Broadacres, Houston

Broadacres is a subdivision in Houston, Texas within the Boulevard Oaks community.

The University of Houston Wortham House, the residence of the Chancellor of the University of Houston System, is in Broadacres. As of 2009 it was worth about $6 million. The chancellor is required by contract to live at the Wortham House.

In 2005 Allison Cook said "There's just more disposable income in Southampton, Broad Acres [sic] and storied Shadow Lawn than in Southgate".

James A. Baker Jr., a lawyer who was the father of James A. Baker III, established the Broadacres community. Baker had purchased a parcel of property north of the Rice Institute in 1908. In 1922 he discussed the possibility of developing that parcel with his son. Seventeen investors agreed to purchase the lots, larger than average in Houston, by late 1922. Kate Sayen Kirkland, author of James A. Baker of Houston, 1857-1941, said that "The Bakers conceived their Broadacres enclave as a public amenity distinguished by fine architecture and distinctive planning but limited in ownership to personal and professional friends invited to invest in the project."William Ward Watkin created the layout of the area. Watkin, Birdsall P. Briscoe, and John Staub had served as architects of several of the houses. The families who had houses built in Broadacres were not singular architectural patrons.

During the Great Depression construction in Broadacres ceased. James A. Baker Jr. never lived in Broadacres, because he believed he would be unable to afford a $20,000 (about $273130.93 in today's money) down payment for a lot. Fox said that by the 1930s Stephen Fox, author of The Country Houses of John F. Staub, said that by the 1930 Broadacres "collectively displayed its residents as a Houston upper class."

Anne Schlumberger Bohnn wrote a book about the history of Broadacres.

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