The West Houston Archives

(Above photo: Fry Road at Tuckerton, entrance to Cypress Creek Lakes community, August 2012)

 I chose to chronicle the development of Fry Rd. in West Harris County due to its striking resemblance to the development of FM 1960.  I was too young to capture volumes of photos of FM 1960 before it became what we travel on today, but Fry Rd. is going to be a similar story, and I felt priveleged to be able to start from the beginning.

   Fry Road originally began at I-10 in the early 20th century, and gradually expanded north and south over the years. The road had a northern terminus at FM 529 until the late 1990's, and grew south past Westheimer Rd. into George Bush Park.  In the beginning of the 21st century, Fry Rd. began to expand north of 529 to serve the new Cy-Springs High School.  By 2005, construction on Fry Road took off like a shot, and cut all the way to US 290, merging with the old Cypress Rosehill Rd.  I remember first traveling the new six mile stretch of Fry after it first opened, and there wasn't a traffic signal for the entire distance between FM 529 and US 290.  The speed limit was posted at 45mph, but the traffic was moving at an average of 60mph.  It was perhaps the best length of road for test driving a car in the whole western half of Houston.

   I began documenting images of Fry Road between FM 529 and US 290, starting in late 2005 after the new expansion opened.  Everything south of that had already begun to develop.  This new section of road was completely bare...just bright white concrete, power lines, and miles and miles of open prairie on either side of the road.  Gradually, I began noticing some streets extending out to Fry Rd.  Longenbaugh, Tuckerton, Bridgeland Lakes Parkway...one by one, the traffic signals started going up.  By early 2012, the new Cypress Creek Lakes neighborhood was well under development, with acres and acres of land being carved out to support the new community.  There were not a lot of homes yet, but most of the major roads had been carved out, as well as the numerous lakes, ponds, and community centers that populate the area.  

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