Eastwood, Houston, Texas

Eastwood is a historic neighborhood in the East End area of Houston, Texas, United States. Eastwood maintains Houston’s largest intact collection of Craftsman, Arts & Crafts, Foursquare and Mission architecture.

Eastwood is one of Houston’s first master-planned subdivisions. It was designed and developed in 1911 by William A. Wilson, who also developed Eastwood's sister neighborhood, Woodland Heights. The first lots went on sale in June 1912 and Eastwood was officially opened in September 1913. A few of the homes were built between 1900 and 1909, prior to the official platting of the neighborhood.

The development was planned with shelled streets that were sixty to eighty feet in width, cement curbs and sidewalks, city water, gas, electricity, telephones and sanitary sewerage as well as terraced lots designed for natural drainage. One of the unique features of the neighborhood is the symmetrically planned placement of live oak trees and sycamore trees. Wilson envisioned Eastwood to be a more upscale counterpart to his Woodland Heights subdivision. The utilities were placed at the rear of the lots to avoid marring the landscape of the community.

A boulevard driveway was built through the center of the neighborhood, which skirted a natural ravine. The ravine provided lush greenery and a drainage route for surplus water to empty into Brays Bayou. Today, the ravine has been filled and is now the esplanade dividing Park Drive.

By October 1913, Eastwood was hailed by The Houston Daily Post as “A model suburb. . .one of the most convenient, attractive and beautiful homesite additions in the city of Houston."

The first residents were young entrepreneurs in the city, business owners and management. By October 1913, Eastwood was hailed by The Houston Daily Post as a “model suburb, one of the most convenient, attractive and beautiful homesite additions in the city of Houston." Its reputation as one of Houston's rising preeminent suburban neighborhoods attracted wealthy and notable residents, including:

Howard Hughes is believed to have lived for a brief period with his aunt on McKinney Street while he was building an airplane in a garage on nearby Eastwood Street, in addition to his oil-drilling machinery manufacturing business, the Hughes Tool Company, which moved to 5425 Polk Street in the 1940s.

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