I was 11 years old in October 1961 - one month after Hurricane Carla. Beautiful and peaceful "family" neighborhood prior to Hurricane Carla and the later Hurricane Alicia in 1983.
  • The first lots in Brownwood were platted out in the late 30's, there was building going on in the 40's as well as 50's out there. Exxon didn't "sink" Brownwood all on it's own although they contributed to the problem for sure. That problem was that everyone, plants/industry/towns/everyone, needs fresh water. Rather than pay a premium price for surface water to be piped in the plants as well as the towns and unincorporated areas just sunk wells wherever they liked and took as much water as they wanted which was too much for the aquifer underneath to replace at the same rate. This happened over a period of many years and people didn't even notice anything was wrong till the late 50's early 60's. By then it was already too late because once the sinking starts because there's nothing below to hold it up it's going to continue till it reaches it's compaction point if that makes any sense. By the 70's the plants and the town had switched to surface water but Brownwood was already doomed, at least most of it. There are still a few houses outside of the fault line that never sank and are very nice homes today. You'd never even know by looking at them except the streets they're on are all dead ends with tall chain link fences and roadblocks at the end of them.
  • According to some accounts, the neighborhood became pretty rotten by the end of the 1970s.
  • Show all comments
This article was last modified 10 years ago