Oscar Martin Carter arrived in Houston in 1886, and by 1891 he and a group of investors established the Omaha and South Texas Land Company. The company purchased of land and established infrastructure, including alleys, parks, schools, streets and utilities, worth $500,000 United States dollars. When Houston Heights was founded, it was a streetcar suburb of Houston which attracted people who did not wish to live in the dense city. It had its own municipality, established on July 1, 1896. The first mayor of the Heights was William G. Love. According to the U.S. Census of 1900 about 800 people lived in the Heights. Because the city government had difficulty collecting sufficient taxes, the community decided to be annexed, and the City of Houston annexed the Heights in 1919.