Architecture
Sessums & Virginia Cleveland House
Designed by the prominent architectural firm of Sanguinet & Staats and built by W. C. Fulsher in 1911, this was the home of civic and Episcopal Church leaders Alexander Sessums Cleveland, Vice President of the Courtlandt Improvement Association, and his wife Virginia. "Sess" Cleveland served as President of the Houston Public School Board and as a Trustee of the Rice Institute.
History
Sherman, Gen. Sidney, Home of
Site of the Home of General Sidney Sherman 1805-1873 Commander of the left wing of the Army at the Battle of San Jacinto - Member of the Texas Congress, 1842-1843 - Builder of the first Texas railroad - This house was burned in 1853 Erected by the State of Texas 1936
History
Site of Academy of the Incarnate Word
First permanent Catholic school in Houston. Established by Sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament, a religious order founded 1625 in Lyons, France. In 1852, at request of the first bishop of Texas, the Rt. Rev. John M. Odin, the order entered the United States to engage in religious education.
History
Site of Confederate Prison Compound
Before 1861, site of warehouse serving Buffalo Bayou shipping. At times during 1861-65, the building here housed prisoners of war. In Jan. 1863 it held 350 Federals captured by Houston-based Confederate army of Gen. John B. Magruder. The city also had two other compounds where prisoners of war were held.
History
Site of General Offices, Buffalo Bayou, Brazos & Colorado Railroad
Building of a railroad from here to the Brazos, to handle commerce of rich plantations, was attempted unsuccessfully in 1840-41 by early merchant Andrew Briscoe and the Harrises who founded Harrisburg. Their holdings, including Harrisburg townsite, were sold in 1847 to a group of bostonians and Texans-- headed by San Jacinto hero Gen.
History
Site of Lubbock Ranch
Texas statesman Francis Richard Lubbock (1815-1905) owned a 1300-acre ranch near this site. A native of South Carolina, Lubbock came to Houston in 1837. He soon opened a general store and was a business, political and civic leader. He served as clerk of the Republic of Texas House of Representatives in 1837 and as comptroller of public accounts from late 1837 to 1839.
History
Site of New Kentucky
Established before 1831. A thriving town until its trade was captured by the present city of Houston, established 30 miles away in 1836. Abandoned about 1840.
History
Site of Old Houston Academy
Founded 1856. Lost most of its male students to Confederate army in Civil War. In 1864-1865 building was used as an army hospital. Was site in 1867 for the lying-in-state of body of General Albert Sidney Johnston, who had lived near Houston. (A secretary of war, Republic of Texas; veteran of Black Hawk War, Texas Revolution, Mexican War; Gen. Johnston died in 1862 Civil War Battle of Shiloh.
History
Site of the First White House of the Republic of Texas
Here dwelt President Sam Houston from November, 1837 to December, 1838 and President Mirabeau B. Lamar, from December, 1838 to October, 1839. Erected by the State of Texas 1936.
History
Site of the Home in 1836 of Dr. George Moffit Patrick
Site of the home in 1836 of Dr. George Moffit Patrick, 1801-1889. Pioneer surveyor. Here the Texas army encamped after the Battle of San Jacinto and cabinet meetings were held. Erected by the State of Texas 1936
History
Site of the Organization of Lady Washington Chapter, NSDAR
The Lady Washington Chapter of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (NSDAR) was organized on November 14, 1899, when 10 of the original 17 organizing members met in the western parlor of the Capitol Hotel (later known as the Rice Hotel) that occupied this site 1882-1911. The chapter was named in honor of Martha Dandridge Custis Washington, wife of George Washington.
History
Sons of the Republic of Texas
On April 10, 1893, under the guidance of Francis Marion Otis Fenn, a local lodge was organized in Richmond for the benefit of male descendants of Texas Revolution veterans. The Richmond group traveled to Houston a few days later, and on April 20, 1893, a statewide organization called the Sons of the Republic of Texas was formed with 56 members. W. A. Craddock of Brenham served as first president.
History
Spring
Spring Initially a farming community supported by crops, including sugar cane and cotton, Spring was platted by the Houston & Great Northern Railroad in 1873. That same year, Callahan Pickette became the town's first postmaster. In its early years, Spring served as a commercial center for the surrounding area.
History
Spring Cemetery
After Spring's establishment on the International and Great Northern line in 1873, it became an important railroad center. The Sellers family, early area landowners, donated a portion of their property for a community church and cemetery. The oldest legible tombstone is that of a child, Franklin Leroy Lovins, who died in 1910. Military veterans, including George C.
History
Spring Creek County
In early Texas, most citizen interactions with government took place at the county seat, so smaller counties were more convenient for the residents. Prior to 1841, each county had at least one congressman, but since the Republic of Texas constitution limited Congress to 40 members, Spring Creek and 15 other new counties became "judicial" counties providing all court and government services.
History
St. John Lutheran Cemetery
St. John Lutheran Cemetery Settlers from Posen and Pomerania, Germany came to this area in 1848. They formed St. John Lutheran Church in 1853. A smallpox epidemic in 1873 claimed the lives of 11 members. They and other area victims were interred on the property of church member Henry Raatz. Most of these burials were unmarked, but one, Wilhelm F. Petrich's, is the earliest marked grave.
Architecture
St. John Lutheran Church
Lutheran settlers from Germany moved to this area in 1848. They met in family homes for worship and in 1853 constructed their first church building, which also served as a school. In the 1860s, following the Civil War, they constructed a second building for the church, which at the time was called "the Church in Cypress Settlement." The Rev.
History
St. John Missionary Baptist Church
ST. JOHN MISSIONARY BAPTIST CHURCH, ORGANIZED IN 1899 BY REVERENDS GILBERT GREEN AND HILLIARD R. JOHNSON, FIRST MET IN A SMALL BUILDING NEAR CALHOUN AVENUE AND LIVE OAK STREET. IN 1901, REV. JAMES B. BOULDIN PURCHASED PROPERTY, LATER CONVEYED TO CHURCH TRUSTEES, IN THE 2100 BLOCK OF BROADWAY (NOW BASTROP STREET).
History
St. Joseph Hospital
St. Joseph Hospital, Houston's first general hospital, opened in 1887 as St. Joseph's Infirmary. Six sisters from the congregation of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, who came to Houston from St. Mary's Infirmary in Galveston, established the facility.
History
St. Nicholas Catholic Church
Founded in 1887 as Houston's first Catholic church for blacks, St. Nicholas parish was located at the corner of Chenevert and Lamar streets. This building, designed by Leo Diehlmann, was completed in 1924. Prominent features include twin projecting towers-- one taller with an open belfry and one lower capped tower, corbelled brick detailing, and curvilinear parapets. St.
History
St. Thomas High School
Established 1900 as St. Thomas College, and housed that year in a former Franciscan monastery built in 1861 at Franklin Avenue and Caroline Street. The founders were the Rev. Nicholas Roche, C. S. B., and two other Basilian fathers. (Their order originated in France in 1822 and expanded into Canada in 1850; the Basilians in Houston were the first in Texas.
History
Strack Cemetery
Brothers Herman and Heinrich Strack came to Texas from Feudingen, Germany in 1848 with their families. By the mid-1850s they were joined by their other brothers Johann Jost, Friedrich and Jakob, and their respective families. In 1863, Herman bought land at this site that included a pre-existing burial ground; Friedrich and Jakob later became owners of the cemetery property.
Architecture
Sweeney, Coombs & Fredericks Building
This late-Victorian commercial building with a 3-story corner turret and Eastlake decorative elements was designed by George E. Dickey in 1889. Evidence indicates that the 1889 construction may have been a renovation of an 1861 structure built by William A. Van Alstyne and purchased in 1882 by John Jasper Sweeney and Edward L. Coombs.
Industry & Science
Teas Nursery Company
Teas Nursery Company traces its history to 1843, when John C. Teas (1827-1907) began selling apples out of his back yard in Indiana. After moving the business to Missouri in 1868, Teas became a nationally prominent horticulturist. In 1908 his son, horticulturist Edward Teas, Sr. (1870-1951), met developer W. W.
History
Temple Beth Israel
Congregation Beth Israel is the oldest Jewish congregation in Texas. Early Jewish families that settled in the area formed the Hebrew Benevolent Society in 1844, under the leadership of Lewis Levy. By 1854, seventeen adults organized themselves into the Hebrew Congregation Beth Israel, and the congregation received a state charter in 1859.
Elsewhere in Texas
Hear it from the road
Whistlestop tells you this story automatically when you drive past. No searching, no tapping, nothing to ask.
