Jim Padgett, 81, still remembers the barbershop he strolled by as a teen in the 1940s on Bissonnet Street near Rice Avenue.
"They offered special haircuts for bald men," said Padgett, who now lives in southwest Houston.
Bissonnet was a pretty well-used road in his community by that time. Most Bellaire residents used Bissonnet or Bellaire to drive to Houston.
But Bissonnet has been part of greater Houston's history for nearly a century.
When Marks Hinton researched the road for his book, "Historic Houston Streets: The Stories Behind Names" (Bright Sky Press, $19.95), he found the first mention of Bissonnet on a Houston map in 1915.
The road started at Montrose Boulevard, by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and extended west.
Today, the road runs west from Main Street in the Museum District for approximately 19 miles to Clodine-Reddick Road, near Mary Austin Holley Elementary School and Hodges Bend Middle School in the Fort Bend Independent School District.
East of Main Street, Bissonnet becomes Binz Street.
Bissonnet moves through the cities of Bellaire and West University Place, along with the southwest Houston communities of Gulfton and Sharpstown.
The road was named after George Herman Bissonnet, a Houston pilot in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War I who died in a plane crash during training.
"During World War I, about 75 to 80 streets in Houston were named for young men who lost their lives in World War I," Hinton said. "They include Waugh Drive, named for Thomas Waugh, who was killed in France."
Though there was a Bissonnet Street as early as 1915, the road has had several other names over the years, Hinton said.
A section of it was known for years as County Poor Farm Road because it led to the Harris County Poor Farm.
The poor farm provided housing for the needy between 1894 and 1937. It sat north of Bissonnet and South of Westpark, between Edloe and Childress streets.
"Today, it's one of the more upscale neighborhoods in the city," Hinton said.
Though the poor farm is gone, a reminder remains. The Harris County Flood Control District continues to maintain Poor Farm Ditch between the cities of Southside Place and West University Place.
The ditch, which runs parallel to Edloe, channels storm water into Brays Bayou.
Bissonnet also was once known as Richmond Road because it was the principal route from Houston to the city of Richmond in Fort Bend County. It was a different road from Richmond Avenue, another major Houston thoroughfare.
A section of what is now Bissonnet also appeared as West 11th Street on an early planning map for Southampton Place, Hinton said.
"No one has a clue why it was called West 11th Street," Hinton said.
Landmarks along Bissonnet over the years have included Westwood Mall, open from 1975 to 1998 at 9700 Bissonnet in the Alief area.
Also on Bissonnet is Harris County Precinct 3's Bayland Park and Bayland Park Community Center at 6400 Bissonnet in the Sharpstown area.
One of Padgett's favorite stops on Bissonnet as a teen was Don's Record Shop, 4900 Bissonnet.
"I bought several things from them," he said.
Padgett's father, Sam Ellie Padgett, used to work in an icehouse on Bissonnet, near the record shop, when Padgett was a preschooler. The record shop closed in 1998 after 42 years of business.
In addition to the retailers on Bissonnet, Padgett remembers seeing a number of undeveloped stretches along the road when he was a boy.
"There was a little pond across from the ice house," he said.
Flori Meeks is a freelance writer and can be reached at flori@swbell.net
