Brooke Smith
Even if you are new to the Houston area, you know about Houston Heights; the 1910-1920’s neighborhood just inside the 610 N Loop. If you are a resident, you also know that there are many subdivisions within this larger neighborhood, some more desirable than others. One of the relatively unknown pockets of the Heights is Brooke Smith, tucked into its northeast corner.
I love the old homes of Brooke Smith.There are a lot of these folk Victorians
Brooke Smith may be rough around the edges, but there are some extraordinary homes here.
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Brooke Smith (Often misspelled Brookesmith) is bounded roughly by the 610 Loop, I-45 and the diagonal N Main Street.
It is this diagonal street that makes the area totally confusing to me. Even though I have lived in the Heights for 20 years, I am always lost in this area. It seems that no matter which direction I drive, I run into N Main. But, I’m not known for my navigational skills.
Brooke Smith is one of the “unpolished” parts of the Heights.
There are gorgeous homes here, and some barely hanging on. It doesn’t yet suffer much from builders knocking down the bungalows and squeezing in much bigger homes. This is both positive and negative: Squeezing in big homes overpowers the little bungalows, but it also gets rid of the most run-down homes. New construction adds value to an area and encourages renovations…so…a mixed result.
The predominant house style is the small, wood-framed bungalow. There are others though; Victorians, rustic folk-Victorians
and a scattering of others. This is a working class neighborhood, and many homes are in need of repair, or at least a new paint job.
While in general, this area is not as appealing to the outsider as other parts of the Heights, there are some homes on Tabor, Enid, and Cordell Streets that I drool over every time I drive by them.
There are some very old (by Houston standards) and unique homes here. While I said that Brooke Smith might not be quite as appealing and uniform overall as Houston Heights or Woodland Heights, it does have a strong community and an active civic association. It just happens to be a working class neighborhood full of very friendly people. Events are held routinely at nearby Montie Beach Park. See post Brooke Smith Day of the Dead Celebration
I believe this is a community with a huge amount of potential, especially for buyers who have been squeezed out of the market in the rest of the Heights. Brooke Smith is still an area that offers a good deal for the money.
Currently homes here sell for ~$50,000 less than in neighboring Houston Heights.
This is mainly the difference in land prices. When builders again start pushing up land prices, home prices will rise faster. The rising demand for Heights homes though is also pushing up prices of Brooke Smith homes.
This MLS Search tool will let you look for homes without having to talk to a Realtor 
Just enter MLS Area 9 (for North Central) and Brooke Smith for subdivision. Unfortunately, it’s not as easy to find Heights homes this way. Entering “Heights” in the subdivision will pull up pull up most of the homes in Houston Heights, Woodland Heights, Sunset Heights, etc., but will pull in other odd Heights locations too. A map search works better. Email me if you want help with a list of available Brooke Smith homes….Rich
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Good review. Just wanted to give you the URL for the civic club’s Website. It’s http://www.montiebeach.org. Oh, and as an FYI, it’s technically “Brooke Smith”.
Thanks for info on civic club website and spelling. I was just showing homes there this evening. I should have paid attention to spelling of the Brooke Smith entry signs.
HCAD has it spelled both ways, but they aren’t detail oriented.
I will make changes. I will also be at your Day of the Dead celebration…Rich
Thanks… good write up of the neighborhood. As an appraiser, I like to research the neighborhood a little and Brooke Smith is certainly interesting. The older homes in the area are most certainly “older” than HCAD indicates – I wish there was better dating for areas like this. If it weren’t for N. Main….
Pricing of Brooke Smith homes is tougher than the rest of the Heights because of fewer sales. It just takes a little more work.
HCAD info on year built is real shaky for early homes. My house was built in 1909 (I have the original deed showing it sold for $3500) but HCAD shows 1920. They apparently dated everything in existence in 1920 with this date. The next big group of homes was 1930. The age is apparent just by looking at them though.