THE CITY of Houston has a history of reinventing neighborhoods, and one of its most dramatic transformations of recent years is EaDo, a nickname for the East Downtown Management District. From its beginning
as an upscale, Victorian residential suburb at the turn of the 20th century to its decline into a down-and-out warehouse district in the 1980s, EaDo in the 21st century has emerged as one of the city’s most culturally vibrant,
excitingly diverse neighborhoods in which to live, work and play.
Located east of downtown Houston and north of Interstate-45, and bordered by the George R. Brown Convention Center and the East End district, Eado enjoys proximity to downtown, the Houston Ship Channel, and the Texas Medical Center. It is within walking distance of Discovery Green Park, Minute Maid Park, the George R. Brown Convention Center, Toyota Center, Houston Pavilions, and The Shops at Houston Center. In addition to major freeway access, EaDo is gaining increasing mobility
and connectivity to every part of Houston through nearly-completed METRO Light Rail Line routes.
From the 1930s through the 1950s and 1960s, the area that is now EaDo was most famous for “The Chinatown,” Houston’s original neighborhood of Chinese and Asian businesses and homeowners. By the 1980s, however, most of the Chinese residents had moved to far southwest Houston and Fort Bend County, the area we know today as Chinatown.
In the first years of the 21st-century, the creation of BBVA Compass Stadium, the home of the Houston Dynamos, brought a surge of redevelopment to EaDo that continues to the present. Older businesses are being
repurposed or replaced by upscale retail, restaurants, art galleries, and commercial centers. As new residential development accelerates, many residential builders and home buyers now consider EaDo on par with Montrose. And, as has happened in Montrose, the Museum District,
and other inner-Loop neighborhoods that have reinvented themselves, EaDo’s prosperity is increasingly shared by surrounding communities, and that’s a big win-win for all of Houston.
