History

Provided by previous Greentee Terrace Homeowners’ Association president, Mr. Douglas Smith.

The Karankawa Indians, who lived here during the 14th century and possibly earlier, were the original occupants of Green Tee Terrace. They lived here primarily because the water source, now known to us as Clear Creek, guaranteed them access to plenty of food and trees for shelter. Other tribes thought them to be cannibals, but that was not the case. There is evidence of a Karankawan burial ground just off Green Tee Drive.*

More recently, Green Tee Terrace was known as “The Drake Ranch,” a 468-acre plot of land that was a working ranch with cattle and cowboys on horseback. Again, the water sources in the Green Tee area provided sustenance for grazing cattle and living space. The owner, Dr. Drake, was a wildcatter oilman who “hit it big” in Hastings Field. There was a time when it “was reckoned” that there was oil under the beautiful area we now call Green Tee Terrace, and serious consideration of drilling was not out of the question in the minds of more than just a few.

In 1969, The Green Tee Terrace Development Company (Tom Alexander, David Smith, and Sam Vester) purchased the 468-acre Drake Ranch and persuaded Golfcrest Country Club, a well-established, privately owned country club, to move from its location on Long Drive in Houston to Green Tee Terrace in Pearland, Texas. Development began in 1970,

and by 1972, Green Tee Terrace was the talk of the town, known as “the up-scale neighborhood in Pearland,” a reputation we still hold today. It has been, and is, a wonderful place to raise a family. It is a fact that both of Mr. Smith’s daughters chose Green Tee Terrace as their home, and many other families have done so since. In some cases, we have had three or four generations passing down their legacies and living in Green Tee Terrace.

*Google Karankawa Indians for more detailed and interesting information about your community beginnings.