News File - What Was Mitchell's Vision?

The Woodlands Villages

Community Impact Newspaper

Over the past 43 years since the Village of Grogan’s Mill opened in 1974, George Mitchell’s vision has come to life with the development of each of the eight residential villages that make up The Woodlands.
2017 Best Places to Buy a Forever Home

GoodCall

The Woodlands is a planned community is eastern Texas, established in 1974 by oil industry investor George Mitchell. He envisioned The Woodlands as a suburban area outside of Houston that would offer a high quality of life with both affordable and luxury housing. It’s fair to say, more than 30 years later, that vision is realized.
The Woodlands to Break Ground on Creekside Park Apartments

TheWoodlands.com

"One of founder George Mitchell’s original goals for The Woodlands was to provide a variety of housing choices within each village with higher density housing located adjacent to or within the Village Center. Creekside Park Apartments is consistent with this goal by expanding the existing housing choices available in the Village of Creekside Park to include a high quality rental opportunity for residents,” said Robert Heineman, Vice President, Planning and Design for The Woodlands Development Company.
The Woodlands focusing reforestation efforts in Village of Creekside Park

Community Impact Newspaper

The Woodlands Township and The Woodlands Development Company will concentrate reforestation efforts in the Village of Creekside Park in 2017. This practice is in accordance with The Woodlands founder George Mitchell’s environmentally centered vision, according to township and Development Company officials.
How The Woodlands became The Woodlands

Houston Chronicle

Developers modeled the layout of the new community after similar neighborhoods around the country. Among the key planning committee members was Ian McHarg, a landscape architect specifically sought out by George P. Mitchell because of his unique design principles. McHarg embraced and applied a design that would minimally affect the area's woodlands and wildlife, according to a University of Massachusetts essay authored by ecologist Kristine Swann.

"McHarg looked at The Woodlands as an opportunity to apply his theory of ecological determinism - allowing the ecology of the land to determine what development could and should take place," Swann explained.
Bald Eagles at Home in The Woodlands

The Woodlands Community Magazine

We might consider the bald eagle a symbol of The Woodlands and of the success of George Mitchell’s vision to maintain the natural forested environment. His vision was inspired by Ian McHarg’s book, “Design with Nature.” McHarg was part of Mitchell’s original design team, and his work left a permanent mark on the ongoing discussion of mankind’s place in nature and nature’s place in mankind. It is these principles that led to the preservation of the natural habitat that attracted the bald eagle, as well as many human residents, to The Woodlands. The long-term presence of bald eagles in The Woodlands exemplifies that the development of the community continues to be in harmony with nature.
Major Milestones in the History and Governance of The Woodlands

The Woodlands Community Magazine

On October 19, 2014, The Woodlands celebrated its 40th anniversary. Some of the highlights of the last 40 years are listed on the following pages, including major milestones in the history of The Woodlands, as well as milestones for the governance of The Woodlands.
The Woodlands Township Remembers Founder George P. Mitchell

The Woodlands Community Magazine

The Woodlands Township Board joins the entire Woodlands community in remembering The Woodlands founder George P. Mitchell, honoring his life, and celebrating his dream that became The Woodlands.
Woodlands team takes knee instead of win to show respect for injured opponent

Houston Chronicle

Sometimes life lessons take precedence over the results of a sporting event....Tompkins athletic director and football coach, Anthony Tademy was touched by The Woodlands' decision. "It showed a lot of class," Tademy said. "It wasn't about a win or a loss." The humility shown by the Highlanders has not been ignored in The Woodlands community.
The Woodlands faces a crossroads at 40

Houston Chronicle

Don Gebert moved "to the middle of nowhere" in the early 1970s and had to have an electrician run a line for half a mile in the piney woods 30 miles north of downtown Houston just to light up his newly built home. A pastor from Philadelphia, he had come to develop social services in what would become The Woodlands - an innovative master-planned community envisioned by Texas billionaire George Mitchell. The arrival of Gebert's seven-member family increased the population by 10 percent.