Tucked away, gathering dust at the bottom of bookshelves or shoved in attic boxes, yearbooks serve as time capsules for old memories.
The Carillion yearbook has always been an over-300-page book, with enough students to require an index and nine yearbook departments to organize the production.
Bellaire yearbook staffer and junior Eliana Weiner understands the importance of putting out the best production for the community and “will always try to do [their] best work no matter who will see the yearbook.”
Staffers can access the BHS yearbook archives, which consist of a closet full of shelves of BHS yearbooks going back to the ‘50s, for inspiration.
“Looking back at old yearbooks to see how kids lived in past generations and knowing that kids twenty years from now can look back at our pictures is very cool,” Weiner said.
But it’s not only current students that like to peruse the pages of yearbook history. Ebay and thrift stores have seen higher demand for old yearbooks, with some selling for as much as $29,700. They are used as reference material to get a glimpse of the times and have been used by costume departments of popular movies like Mean Girls.
“The aspect of the archives I find most inspiring are the student life photos,” Weiner said. “It is a challenge to get a candid, interesting photo without obvious action like sports.”
When the Coffey family was opening their Bellaire themed restaurant, The ‘401 Table and Tap, they knew they wanted to honor the history with more than just a name. Co-owner Kristi Coffey comes from a long line of Bellaire graduates. Her mother, uncle and aunts attended BHS and all graduated between 1970 and 1980. Coffey herself graduated from Bellaire High School in 1998 and has continued the tradition with sending her daughters.
“Back when I was at BHS, our friend group had a bunch of friends at Westbury,” Coffey said. “When people we didn’t know would ask where we were from, we would say ‘from the ‘401’ [as a reference to the last three numbers of Bellaire’s zipcode]. [Years later, when discussing restaurant names] with a friend, it seemed fitting to name the restaurant after the neighborhood I love so much.”
The Coffey family has accumulated a collection of Bellaire relics to add to the restaurant ambiance.
“When we were in the process of opening the restaurant, I bought a ton of old yearbooks and old photos on Ebay,” Coffey said. “Before the original campus was demolished for remodeling, the school donated some relics to us. People sometimes drop off the yearbooks or other memorabilia, such as pompoms or their megaphones, to add to our display.”
The ‘401 has collected 40 to 50 old yearbooks from the late 1950s to display to their customers and members of the community.
“Many good times have certainly been had by so many generations of Bellaire students,” Coffey said. “Sometimes you will have kids or grandkids of former BHS students come in and just cackle over the pics of their parents and grandkids.”
Coffey’s vision of alumni revisiting old memories came to fruition organically as customers looked through her collection.
“I have shown my kids, my dad and visiting family the yearbooks at the ‘401,” class of 2000 alumni Marcia Nuñez Jones said. “It provides a fun conversation while we wait for our meal. A lot of my kids’ friends’ parents went to Bellaire High School, so it’s fun to show them these old people when they were teens.”
Jones is not alone in her high school reminiscence. Tabeen Karisma Islam Urbach, who graduated class of 2005, married one of her classmates.
“We recently brought two of my best friends from high school to ‘401. They came into town and sat at ‘401 for hours eating and going over the yearbooks and laughing at our old pictures,” Urbach said. “Our kids were with us and we got to show them old pics of their dad playing baseball, as well as the yearbooks I worked on as a former BHS yearbook editor. It’s fun to go down memory lane by having yearbooks so accessible there.”
The ‘401 also hosts the Alumni Friends of Bellaire High School association, and Coffey serves on the board along with the vice president, Rebecca Philips.
“I have stayed in touch with old classmates primarily because my high school years were some of my best,” Philips said. “I have all of my yearbooks, and I have organized the class of 1969 reunions. We have hosted reunions for our class for 10 years, 20 years, 25 years, 30 years, 40 years, 45 years, 50 years and 55 years, so I have to utilize the yearbooks frequently.”
Philips has contributed to Bellaire High School even after her years of personal enrollment were over.
“[The alumni association has] raised $3 million for the school for scholarships, the alumni courtyard, grants and teacher and staff awards,” Philips said.
Places that collect Bellaire keepsakes like the ‘401 connect the vast city of Houston though high school experiences.
“The spirit of giving back has helped to make Bellaire what it is today and is something, unlike some of the fashion choices from those old yearbooks, that never goes out of style,” Coffey said.
To Coffey, the importance of old yearbooks and records at the ‘401 doesn’t exclusively reside in the artifacts themselves, but the people they are based on.
“I really wanted to make them as much a part of the space as possible and also be able to sort of tell the story of this incredible neighborhood,” Coffey said. “Whether people lived here in the ‘50s or are new to the neighborhood, there is such a sense of pride and sense of community in this city. It has changed a lot over time, but that strong community spirit is still there and [is] much of what makes it such an incredible place to live.”
2025 – 2026 Bellaire yearbooks are on sale now at https://tinyurl.com/52b8z5de.
