MacGregor Park-Neagle Field is a park and baseball venue in the Third Ward, [1] Houston, Texas, and the home field of the Texas Southern Tigers baseball team. [2] The Tigers are a member of the Southwestern Athletic Conference. [3]
A 42-acre section of the park is owned by the University of Houston. [4]
Riverside Terrace is adjacent to the park. [5]
It was named after Henry Frederick MacGregor, who was from Derry, New Hampshire, and had ancestry from Northern Ireland. [5]
MacGregor conceptualized a park in the area, with the Brays Bayou being used as a path from Hermann Park to his new park; he died in 1923 before he could see the park completed. [6] His estate gave the city government the money to establish the park, [7] and his widow, Elizabeth "Peggy" MacGregor, donated the land. [8] Will Hogg donated trees to form a World War I memorial, the War Mothers Memorial. The 1926 land survey was done by Howe & Wise, Engineers employee R. O. Bosworth. Hare & Hare developed the park throughout the mid-20th century. [5] The current park has a focus on recreational activities while MacGregor's original vision emphasized it being a space for nature. [6]
Due to demographic changes in the mid-20th century, the surrounding areas became majority African-American. [5] MacGregor Park was a popular gathering spot for African-American youth in the late 1980s and the early 1990s, [9] and they typically pursued recreation on Sundays. The police closed the park temporarily after a 1992 shooting. Andrew Dansby of the Houston Chronicle wrote in 2016 that "Those big Sundays never returned in quite the same way, though MacGregor remained a neighborhood touchstone." [6]
A hip hop show occurred in 2001. [6] Texas Parks and Wildlife Department gave a $1 million grant that resulted in a 2005 renovation. In 2009 the Parks To Standards program of the city government resulted in $600,000 worth of enhancements. [10] A car parade ending at MacGregor, called the SLAB parade, began in 2013. [6]
The park has 82.79 acres (33.50 ha) of land. [11] It has an outdoor basketball court, a disc-style golf course with 18 holes, a hike and bicycle trail that is 1.25 miles (2.01 km) long, a meeting room, a sports field with lighting, a swimming pool, and a weight room. [10]
William Ward Watkin designed a memorial stone for MacGregor, located at the park. [5]
A statue of Peggy MacGregor as a young woman, [5] made by Gutzon Borglum and commissioned by Henry MacGregor, [8] was created in 1927; it was moved to the park and restored by the city government's Municipal Art Commission in 1997. [5]
John Wilkerson established the MacGregor Park Junior Tennis Program. [10]
The METRORail station MacGregor Park/Martin Luther King Jr. is in proximity to the park.
Andrew Dansby of the Houston Chronicle wrote that due to the park's use by sports figures and in hip-hop culture, "MacGregor Park has a storied place in Houston culture." [6]
Songs about MacGregor Park include the 1985 song "MacGregor Park" with writing attribution to Robert Harlan and by "the L.A. Rapper," as well as the 2015 song "MacGregor Park" by Fat Tony. [6]
Montrose is an area located in west-central Houston, Texas, United States and is one of the city's major cultural areas. Montrose is a 7.5 square miles (19 km2) area roughly bounded by Interstate 69/U.S. Highway 59 to the south, Allen Parkway to the north, South Shepherd Drive to the west, and Taft to Fairview to Bagby to Highway 59 to Main to the east. Montrose neighborhoods include Cherryhurst, Courtlandt Place, Hyde Park, Montrose, Vermont Commons, North and East Montrose, Mandell Place and Winlow Place. Montrose is also less well known by the moniker Neartown, encompassing Superneighborhood #24.
William Earnest Harwell was an American sportscaster, known for his long career calling play-by-play of Major League Baseball games. For 55 seasons, 42 of them with the Detroit Tigers, Harwell broadcast the action on radio and/or television. In January 2009, the American Sportscasters Association ranked him 16th on its list of Top 50 Sportscasters of All Time.
Texas Southern University is a public historically black university in Houston. The university is a member school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity".
The Memorial area of Houston, Texas is located west of Downtown, northwest of Uptown, and south of Spring Branch. The Memorial Super Neighborhood, as defined by the City of Houston, is bounded by Buffalo Bayou to the south, Barker Reservoir to the west, Westview to the north, and the Memorial Villages, a contiguous group of independent municipalities, to the east.
Memorial Park, a municipal park in Houston, Texas, is one of the largest urban parks in the United States. Opened 101 years ago in 1924, the park covers approximately 1,466 acres (5.9 km2) mostly inside the 610 Loop, across from the neighborhood of Memorial. Memorial Drive runs through the park, heading east to downtown Houston and west to the 610 Loop. A small portion of land west of the 610 Loop bordered by Woodway Drive and Buffalo Bayou is also part of the park. I-10/U.S. 90 borders the park to the north. The park was originally designed by landscape architects Hare & Hare of Kansas City, Missouri. In 2016, the operation of the park was transitioned from the Houston Parks and Recreation Department to the Memorial Park Conservancy, a private non-profit organization with a mission to "restore, preserve and enhance Memorial Park."
Third Ward is an area of Houston, Texas, United States, that evolved from one of the six historic wards of the same name. It is located in the southeast Houston management district.
Hermann Park is a 445-acre (180-hectare) urban park in Houston, Texas, situated at the southern end of the Museum District. The park is located to the immediate north end of the MD Anderson Cancer Center at Texas Medical Center and Brays Bayou, east of Rice University, and slightly west of the Third Ward. Hermann Park is home to numerous cultural institutions including the Houston Zoo, Miller Outdoor Theatre, the Houston Museum of Natural Science, and the Hermann Park Golf Course, which became one of the first desegregated public golf courses in the United States in 1954. The park also features the Mary Gibbs and Jesse H. Jones Reflection Pool, numerous gardens, picnic areas, and McGovern Lake, an 8-acre (32,000 m2) recreational lake.
Fourth Ward is one of the historic six wards of Houston, Texas, United States. The Fourth Ward is located inside the 610 Loop directly west of and adjacent to Downtown Houston. The Fourth Ward is the site of Freedmen's Town, which was a post-U.S. Civil War community of African-Americans.
Montrose is a neighborhood located in west-central Houston, Texas, United States. Montrose is a 7.5-square-mile (19 km2) area roughly bounded by Interstate 69/U.S. Highway 59 to the south, Allen Parkway to the north, South Shepherd Drive to the west, and Taft to Fairview to Bagby to Highway 59 to Main to the east. The area is also referred to as Neartown or Neartown / Montrose.
PlazAmericas, formerly known as Sharpstown Mall and earlier Sharpstown Center, is a shopping mall located in the Sharpstown development in Greater Sharpstown, Houston, Texas. The mall is located on the northwest corner of Interstate 69/U.S. Route 59 and Bellaire Boulevard. This is the third mall to be built in Houston after Gulfgate Mall opened in 1956 and Meyerland Plaza in 1957, but the first fully air-conditioned mall in Houston. The area includes the Jewelry Exchange Center, a ten-story building. After the mall was renamed PlazAmericas, it took a Latin American theme and catered to Hispanics. The anchor stores are Burlington, SuperNova Furniture, America Cinemas, La Sorella, Gold Factory & Imports, and Clarewood Supermercado.
Bayou Place is a 130,000 square foot entertainment complex that houses multiple theaters, bars, and restaurants located in Downtown Houston, Texas, United States. The complex was the former Albert Thomas convention center located in the Houston Theater District at 500 Texas Street.
The Texas Southern Tigers represent Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas, in intercollegiate athletics. They field sixteen teams including men's and women's basketball, cross country, golf, and track and field; women's-only bowling, soccer, softball, tennis, and volleyball; and men's-only baseball and football. The Tigers compete in the NCAA Division I and are members of the Southwestern Athletic Conference.
Idylwood is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of the I-610 loop in Houston, Texas. Idylwood, as of 2021, is the most expensive neighborhood in the East End. As of that year its houses were priced between $295,000 and $679,900. It currently has approximately 340 homes. Bill England, a redeveloper in the East End area, stated in 2004 that Idylwood appealed to buyers who are priced out of houses located in the cities of Bellaire and West University Place.
Riverside Terrace is a neighborhood in Houston, Texas, United States. It is along Texas State Highway 288 and north of the Texas Medical Center and located near Texas Southern University and University of Houston. There about 20 sections of Riverside Terrace that span across North and South MacGregor. The community, formerly an affluent Jewish neighborhood, became an affluent community for African Americans in the 1950s and '60s. It is still predominantly African American neighborhood with different income levels. It has been undergoing a gradual change in demographics and aesthetics due to gentrification efforts since the early 2000s.
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The African American population in Houston, Texas, has been a significant part of the city's community since its establishment. The Greater Houston area has the largest population of African Americans in Texas and west of the Mississippi River. Black Enterprise has referred to Houston as a Black mecca.
The Texas Southern Tigers baseball team is the varsity intercollegiate baseball program of Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas, United States. The program's first season was 1965, and it has been a member of the NCAA Division I Southwestern Athletic Conference since the start of the 1999 season. Its home venue is MacGregor Park, owned by the city of Houston. Michael Robertson is the team's head coach starting in the 2009 season. The program has appeared in 5 NCAA Tournaments. It has won five conference tournament championships and no regular season conference titles. As of the start of the 2018 Major League Baseball season, no former Tigers have appeared in Major League Baseball.
[...]MacGregor Park in Houston's Third Ward[...]
