West University Place

West University Place, an affluent incorporated suburb of metropolitan Houston in southwestern Harris County, reflects the impact of automobiles and paved thoroughfares that facilitated suburban living in the 1920s and the construction of suburban shopping districts, such as the Village, in the 1930s. The site was chosen for a community of country homes by Governor Ben W. Cooper of Tennessee in 1910, and the first lots were sold in 1917 by A. D. Foreman, who named the development for its proximity to Rice Institute. In 1923 approximately forty families lived there. The town incorporated in 1925 as an autonomous enclave within Houston and adopted a home-rule charter in 1940 with a council-manager form of city government