Located in the northeastern part of Houston, Texas, Kingwood is a 14,000-acre master-planned neighborhood. Harris County is where you’ll find the bulk of the neighborhood, while Montgomery County is where you’ll find the remainder. It is the second-biggest master-planned community in the 10-county Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land metropolitan area and the largest in Harris County, where it is known as the “Livable Forest.” In the 1990 census, its population was 37,397, making it a “census-designated place.” Placed on the San Jacinto River’s eastern branch. In 1971, the Friendswood Development Company and King Ranch partnered to build what is now known as Kingwood. It got its name because of that collaboration.
Foster Lumber Company once held title to a chunk of property that would become the Kingwood neighborhood. Around 1892, the Foster family took ownership of the property. The site was sold in December 1967 to a partnership between King Ranch and the Friendswood Development Company, an Exxon affiliate. John Bruton Jr. was employed by Exelon’s Friendswood Development Company to serve as the Operations Manager, where he oversaw the design, development, and building of Kingwood. Green spaces, retail areas, educational institutions, places of worship, parks, pathways for horseback riding and hiking, and a boat launch onto Lake Houston were all part of the master plan for the town. In the 1960s, the area that would later become Kingwood was annexed by the City of Houston, but by the late 1970s, the City of Houston had dis-annexed certain areas, leaving them unincorporated.
In 1970, work began on what would become Kingwood, and the following year, the first community opened. The neighborhood has been known as “The Livable Forest” since its inception. Many thousands of people called Kingwood home back in 1976. The neighborhood saw a population boom of 40-70% between 1980 and 1990. Nineteen thousand four hundred and 43 people called this place home in 1990, and 204 local companies called it home, too. The year 1992 saw a rise in the population to 37,397. The population was at 65,000 in 2005, and there were nearly 200,000 people within a 10-mile radius.
Over fifteen thousand acres can be found in Kingwood. Over 15,000 acres have been set aside as parks and wildlife reserves in this relatively new suburban area. According to Houston Chronicle writer Renée C. Lee, Kingwood and The Woodlands are very similar in terms of outdoor amenities. Homes in Trailwood, Kingwood’s oldest neighborhood, were originally finished construction in 1971. Barrington, Royal Shores, and Woodridge Forest continue to see new house construction while Kingwood is nearly at capacity.
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