All Souls' Day - Time to Remember the Ancestors

Historic grave sites in Eldridge / Addicks / Bear Creek Area 

Graves of German settler families in Cullen Park

Beeler Family graves on Enclave Pkwy
in what is now a Harris County pocket park

Beeler Pocket Park with historic grave sites 

Koch-Schmidt Cemetery in Addicks Reservoir
near Groeschke Road

Grave markers at Koch-Schmidt Cemetery
alongside hike-bike trial in Cullen Park 

Addicks Methodist Church cemetery on Highway 6 at
Patterson Road / Bear Creek Pioneers Park 

Old Oaks towering over German grave sites of German settlers
 in Bear Creek Area  

Old Red Fire Engine on display in field at Bear Creek Park - Addicks Reservoir

This historic red fire truck has been parked in the pasture at

Houston Farm and Ranch Club on Patterson Road

Pocket Park with family cemetery on Enclave Parkway

Beeler Memorial Pocket Park on Enclave Parkway near Corporate Campuses

This is a small park off Enclave Parkway (ca 1 acre) that was excluded from the corporate office building developments nearby because it is the site where members of a local family that settled and farmed the land are buried.

Tomb stones in Beeler Family Cemetery on Enclave Parkway

Pocket Park on Enclave Parkway in Energy Corridor with Grave Site

Houston-area Ice Houses [updated]

The ice house is a venerable Texas institution, although one that has been re-purposed, since folks these days make their own ice at home, and refrigerators have taken the place of ice boxes that needed to be restocked with blocks of ice on a regular delivery schedule. 

Icehouse at Barker Dam (Highway 6)
appropriately named The Dam Ice House

ENERGY CORRIDOR ICEHOUSES 

There are two  drink-serving establishments in the Energy Corridor area that call themselves ice house: One on Highway 6 South of Memorial Drive facing Barker Dam, amusingly but appropriately dubbing itself The Dam Icehouse, and another one on Briar Forest Drive just a bit West of the intersection with Dairy Ashford: Big John’s. Both of these watering holes have outdoor seating. 

Big John's Ice House (sign) on Briar Forest near Dairy Ashford

An innerloop icehouse that merits the label historic, perhaps even iconic,

 is located on West Alabama between Montrose and Shepherd

Sign at West Alabama Icehouse (est. 1928) inside the Loop
near South Shepherd Drive

The LH7 Brand - Texas Longhorn Cattle Ranch once operated in Barker, Texas

George Bush Park was once part of a large cattle ranch. 

Much of the ranch land later became Barker Reservoir, built to hold back water from heavy rains upstream to prevent flooding downstream in the City of Houston. 

The site of the Marks LH7 Ranch buildings today has a historical marker to commemorate its glorious past. Even the Houston Rodeo has its roots here. 

LH7 Ranch Texas Historical Commission Marker

These structures - a church, a general store and post office, and other farm buildings stand on the property today. They may not be original buildings that were part of the Ranch when it was operating, or were moved.
(I converted the digital photo taken 1/3/2013 to black & white to give an historic postcard-like look.) 

Satellite view of LH7 ranch site at Kingsland Blvd. / Barker-Clodine Rd. with small photo of ranch gate
and church building

Barker Reservoir History - A train once ran through the cattle ranching land that is now George Bush Park

Trail access point with interpretive historical marker about former small-gauge railrod near Rugby Fields
in George Bush Park

Also see photographic exploration of hike and bike trail in this part of Bush Park near Flood Canal (click link)