How Harvey transformed resilient Meyerland, from modest 1950s homes to raised mini-mansions

The floodwaters of Hurricane Harvey kept rising in Wanda Waddell’s Meyerland home as she hurriedly stacked sentimental items on the stairs. The grandmother refused to leave, determined to stay in the house she’d lived in with her late husband, until the water reached 3 feet and she was rescued by boat. After the water receded, left behind were shattered windows, broken crystal glassware and damaged cabinets covered in filth, recalled her step-granddaughter, Leslie Waddell. Their family spent months rebuilding, replacing windows, cabinets, floors and walls, as well as plumbing and electrical systems. When her step-grandmother died in 2020, Waddell decided to buy the house. The biggest question everyone asked her was, “Are you sure?” HARVEY'S WAKE: Harvey cost many their homes and their peace of mind. 5 years later, the damage lingers. Meyerland, a southwest Houston community along Brays Bayou, has been one of the most vulnerable neighborhoods to flooding in recent years, inundated not only by Harvey, but the Tax Day flood of 2016 and the Memorial Day flood of 2015. But for Waddell and other Meyerland residents, dealing with the risk of hurricanes and flooding is part of life, a tradeoff for a neighborhood with sought-after schools, a strong sense of community, spacious lots and a close-in location without Inner Loop prices. Although the look of Meyerland is changing as iconic 1950s-era houses slowly disappear — replaced by much larger, elevated new homes — one thing remains: residents’ stubborn determination to persist in the face of disaster. Five years after Harvey, as dramatic architectural changes transform the neighborhood and real estate prices claw their way back to pre-Harvey levels, a resilient Meyerland is moving forward. Waddell, 41, was committed to keeping her father’s boyhood home intact, even as similar homes were torn down and replaced with new construction. Her grandparents built the house in 1958 just as the neighborhood was forming. The house is filled with family relics like her grandfather’s World War II canteen and a family tree written on the pages of an 1800s-era Bible. She looks forward to her son attending Bellaire High School, like she and her father. Flooding is often on her mind. Whenever it rains, she admitted, she worries whether she should move her possessions upstairs. But, she said, “I've always loved this house. There's something about this area that just drew me back to it.” Beginnings Developed by George Meyer on former rice fields, Meyerland launched in 1955 with then-Vice President Richard Nixon attending a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the 1,200-acre community. The neighborhood began with a Street of Dreams showcase of beautiful homes along Jackwood, setting the stage for Meyerland to develop a reputation as a place for high-end architecture and well-made ranch-style homes. In Meyerland’s early days, Jewish families moved to the neighborhood from Riverside Terrace, an affluent community south of downtown that was transitioning from mostly-white to a more racially diverse neighborhood. Synagogues began relocating to Meyerland, pulling with them Jewish families whose lives revolved around their place of worship — families like Glen Rosenbaum’s, who settled in Meyerland in 1964. Rosenbaum, now almost 74, still lives in the Arthur Steinberg-designed home. He’s repaired it every time it’s flooded, in 2015, 2016 and 2017. Despite the proliferation of bigger, taller homes, Rosenbaum has kept his house — one of just three in Meyerland to receive landmark status from the city — true to architect Steinberg’s simpler plan. HARVEY'S WAKE: These Texas towns ravaged by Harvey are bouncing back — but fearful of the next storm Meyerland historically had “different styles by different architects, but everything blended together well,” Rosenbaum said. “Since the storms, some have been demolished and new houses built in their place. Some are tastefully done, but many are not.” Three consecutive years of flooding transformed the neighborhood’s aesthetic. Tightened city building codes introduced in 2018 mean any owner who wants to significantly remodel or build new must elevate the buildings from 2 to 4 feet above the street level, depending on the site’s elevation, and some owners choose to build higher. Now the neighborhood is peppered with a jarring hybrid of heightened older homes, newer elevated houses and modern mansions towering over homes still at ground level. “Moving forward, (Meyerland is) going to be seen as a collage,” said Steven Curry, president of Houston Mod, the nonprofit dedicated to preserving mid-century architecture. “The new construction, which has more variety than the original building stock, is what people will recognize as the new Meyerland.” To raise or not to raise About 30 percent of Meyerland’s mid-century modern homes flooded multiple times between 2015 and 2017, according to research from the housing data firm Zonda, leaving homeowners with the difficult choice to move or make their houses flood resilient. Architect and Meyerland resident Julia Long and her husband, James, repaired their mid-century home twice in 2015 and 2016, but Harvey did more damage with 27 inches of water. Though Julia was ready to move, James loved the area and their brick home, which was designed by one of Julia’s first employers as an architect, Hy Applebaum. So they invested $200,000 into lifting the house 5 feet above the ground. “(Applebaum) was a very talented man, and this house was his baby,” said Long, principal at 514 Design. “We saved it, but I wanted to make sure it looked good.” Since Harvey, roughly 136 existing mid-century modern homes were elevated. But flood damage was so extensive in some that owners opted to tear down the structures and build new ones. SWAMPED: Meyerland floods again; residents wonder, 'what now?' About 335 new homes have been built in Meyerland since Harvey, according to Zonda. Up to 25 percent of homes in Meyerland are elevated or new. Building an elevated new home can cost anywhere from $20,000 to $50,000 more than building a new home elsewhere. Elevating an existing home can cost roughly $250,000 to $300,000. Still, Meyerland is considered a bargain compared to other sought-after neighborhoods. Last year, homes in the nearby Braeswood Place and Bellaire sold for a median $1 million and $912,000 respectively — compared to $420,000 in Meyerland, according to Houston Association of Realtors. Nascent recovery Harvey's wrath is still visible in Meyerland. Streets are dotted with darkened houses where weeds sprout in the veins of cracking driveways. “Don’t miss this great chance to build your dream home in a prime location!” the advertisements for vacant lots read. Meyerland’s population in 2020 was still down about 18 percent from 2015, according to Census data. But there are signs of recovery, too. In 2020, the flooded Kolter Elementary was replaced by a $23 million school. H-E-B opened a 95,000 square foot store in Meyerland Plaza. The once-flooded Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center is getting upgraded with a $50 million cultural center. Harris County is completing a $480 million project to increase the capacity of how much water Brays Bayou can hold, which should significantly reduce the severity of flooding in the neighborhood, said Imelda Diaz of Harris County Flood Control District. Nearly every street has a renovated home, a newly built house or another one under construction, showing owners’ willingness to invest in the neighborhood. “We’re bouncing back — maybe not as quickly as people would have liked, but I’m very excited to see the number of vacant lots dwindling,” said Charles Goforth, a longtime Meyerland landlord and resident. The pandemic housing boom hastened the real estate recovery, as buyers trying to find a house in a tight market were drawn to Meyerland’s schools, proximity to major highways and big backyards. Meyerland’s median sales price soared 53 percent to $469,000 this year from $305,000 in 2018, according to the Houston Association of Realtors. Courtney Williams, a real estate agent with Houston Properties Team, recalls one Meyerland home she marketed in 2020 that was restored after the floods. Early shoppers saw its flooding history as a drawback, but as inventories dwindled during the pandemic housing boom, the home received multiple offers. “All of a sudden it was like that didn’t matter,” Williams said. But flooding is still on buyers’ minds, said Natalee Kelaher of CB&A Realtors. About 17 percent of Meyerland’s original mid-century homes have never flooded, and another 39.5 percent of homes flooded only during Harvey, according to Zonda. Those houses are seen as safer bets to newcomers looking for a relatively affordable neighborhood, real estate agents say. “I would say for sure there are some transplants from other cities who maybe aren’t as dissuaded by flooding,” added Julie Yau Tam, managing broker at Lyn Realty. Her clients Sonia and James Hsia were in the process of buying a Meyerland home when Harvey hit in 2017. When they learned the home didn’t flood, they closed the deal on the 1,800-square foot home for about $325,000. It’s worth nearly $390,000 today, according to Zillow. Staying put Meyerland resident James Cabe waded through waist-high floodwater during Harvey to help neighbors, but the hurricane spared his mid-century house. Once the water receded, he spent weeks helping neighbors clean damaged homes, but that didn’t scare him away. Cabe has seen the value on his 3,200 square-foot home rise by about $200,000 since he bought the house in late 2015, he estimates. He likes jogging through tree-lined streets to Texas Medical Center or driving to the Galleria mall in minutes. He and his wife enjoy neighborhood crawfish boils and seeing worshippers walk to nearby synagogues during Sabbath. “As long as the Jewish Community Center is here, and the surrounding shul, then (Meyerland) is not going to die,” said Cabe, 48. “They’ll fight tooth and nail; they’ll raise houses; they’ll spend sometimes millions of dollars to keep it going. And that’s essentially what’s happened.” 'MENTAL DAMAGE': Jewish leaders in Meyerland work to keep community together after Harvey Like Cabe and his neighbors, many residents grew closer as they rebuilt, choosing to stay because of ties to the community and access to schools, noted Rachel Tolbert Kimbro, a Rice University professor whose book “In Too Deep” studied Meyerland after Harvey. “When you have chosen a place specifically as the place where you are going to raise your children,” Kimbro said, “then you say, ‘This is it, and a flood is not going to change my mind.’” marissa.luck@chron.com diane.cowen@chron.com Alexandra Kanik contributed to this report. Five years after Hurricane Harvey slammed into the Texas coast and inundated the Houston region, there is trauma, recovery and frustration. Over the week of the anniversary of the storm, the Chronicle assesses the damage and the progress in a seven-part series.

HARVEY'S WAKE

How Harvey transformed resilient Meyerland, from modest 1950s homes to raised mini-mansions

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