Oak Forest, Houston
Coordinates: 29°49′41″N 95°25′31″W / 29.82806°N 95.42528°W
Oak Forest is a large residential community in northwest Houston, Texas, United States. Oak Forest is the third largest group of subdivisions in Harris County (behind Kingwood and Sharpstown).
The territory which became Oak Forest was annexed by the City of Houston in the 1940s. Oak Forest was established in 1947 by Oak Forest Realty Corporation, owned by Frank Sharp, a developer who would later establish Sharpstown. Oak Forest Realty Corporation built houses only in Section 1 (Golf Dr to Oak Forest Dr, and Du Barry Ln to W 43rd St). Sharp would later develop the neighborhood for 17 additional sections by building streets and installing utility lines, but left the home construction to other contractors.
The first house, which served as a sales office, was built at the corner of Golf and Fisher Dr. Almost all of the first houses were sold to World War II veterans for $8,000-$10,000. One of the original homeowners, Ruth Metzger, bought her house in April 1947, when it was only a slab and still lived there through 2008.
Many of the original settlers moved from rural areas west of Houston and were of Polish Texan and Czech Texan origins.
Originally, there was no telephone service. If a homeowner needed to place a call, they had to use one in the construction shack on the corner of Wakefield and Kinley Lane or one in the house of Frank Sharp’s niece on Wakefield. Telephone service finally arrived in the middle of 1948.
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