Lights in the Heights 2024 - Update

Planning for this years LITH event is well underway! Thank you to all the behind the scenes dedicated group of volunteers who are busy getting sponsors, ordering merchandise, and planning the LITH Bash to make sure the cost of security, permits, and of course the ever necessary "facilities" (port-a-potties) costs are covered.

You can help by purchasing your LITH Bash tickets today, if you haven't done so yet, aside from helping offset the cost of the event - you're bound to have a great time with your neighbors and friends!

LITH Bash
Friday, Oct . 15th 
Eureka Heights Brewing
941 W 18th St, Houston, TX 77008.

In addition, you can support the LITH Bash fundraising effort by contributing auction items to the event. So if you or your business has event tickets, signed memorabilia, gift baskets, or any other item you'd like to donate email the LITH Bash volunteers at LITH@woodland-heights.org. Remember all proceeds from the LITH Bash and auction help cover the cost of the annual LITH event in December.

One of the wonderful parts about LITH is being able to stroll down the route and see the decorated homes along the route while listening to the different bands and entertainment from your neighbors front porches. Neighbors along the 2024 route, Byrne, Euclid, and 7 1/2th Streets, have received notifications about volunteering their porches for music or entertainment venues or letting us know what music or entertainment they have already planned for their own porches so we can coordinate the types of music so all musicians can be heard.

That free music concert is provided courtesy the bands and neighbors who have volunteered their talent and porches to create an  evening of music and merriment that is typical of this neighborhood tradition.

If you live on Byrne, Euclid, or 7 1/2th Streets and would like to volunteer your porch to host a musical act email entertainment@woodland-heights.org the volunteers who are coordinating the porch musicians will be happy to hear from you!

2024 LITH Event Schedule

• Week of December 8 - 12 House Decorating Competition
  Featured streets and nominated homes are eligible to compete

• Friday, December 13 - Friday Night Lights - Norhill Esplanade
  Neighborhood-only event

• Saturday, December 14 - Lights in the Heights®
  Featured streets -Byrne, Euclid, and 7 1/2th Streets

And Yes Virginia, the 2024 LITH Ornaments have arrived! You can order your own ornament to complete your collection at the Woodland Heights Civic Association store today. Ornaments will also be available during Friday, Night Lights on December 13 - but why wait until then make sure you have your order in before they are all gone.

Note: All ornaments will be available for pickup during Friday Night Lights - shipping is not provided. All proceeds from ornament sales goes to cover the cost of Lights in the Heights.

This is my favorite time of year in Woodland Heights

That headline spells it out quite plainly. After a long, hot summer, this is, to my mind, the best time of year hereabouts. For many reasons, some of which you might not expect.

Halloween is fast approaching. It’s an especially big time for our stretch of Beauchamp Street near Travis Elementary. Not long after we moved here, Stella brought home a big inflatable spider. While impressive, it was like a fish out of water. So, I decided to give it some context by building a 24-foot tall, lighted spider web between our house and the Loblolly Pine in the Southwest corner of the yard. A giant web seemed a fitting home for a giant spider.

From the beginning, we added a graveyard and some skeletons in various amusing or menacing poses. Every year, we add a bit more fog and lights for emphasis. And Candy—so much Candy you’d think we were dentists. But the real joy comes from the kids' reactions. It’s all very well received by the kids. We receive many hundreds of kids trick-or-treating each year, and their excitement is what makes it all worthwhile.

During COVID, the Halloween celebration around the neighborhood waned tremendously. But we didn't let that dampen our spirits. We adapted by delivering Candy to kiddos at a distance using an air-powered candy cannon. Last year, things went back to normal, but the number of homes decorated was still reduced. Yet, we persevered, and this year, we're seeing a definite uptick in the Halloween spirit.

I’m thrilled to see a definite uptick this year. In particular, there seem to be skeletons everywhere. This appears to be a major new trend. Also, so many skeletons in costumes, too! I am reminded of Jason and the Argonauts, the original one, but without all the clattering of bones. The increased enthusiasm for Halloween this year is truly heartwarming and I can't wait to see what other surprises the community has in store.

Beyond simply Halloween or Día de Muertos, the transition of the seasons impacts the neighborhood. I notice this while out walking our dog in the evenings. Julio, our Dogo Argentino/Irish Setter mix, is very social. He really likes to meet new people and other dogs on our evening walkabouts.

The days are getting shorter, leading people to go on walks a little earlier. These days, we see so many people out biking, walking, pushing strollers, walking dogs…just enjoying the nice weather while they can. As George R.R. Martin so ominously noted, "Winter is coming." But before that happens, we must first make it through the holiday season, with all that entails.

I would venture to say that this year, in Woodland Heights, the holiday season officially begins with the November WHCA Members meeting, followed by the LITH Bash, and culminating in December with the 2024 LITH Celebration on Saturday, December 14th.

The agenda is still evolving and doesn't include any official business requiring members to vote, making this meeting largely social. We will certainly have updates about the state of plans for the Lights in the Heights Bash (tickets are still available here) and other aspects of Lights in the Heights.

We do have a surprise in the works! It's too early to say yet, but this promises to be a good time at an interesting new venue*. I invite you all to join us.

Michael Graves
President, Woodland Heights Civic Association

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*Back in 2019, when the WHCA bylaws were last revised, we specifically added a provision allowing for members meetings beyond the perimeter of the neighborhood. It was motivated by the occasional difficulty finding a suitable location. Back then, we thought it might be possible to access the Castillo Center. We first acted on this change with a meeting in the back room at A Second Cup when it was still located on the north side of 11th Street.

The Hollywood Trail Project

What is Comey's 1913 Report To Park Commissioners
In 1910, Mayor Horace Baldwin Rice, established the city’s first park commission and appointed three men to the commission, attorney Edwin B. Park, an amateur Horticulturist; George H. Hermann, real estate investor; and William A. Wilson, the developer of Woodland Heights. In 1912, the three commissioners, at their own expense, hired landscape architect Arthur C. Comey to prepare a park report for the City. Comey’s plan released in 1913 titled, "Houston: Tentative Plans for its Development” not only provided plans for park development but included a plan for the City itself.

Hollywood Bayou - Connecting Neighborhoods
Recently a grassroots coalition of local organizations and residents, inspired by Comey’s report and mention of Hollywood Bayou “as a key natural and community resource” within that report, launched the Hollywood Trail Project.  Its goal “to reconnect neighborhoods like Independence Heights, Woodland Heights, and Northside Village through an accessible trail that celebrates the area’s natural beauty and rich cultural history.”

According to the coalition, it is “backed by over one hundred community members and organizations” including the Friends of Woodland Park, the newly formed Friends of Moody Park, the Independence Heights Civic Association, and the White Oak Bayou Association.

Hollywood Bayou - Photo Courtesy Hollywood Trail Project Coalition

“This is a pivotal moment to come together as a community to shape the future of Little White Oak Bayou,” said Kelli Fereday, one of the project’s co-founders and FWP President. “The trail will offer much more than just a path; it will be a living history of the neighborhoods it passes through, from Independence Heights to Northside Village, Glen Park, and Woodland Heights. Interactive displays would share stories of the people, places, and events that have shaped these communities.”

The trail being proposed by the group would run along sections of the ecologically rich Little White Oak Bayou, where 180 species of birds have been documented, and intersects to a City of Houston Nature Preserve at the lower portion of the Bayou.

With the TXDoT North Highway Infrastructure Improvement Project (the I-45 North project) set to move forward, the group sees the development of the Hollywood Trail Project to be at a “once-in-a-generation opportunity to ensure the Hollywood Trail is included in the project’s planning, providing a vital green corridor, and preventing further fragmentation of neighborhoods.

The coalition continues to engage key stakeholders, including the City of Houston HPARD and District H, TXDoT, Harris County, the Greater Northside Management District, TIRZ 5 and TIRZ 21, and local civic organizations, to bring the project to fruition. For more information or to support the Hollywood Trail Project, visit hollywoodtrail.org.

Lights in the Heights 2024: Call for Porches!

Dear Byrne, Euclid & 7-1/2 Street Neighbors,

This December, Lights in The Heights (LITH) will be celebrating its 37th year as an annual Holiday Season tradition organized by the Woodland Heights Civic Association. Traditionally scheduled for the second Saturday in December, this year LITH will take place on the evening of December 14th. Byrne, Euclid and 7-1/2 streets are the streets which have been chosen for the official route for LITH this year.

During the celebration your streets will be closed to vehicular traffic so that neighbors, and visitors to our neighborhood, are able to walk these streets while enjoying the lights, decorations and music along the route. As per tradition, outdoor music is allowed from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. that evening and neighbors on the official route are asked if they would like to volunteer their porches to host performers.

We invite to let us know if you would like to volunteer your porch to host performers for this event. The LITH Entertainment Committee has a list of volunteer performers that we can pair up with willing hosts. These performers are volunteering their time and talent at no cost to perform for LITH.

If you prefer to arrange a performer of your own, we ask that you let the committee know as well. Knowing what homes are planning on hosting their own performers will help the committee arrange music to avoid one type of music overshadowing another so all the performers can be enjoyed by everyone walking the official route.

Thank you for supporting LITH!

The LITH Entertainment Committee
EntertainmentLITH@gmail.com

Yard of the Month - 927 Merrill Street

Lloyd and Ann Jones have lived in their craftsman bungalow home at 927 Merrill since 1983 and around 2000, respectively. Working together, they've seamlessly combined the beauty of their garden to create a harmonious relationship between the outside world and their home.

The vibrant colors of the flowers and the soothing greenery create a picturesque setting, though it's unclear who came up with the home's paint combination. According to Lloyd,

"I would say we both did, but Ann says it was her idea, lol."

When asked what his favorite part of their yard is, Lloyd continued,

"I would say the backyard, but we do spend a lot of our time in the front yard. Ann and I each have our own beds. If you're facing our house, mine is on the right and hers on the left. Ann's bed has Echinacea, Zinnias, Hummingbird Bush, and several different varieties of Salvia - including Hot Lips Salvia, Day Lillies,  Fire Cracker Plant, some Sage, and Purple Verbena. In my bed, I have several varieties of native grass, including Muhly Grass, Zinnias, Henry Duelburg, Salvias, and some Homestead Verbena."

Their garden, filled with native plants from various Heights area nurseries and garden centers, including Joshua's Native Plants and Garden Antiques, Buchanan's Native Plants, Home Depot, Houston Garden Center, and Another Place in Time, is a haven for several flying, crawling, and buzzing beneficial insects.

"For sure, bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. We also have a nest of Mockingbirds, and we've seen Blue Jays, Cardinals, and we've had some Cooper Hawks in our bird bath as well."

Lloyd has been gardening since as far back as he can recall,

"You may not be old enough to remember, but Frito Lay used to put Zinna seed packets in their products, so that was the first thing I ever grew."

In addition to the plants purchased from nurseries, some plants handed down from family and friends are found in the beautiful landscape.

"We have some Night Blooming Cereus we got from Ann's mom, another type of Cereus I got from a swim buddy, some Begonias, and we each have our own Staghorn ferns that we combined and cultivated. It has grown into a giant; it's now about five feet across."

A gardener's work is never finished, as gardens constantly grow and change with the seasons and weather. Lloyd and Ann have different approaches to keeping their gardens beautiful. They both find joy in the process but also face challenges like keeping up with weeds and adapting to Houston's weather conditions.

Lloyd says, "The least favorite [part of gardening] would be the constant battle with the weeds. I battle the yard about once a week. I think Ann's Zen time is sweeping up the flowers and leaves from the Crepe Myrtle tree daily, lol."

While Ann's work in the garden keeps Houston's weather in mind. "With the heat, I get out there very early in the morning and stay as long as possible, then I go out around 8 in the evening and periodically throughout the day. If it wasn't for the heat, I would be out there all the time!"

In terms of their garden favorites, it depends on the season and the creatures attracted by the beautiful blooms,

Lloyd, "That's a tough one. The Muhly Grass has some bloom spikes in the fall, and that's nice. All of our hummingbird bushes are also amazing in the fall, attracting the hummingbirds."

Ann adds, "I like all types of salvias and cone flowers—all the ones that attract pollinators and do a great job of standing up to our heat as well," and leaves would-be gardeners intimidated with some advice, "If you do a little every day, a beautiful yard is very easy to maintain and grow!"

SAVE THE DATES! FWP - Annual Meeting October 10 Plus Halloween Concert October 17

Friends of Woodland Park - Annual Meeting
The Friends of Woodland Park will be holding their Annual Meeting, on Thursday,  October 10, inside the Woodland Park Community Center, 212 Parkview. There will be a Meet and Greet at 6 pm, followed by a members meeting with a report of accomplishments of the past year and future plans.  
The guest speaker for the evening will be Ranger Woodard with the Houston Parks and Recreation Department, who will explain Urban Park Ranger responsibilities as well as what issues, wants, and needs he has for Woodland Park.

Friends of Woodland Park - Halloween Themed Concert!
You are invited to a family-friendly concert hosted by the Friends of Woodland Park on Thursday, October 17, 6-7:30 p.m., in the community center at Woodland Park. Jo Bird, the Fiddle Witch, is our guest musician and will provide the entertainment. Wear your Halloween costume – kids and adults. There will be candy, decorated cookies, and Halloween-themed coloring pages for the kids.  We will also enjoy several flavors of popcorn.
 
Jo Bird was born and raised in Pasadena, TX, where she grew up playing in the public school orchestra. She moved to Houston to perform and compose music for Two Star Symphony, Pecos Hank, I Am Mesmer and Fiddle Witch and the Demons of Doom in addition to many other musical groups and various projects. She has been residing in Galveston, TX, since 2019 performing her solo works for Art Walk, private events and many other random happenings.
 
Come join us at your park in our wonderful neighborhood!