Hilshire Village - Memorial Villages

Hilshire Village

Hilshire Village is one of six Memorial Villages, and is located in west Houston and bordered to the south by I-10 and to the east by Wirt Road, to the north by Westview Road and to the east by Pech Road.  
In early times, this part of Houston was basically a rural area located within a thick forest of trees with dirt roads, which mainly consisted of small livestock farms.  The community began when Frank Bruess and his mother came from Missouri in the late 1940s and purchased thirty acres. Following this sale, while on a business trip to Boston, Bruess read about a country estate in Hillshire, England, and the name appealed to him. He decided to call his development Hilshire Village, spelled with one "l." Construction began by the early 1950s, and the community incorporated on April 15, 1955. After the zoning ordinance passed in 1957, it limited farm owners to not more than two horses per lot.  In 1960 it had a population of 543. That figure showed a modest gain with 627 residents in 1970. By the 1990s Hilshire Village had 665 residents and still supported additional limited developments with the building of patio homes. Some buyers demolished older houses to construct larger residences.   

Hilshire Village is the smallest and one of the most pleasant communities of all of the Memorial Villages, with an area of about one-third of a square mile and had a population of 720 in 2000. The community was largely residential but did contain one small commercial section with a flower shop, beauty salon, and three churches.  This small-town neighborhood of Houston is well known for its undulating spacious landscape, small ravines, and abundant source of tall pines and large oak trees, which helps to enhance its special charm. Many of the original homes that were set on Hilshire Village's large sprawling or rolling ravine lots were of ranch-style or flat roofed and contemporary.  In the last few years, a lot of these homes have either been remodeled with modern add-ons or they have been raised in order to make way for newer construction.  
Today the City of Hilshire Village is governed by a mayor and five council members and it is contracted with both the Spring Valley Police Department and the Village Fire Department, who provides fire protection and emergency medical services. Water and sewer services are from the City of Houston. Students attend schools in the Spring Branch Independent School District.  There is also a very active civic club in this subdivision that comprises around 300 families.
On any given day, if one drives thru Hilshire Village in the early evenings or weekends they will notice that there are a number of active people out and about, enjoying a walk, run, bicycling and visiting with each other, which is sometimes considered an eclectic atmosphere in most of the other modern communities around Houston today. As one of the wealthiest suburbs in the country, Hilshire Village is truly a friendly, caring community with a small town feel.     
Students living in Hilshire Village attend schools served by Spring Branch Independent School District. Hilshire Village is zoned to Bear Boulevard School in Spring Valley Village, Valley Oaks Elementary School in Houston, Spring Branch Middle School in Hedwig Village, and Memorial High School in Hedwig Village. Several private schools, including School of the Woods and one of the two campuses of The Monarch School, are located in Hilshire Village. The Monarch School plans to move out of its Hilshire Village campus and its campus in the Houston city limits into a new campus in the Houston city limits in August 2008. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston operates St. Cecilia School, a K-8 Roman Catholic school, in nearby Hedwig Village. The Kinkaid School, a K-12 private school, is located in Piney Point Village.
Homes in Hilshire have sold for between $600,000 and $3 million+, with some tear-downs at the lower end of the spectrum.    

Map - Hilshire Village

Map