Postcards from Texas: A Snapshot of METRO
Friday, October 16, 2009 3:27 PM
If you're not a lifelong resident of the Bayou City, you may not know this: Before METRO, there was Houtran. And long before Houtran, we were a city of streetcars.
Find out about METRO's history on Channel 55's Postcards from Texas, a weekly, 30-minute show that highlights historical sites of Texas, especially the southeast area.
This Sunday at 4 p.m., the show features three stories. The first is about a prisoner-of-war camp where Union sailors were incarcerated during the Civil War. Called Camp Groce, it was located just outside Hempstead.
The second story is on Freedman's Town, a protected historic district just west of downtown. Postcards from Texas highlights the heyday of the first predominantly African American neighborhood in Houston.
And finally, the third story features METRO and its roots.
"It's kind of a circle. It follows the demise of the street cars back to the rise of light rail," said Mike Vance, host and executive producer of Postcards from Texas. "The meaty, middle part of it is how the privately-held Houtran system had dropped into disrepair and how METRO was created and turned things around."
Some surprising facts you'll learn: "You'd be amazed how many people I talked to don't realize we had an extensive street car system prior to World War 2," said Vance, a former Channel 55 sports anchor with a degree in history and government. "The other thing people don't realize, unless they're of a certain age, is how bad the bus system had gotten. Even though it's only been 30 years, people take for granted that METRO's has always been here."
The show, produced in partnership with Houston Arts and Media, will rerun next Friday on Channel 55 at 1:30 p.m.