Post-World War I to the mid-20th century There were no deaths, but there was over $3 million in property damage. It consumed a church, school, 13 industrial plants, eight stores, and 119 homes, mostly located in the Fifth Ward. The strong winds spread the fire as embers set wood-shingled roofs on fire. This fire became known as the "Great Fifth Ward Fire". On February 21, 1912, with stiff Northern winds blowing in, the largest fire in Houston's history began. The aftermath of the Great Fifth Ward Fire in 1912. The pavement ended two blocks after the residence of Mayor of Houston John T. It paved parts of Odin Avenue, now known as Lyons Avenue, in brick in the 1890s. The city government ameliorated the 1883 complaints by establishing a drawbridge at San Jacinto Street that crossed the Buffalo Bayou. The 1875 secession complaint asked for the paving of streets and upgrades to the utility system. Complaints about inadequate municipal services, including fire and police services, lighting, sanitation, and drainage, occurred during this time period. In the late 1800s the Fifth Ward community threatened to secede from the city of Houston twice, in 18. Additional waves of Irish people, as well as Germans and Italians settled the Fifth Ward. Over the years it had been home to the city's minority and immigrant population. Also home to the famous "Island of Hope (Anderson Memorial Temple) COGIC" the oldest Pentecostal church in Fifth Ward. Five other churches are over a hundred years old. Mount Vernon United Methodist Church, founded in 1865 by a former slave, is the oldest church in the ward. By the mid-1880s, it was virtually all black, home to working-class people who made their livings in Houston's eastside ship channel and industrial areas or as domestics for wealthy Houstonians. In 1866, it became the Fifth Ward and an alderman from the ward was elected to Houston's City Council. Īfter the American Civil War, newly freed slaves began settling in the sparsely settled area. Richard West of the Texas Monthly characterized the early Fifth Ward as being "prosperous". Large numbers of the residents were Irish and Jews the latter had fled pogroms in Russia and Eastern Europe, and lived mostly in the eastern parts, while the former lived mainly in the north. In its initial history the Fifth Ward had many ethnic groups. Sign pointing to the Evergreen Negro Cemetery
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