Westwood was developed in the early to mid-1950s by the Rodeo Realty Company and the Stella Link Realty Company.  Rodeo Realty Company’s president, Ira Berne, was also the developer of the famed Westbury Square in 1960.  There were several replats of the five original sections. Only four residential sections remain, along with the unrestricted commercial development on W. Bellfort from the Union Pacific tracks to Stella Link. 

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When Stella Link Road opened in 1952 as a two-lane dirt road, the only development in the area was the old South Main Drive-in situated where the warehouse complex is on Willowbend between Stella Link and the Union Pacific railroad spur. A long-time resident stated that by 1969, when they moved here, Stella Link had already been expanded to four lanes with a large bar ditch. Sometime in the 1970s, the existing storm sewer was laid in, and the ditch became the esplanade. The esplanade is maintained by the Westwood Civic Club’s Esplanade Committee. Volunteers turn out every first Saturday to maintain the planters, trees, and signs.

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According to Westwood Romance and History by Lucia (Chia) Crocheron Greer,

edited by Rogene Gee Calvert, 1988, “The nearest place to grocery shop in 1952 was a 2-story wooden house converted to a country store on South Main, or Lewis & Coker’s market on Holcombe at Greenbriar, or the big Piggly Wiggly at Main Street and Drezel (where the drugstore is now – across from the Medical Center). Elliot’s Steak House, a rambling wooden building, was a ‘place out of town’ for Houstonians to go. The End of Main dance hall was located about where OST (Old Spanish Trail) now intersects Main Street; and there was not much else farther south along Main Street except some remote and modest truck (vegetable garden) farms. Voting, Precinct No. 17, was held in a small grocery store on Main Street nearer Stafford than Houston.”

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For years there was a small golf course on the east side of Stella Link just south of W. Bellfort down to Willowbend called the South Main Golf Club. Another long-term resident of forty-five-plus years does not recall when the golf course was opened, but the consensus among residents is that the course closed in the mid-1980s. According to online blogs, in the late 1960s, the course had four and five-par holes, but land sales for commercial development reduced the course to only par-three holes. The acreage is now nearly fully developed, and nothing remains of the golf course today except a few

bushes and some berms where the sand traps were.

 

In 2001 or 2002, the City of Houston began construction on new streets, sidewalks, and storm sewers for Westwood north of W. Bellfort. Westwood residents stood together to stop the City of Houston’s attempt to reappropriate the funds earmarked for the same infrastructure in Westwood south of W. Bellfort. Westwood and its residents prevailed, and as a result, construction began in 2004. And those streets and storm sewers are

maintained and have served the Westwood community well twenty years later.

 

In the early 2000s, tear-down development in Westwood began. The redevelopment was slow initially, but in recent years new homes are being built frequently.

 

Today, Westwood and its civic club are active within the community. Our National Night Out and Holiday Party are well attended, and the annual Christmas decorating contest is quite competitive. Many Westwood residents take to the streets for exercise and socializing. All this makes Westwood an active and vibrant community.