In Search of the Elusive Midtown Boundary, at the W. Gray and Webster Split

Midtown Entry Portal site, W. Gray at Matthews St., Midtown/Fourth Ward, Houston, 77019

Where exactly, these days, does Fourth Ward end and Midtown begin? That may be a little bit clearer before long (depending on how you define the 2) — a reader notes that someone looks to be getting ready to stake a visible claim for Midtown on the narrow strip of land at the crotch of Webster and W. Gray streets, just west of Matthews St. and the latest add-on to the Post Midtown Square development. (The yellow signage of that recently scorched Fuzzy’s is visible on the left.)

The silt fencing rimming the median segment as of late comes with a construction sign calling the spot “Midtown Entry Portal — Site 3.” That grassy sliver does sit at the end of a short but pointy finger of land jutting out of the northwestern boundary of the area’s tax increment reinvestment zone, which as of 2009 is shaped about like this:

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TIRZ 2, 2009

That skinny branch off the southern boundary of the zone reaches into the Museum District to snag a few properties along Caroline St. — namely, the Asia Society Center, its parking lot, and the Houston Museum of African American Culture.

Images: Chris C. (map), City of Houston (TIRZ 2 map)

TIRZspotting

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