The Chronicle has a great article this morning: Longtime resident remembers Pearland as ‘a honky-tonk town’. Here’s a snapshot of Our Fair City in 1940:

Rice fields outnumbered homes and businesses and the city had fewer than 500 residents. There was a caution light at Texas 35 and FM 518. There were two service stations, two grocery stores, an ice house, lumber yard and a barber shop.

A population of 500? When we moved to Pearland in early 1994, the sign on the way into town said population 23,000. As of just a few years ago, that sign read 45,000.

Most of that explosive growth has been out on the west side of town, in Silverlake where we lived until 2001. What were literally empty fields are now a major shopping complex with almost every retail store known to man. Even where we are now, near Friendswood, the city continues to grow. Our little neighborhood was finished only just a few years back. As for honky-tonks and icehouses, I know of only one icehouse, on 35 headed north toward Houston.

(Update: I guess I’ve lived in this part of the country so long I just take it for granted that everyone everywhere knows what an icehouse is. And yet I had never heard of them until I moved to Houston. An icehouse is simply an open-air bar. The one north of town is built under the shade of a few enormous old oak trees. Icehouses originally were simply places that made and stored ice, but somehow over time they became places to congregate and drink. I’ve read of icehouses with huge bins packed with ice, beer, and soft drinks, but I would guess that most icehouses these days simply refrigerate their wares. I’ve never been much of an icehouse patron, so if I’ve erred in this description maybe some true Texan will write in to set the story straight.)

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