A group of Houston neighbors banded together to repair and replace historic concrete street signs installed in their neighborhood more than 80 years ago.

Why it matters: Their restoration efforts won them an award from the Bayou City's premier preservation society.

Driving the news: In Southampton, civic association leaders restored or replaced 55 concrete pillars within the association's boundaries.

• The group started the restoration project in 2021 and completed it last year. More than 150 individual donors contributed nearly $40,000 to fund the efforts.

What they're saying: Joe Fischer, a Southampton resident who helped lead the project, tells Axios the goal was to preserve the character and history of their neighborhood.

• "We wanted to retain the historic ones but also make it consistent with what the neighborhood looked like at the time that they were installed," Fischer said.

Flashback: By the 1940s, navigating Houston streets was like trekking through a "wilderness" with no uniform street signs, according to an article in the Houston Post from the era. The city's Chamber of Commerce identified thousands of intersections that could use permanent, concrete pillars marking the streets and urged city leaders to act.

• "Most intersections had no street signs," Fischer said after researching the history of the pillars. "If there was one, it might have been on a piece of wood that was posted to a tree or somebody's fence."
• In 1941, the city received $38,000 from the New Deal's Works Progress Administration and contributed $12,000 of its own funds for 5,000 initial pillars. That $50,000 is about $1.1 million in today's dollars.

How it worked: The group worked with Eric Hester, Rice University School of Architecture's co-director of fabrication, to create 3D-printed molds of each sign.

• That meant creating 104 individual pieces for the full set of letters used in the molds, which were set and removed a painstaking 1,240 times to make the replacement pillars. The work included sanding them down to give them a natural weathered look.

What's next: The group will be presented with Preservation Houston's Good Brick Award at the organization's Cornerstone Dinner Feb. 27.

Go deeper

Bayou City bicycle advocates hope to make a splash at this weekend's Houston Bike Fest.

Why it matters: This year's iteration will bring cyclists, vendors and like-minded folks together for a day celebrating Houston life on two (or three) wheels.

Driving the news: The event is 11am-3pm Saturday at Saint Arnold Brewing Co. and features Itty Bitty Bike Race — the Houston phenomenon that pits adults on kids' bikes against each other — free valet bike parking, food, beer and music from Houston's Ice House Radio.

The intrigue: Organizers with BikeHouston hope the event will spread positivity in Houston's bike scene.

• They'll also feature a cargo bike corral, where cycling parents can show off how they cart their children around town by bike.

What they're saying: "Houston doesn't immediately come to mind when we think about bicycling, but we actually have a really vibrant, diverse bike culture here," Joe Cutrufo, BikeHouston executive director, tells Axios.

• "We have everything from bicycle manufacturers to groups who organize bike tours to agencies who build bike infrastructure," Cutrufo said. "Bringing folks together from across the spectrum of Houston's bike scene should help amplify and multiply the work these groups are doing."

Flashback: The festival was initially scheduled for October but was rained out.

Share this story

🛋️ IKEA will open three new stores across Texas in 2026, including one in Webster, southeast of Houston. (Chron)

🗣️ Houston City Council Member Edward Pollard is urging HISD superintendent Mike Miles to publicly address the proposed closure of several Houston schools. (Click2Houston)

🏢 Walgreens will close its Houston distribution center, resulting in more than 150 layoffs. (KHOU)

It's getting more expensive to hire a babysitter in Houston.

Driving the news: Houston-area parents paid $21.69 per hour for one child and $23.68 for two on average last year, per new UrbanSitter data.

Zoom out: Average babysitting rates nationwide rose 5% to $26.24 per hour for one child last year.

Rates tend to be higher in places with steeper costs of living.

• San Francisco ($29.63/hour for 1 kid) and Seattle ($27.70/hr) have some of the highest rates in UrbanSitter's report.

See the report