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Thomas Peter Lee, who would buy the mansion from the Link family in 1916. Mr. Link was a lawyer, the former Mayor of Orange, Texas, vice president of the Kirby Lumber Company, president of our regional Dr. Pepper Bottling Company, and, of course, president and driving force behind the Houston Land Company's creation of the 1911 Montrose addition. J.W. Link would also serve as the president of the 1912 No-Tsu-Oh Carnival, which was patterned after the New Orleans Mardi Gras and held in Houston from 1899 to 1915. His son, Harold Link, and a friend down the street, Howard Hughes Jr., would serve in the annual cotton harvest carnival as pages in full costume. University of St. Thomas would also save the Howard Hughes family's last home, built in 1918 at 3921 Yoakum, where the teenage Hughes grew up. (The Hughes family moved to this address from apartment 2A in the luxury Beaconsfield Apartments, still there today at 1700 Main Street, built in 1911.) The famed aviator and movie star actually kept the Montrose home after he left for Hollywood, so that his aunt could live there. The University of St. Thomas bought the home in 1952, originally for their social science building, and it now houses their theology department. Just to the north of these two homes was the home where funeral director/undertaker Sid Westheimer, nephew of Mitchell Louis Westheimer (Michael), who the street is named after. (Michael lived on the farm where Lamar High School now sits.) Sid's home, built in 1919 at 3700 Montrose Boulevard with its iconic green roof, is now a law firm. Oil magnate and Humble Oil co-founder Walter W. Fondren's 1923 mansion by Alfred C. Finn, a masterpiece in the Prairie Style, still presides over the neighborhood. Sited at 3410 Montrose Boulevard, it was restored and reborn as La Colombe d'Or, a Houston luxury hotel fixture for the past 30 years. The loudest, most flamboyant, and best known of the Humble clan (today's ExxonMobil) was Ross S. Sterling, 31st Governor of Texas. In 1914, he began developing Rossmoyne, a private subdivision with large landscaped esplanades to the south of Montrose. His Alfred C. Finn-designed mansion, completed in 1916, still stands intact, relatively hidden, at 4515 Yoakum Boulevard, now bordered by the Southwest Freeway's massive concrete wall. And, just down the street, The Kinkaid School's second location was built in 1924 on Richmond Avenue where a post office now resides. The school was there until their new campus was built in 1957 in the rural Piney Point area of Houston, to the far west. AND HOW DOES MISTER MCKINNEY WANT HIS HISTORY TO READ? I hope to be remembered for my work with youth. I have dedicated the last 16 years to Mister McKinney's Historic Houston's tag line, "Ensuring Houston's future doesn't forget its past," and I'm committed to it. I know I'm making a difference in the lives of these students because we test what they've retained, and one question leads to more questions. They're learning. They're curious about the area they live in. My hope has always been to breed future preservationists, so when they are older and in a position to save — or at least speak up for — a historic Houston structure in jeopardy of being torn down, they will remember what Mister McKinney taught them and fight to save it. Next up are the Titans and Tycoons Tours to Forest Park Lawndale Cemetery (the final two are Sunday, July 22 and Sunday, August 19), underwritten by Dignity Memorial. Tour details are on Mister McKinney's Historic Houston Facebook page. ON A NEVER-ENDING MISSION. It is important to say that no one knows everything about Houston's history, because none of us were here 182 years ago. People are kind to me; they will stop me in the streets after recognizing me from TV and ask questions about Houston history. I answer a few and give them my email and cell if they think of others. I also get called "Mister Houston" a lot — and I am quick to remind people there is only one "Mister Houston," and I'm not talking about General Sam Houston. It's Jesse H. Jones, of course. I am happy being Mister McKinney of Mister McKinney's Historic Houston. They smile and ask, "Who's Jesse H. Jones?" I give them a pass for one of my free tours so they can find out. With 6.5 million people in the Houston area, my job is never done. ON BEING A SHOWMAN. I'm not your typical historian. I've been called on the radio the "José Altuve of Houston history" and the "walking Google for Houston history." I dress differently, use an open-air bus as my classroom, and with background in theater, I tell a story in a much different way. In addition to throwing out facts about Houston history, I am always reading my audience to make sure they're engaged and learning. That's paramount, or I'm doing something wrong. ARCHITECTURAL MATTERS. Our Houston architecture is a record of our growth and a testament to our can-do spirit of conquering the swampy, hot Houston landscape. It is near impossible to not talk about Houston's past, its growth, without pointing out the local a r c h i t e c t u r e . T h e residential styles of homes tell a story about Houston's growth — ethnically in some cases. The socioeconomic status in most all cases, whether rich or working class, and footprint of a neighborhood give historians a pattern of the city's overall development. That residential growth can also dictate the commercial growth. I've always been fascinated with how Houston evolves. LOST HOUSTON. I serve on the board of the Harris County Historical Commission, the group responsible for historical markers around town, and my specific focus is townships, municipalities, and settlements. Many of these remnants of early Houston are gone and certainly forgotten. The Houston Heights, founded in 1891 and annexed by the City of Houston in 1918, comes to most people's mind. But I like talking about places like Brunner, Texas, in the far West End, absorbed by Houston by 1915, and Genoa, Texas, in the southeast, just northwest of where the 1917 Ellington Field is today. The remains of Genoa and the town to the west called Almeda, Texas, are evident with the path that connected them, Almeda-Genoa Road. For more on Mister McKinney, visit papercitymag.com. (continued from page 51) 80 Mister McKinney at The African American Library at the Gregory School