Southside Place 100 Year Celebration 1924 - 2024

100 Year SSP v6 copy

As many of you know, 2024 marks the 100th birthday of the founding of Southside Place! While many things have changed over the last 100 years, the special connection that residents feel to our community has remained the same.

Our Centennial Committee is planning some fun events to observe this milestone, culminating in a grand celebration in October. We know that everyone is busy, so we will be providing informal activities throughout the year and incorporating some Centennial flair into existing events. Our goal is to include as many SSP residents as possible!

Read more about our centennial painting titled "100 Years of Southside Place"     

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Photo by Melissa Byers

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SSP@100 Summer Activities

READpaper airplanes book cover

Pick up a copy of Paper Airplanes by Tabitha Forney who, along with her husband, 9/11 survivor and Palace Social founder Billy Forney, will be our featured speakers at the fall Centennial lecture series. Southside's book club has included Paper Airplanes on their summer reading list. Contact Nicole Anderson if you're interested in joining.

LISTEN

Listen to an oral history of Southside recorded in 1975 as part of the Houston History Research Center's Oral Histories and Memory Project. See below for how to access the Houston Public Library Digital Archives.

Oral History of Southside Place

EXPLOREinaturalist

Join the SSP@100 iNaturalist Challenge from June 10 - July 26 by downloading the app. Explore Southside's natural environment this summer as we crowdsource the identity of the wild plants and animals that share our neighborhood. Open to all residents (adults and kids) but Southside campers and counselors can earn prizes.

iNaturalist Challenge

ssp100 scavenger hunt cardJOIN

The SSP@100 Kid's Scavenger Hunt will run from June 30 - August 30. Make a purchase at participating Southside businesses and collect stickers to win prizes. More details and the scavenger hunt card are available at Southside camp. 

Save the Date!  

  • October 8-20 - Check out Centennial Memorabilia at City Hall
  • Sunday, October 20 Centennial Block Party! - Celebrate Southside's 100th birthday as the block parties gather this year at the clubhouse and field for FREE food and fun from 5-7 PM. 

Coming Soon!

Be on the lookout for more Centennial activities.IMG_4298 (002)

  • Learn interesting Southside Place facts and view memorabilia
  • StoryWalk in the Garden with facts about agriculture on the Poor Farm
  • Service project for residents to give back in the greater community
  • Police, Fire, and Public Works appreciation
  • Rolie Polie Olie - stay tuned to hear more about this fun game!
  • Scavenger Hunt/Activity for kids
  • Unveiling of the Texas Historical Marker honoring Fire Truck Park
  • Commemorative pavers on Edloe and Auden
  • An art installation
  • City Council Proclamation
did you know 3

As part of our Centennial celebration, Mayor Chan asked for a column about things residents might not know about the community they call home. The "Did You Know?" column will appear periodically during 2024.

Have an idea or burning question for "Did You Know?" Email Kate McCormick

Southside's iconic logo of a boy running with a dog has its roots in the city's efforts to be designated a Bicentennial Community. In 1975, the federal government developed a program for communities to receive the designation if they completed "heritage, horizons and festival" activities that promoted the Bicentennial. Southside accepted the challenge and in 1975 Mayor Tom Golden (1975-1979) appointed a Bicentennial Committee of resident volunteers to imagine, plan, and execute the activities.emblem

For the horizon project, the Bicentennial Committee decided to make improvements to Fire Truck Park. The Committee commissioned Southside resident and commercial artist Jerry Herring to create a logo for t-shirts that would be sold to finance these projects. 

At the time, Jerry and his wife, Sandy, lived at 3783 Carlon with their 3-year-old son, Stephen, and a collie. While the image of a boy and his dog fit into the logo's sense of play, Jerry explained that the logo was based on the theme that Southside was such an ideal neighborhood for kids "an oasis in the middle of an enormous metropolitan area."

Proceeds from the logo t-shirt sales in 1975 were brisk. Those funds, as well as money raised from a city-wide garage sale, underwrote a brick patio built by Southside residents from the clubhouse to the swimming pool, and a contribution to the Park Association to renovate the tennis courts.

The logo also found its way on stationary that the Bicentennial Committee used to promote its projects during the year-long commemoration. By 1979, the boy running with a dog logo graced the cover of the city directory and supplanted the city's early logo on official city records.

tshirtToday, the green and white logo appears on everything from our tax bills, the flag that flies over the community garden, and the granite entry monuments along Bellaire Boulevard. "The logo captures the spirit of home that we all want to enjoy for our family," reflects Jerry. "I doubt that longing [has] changed in 50 years." You can still get a t-shirt with the beloved logo at city hall. Stop by and purchase one. I can't think of a better way to show your Southside pride in this centennial year.

-- Kate McCormick

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Photo by Brittany McDowell

Kick Off Open House - Sunday, February 4

On February 4, 2024, over 150 Southside neighbors helped kick off Southside's year-long centennial celebration. Attendees enjoyed a family social, great conversation, and a history lecture by Jim Parsons from Preservation Houston. The first 50 families took home an SSP @ 100 centennial yard sign.

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Southside Place Furniture Drive

Thanks to your generosity, residents filled two 24-foot box trucks with donated furniture at the furniture drive last week in connection with heavy trash day. The donations benefitted the Houston Furniture Bank which provides low and no-cost gently used furniture to families in transition in partnership with Houston area charities.

Residents also donated over $1,000 to support the Houston Furniture Bank's No Kids on the Floor campaign which provides a quality bed set for a Houston child in need with a donation of $150. According to Children at Risk, an estimated 300,000 children in the Greater Houston area sleep on the floor every night. 

There is still time to donate! Please click the link below to donate and type "Southside Place" in the Honor of box so we can track Southside's donations. 

Houston Furniture Bank - No Kids on the Floor

Special Thanks to Lisa Roy for proposing and executing this great community service project, our great volunteers, Effie Reichert, Vicki Piper, and Jane Serbin Marken, and the Southside Civic Club for helping us publicize this event.

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Southside Place Progressive Dinner

On April 6th, SSP@100 provided a signature cocktail, "The Southside," for the Progressive Dinner, along with some fun history of the drink's connection to Al Capone! You can find the recipe here.

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Southside Place Centennial Open House - Sunday, September 8

4:00 PM - 5:00 PM Family Social and Salute to First Responders

Come enjoy drinks, light bites, and conversation with Southside residents so we can express our gratitude for all that you do!

5:00 PM - 6:00 PM Remembering 9/11

Stay to hear from West U neighbors Billy and Tobey Forney. Billy worked in the twin towers on 9/11 and is a frequent speaker about his experience. Tobey wrote a fictionalized account of that day and the aftermath from the perspective of a young 9/11 widow titled Paper Airplanes. This moderated event will include a presentation, interview, and Q & A.

First Responder Flyer
Flyer for 100 YEAR Celebration of founding of City of Southside Place

Celebrate Southside's Centennial at the Park - October 20, 2024 5PM - 7PM

It's a block party! This year, all streets will gather at the park for a city-catered dinner, games, live music and fun! BYOB.

Wear your most vintage Southside gear.

Featuring music of the REMNANTS. Two members of Southside Place's first rock band from the 1980s and 1990s - the Rock 'N Roll Retreads - are members of a new band. Original singers and guitarists, Pat Patterson and George Adams, have teamed up with a newer Southside resident, Javier Gutierrez, on steel and guitar plus Tom Dorman on drums and Joe Muehlberger on bass.

The Remnants will perform a wide variety of Texas country and Americana music plus a few older 60s rhythm and blues and rock songs from the original Rock 'N Roll Retreads band. This variety should please all Southsiders and maybe bring a little history to life.