History
Temple Lodge No. 4, A. F. & A. M.
This Masonic Lodge traces its history to the early days of the Republic of Texas, when the seat of government was located in the newly founded city of Houston. Formally chartered on May 10, 1838, Temple Lodge was the fourth Masonic organization established in Texas, and the first to be established in the new Republic.
History
Texan Capture of Mexican Dispatches (San Jacinto)
The San Jacinto campaign in southwest Harris County. After the fall of the Alamo on March 6, 1836, Gen. Sam Houston led the Texan army in retreat from Gonzales. The Mexican army under Gen. Santa Anna followed eastward from San Antonio. On April 14, while Houston's army was north of him, Santa Anna led a division of his army from the Brazos River near present Richmond to Harrisburg.
History
Texas Army Attacked in Four Divisions
- The Cavalry on the right, commanded by Mirabeau B. Lamar; next, the Infantry under Lieutenant Colonel Henry Millard and the "Twin Sisters" cannon under Colonel George W. Hockley; the 1st Regiment in the center under Colonel Edward Burleson; the 2nd Regiment, the left wing, under Colonel Sidney Sherman.
History
Texas Railroads, C.S.A.
Harris County was 1861 center for 492 miles of state railroads, with Texas & New Orleans going from here to Orange; Houston & Texas Central to Millican; Houston Tap & Brazoria to Columbia; Buffalo Bayou, Brazos & Colorado to Alleyton; and Galveston, Houston & Henderson to Galveston. At Hempstead on the H.&T.C., passengers took the Washington County R.R.
History
The Frenchtown Community
A distinct ethnic cultural group, "Creoles of Color," developed in Louisiana in the 18th and 19th centuries. With roots in French, Spanish, African and Native American cultures, they spoke standard or Creole French and practiced Catholicism.
Architecture
The Governor Ross Sterling Mansion
Architect Alfred C. Finn of Houston drew the plans for this scaled-down replica of the American White House for oil executive Ross S. Sterling (1875-1949). Completed in 1927 on the residential "Gold Coast" stretching from La Porte to Morgan's Point, it stood as a landmark on the Houston Ship Channel. By night its roof deck commanded a view of the lighted industrial plants in this region.
History
The Houston Club
Chartered in 1894, the Houston Club began as a gentlemen-only club for literary discourse. In the 1920s, it became more business oriented through association with the Houston Chamber of Commerce. Its membership has included such notable civic and professional leaders as William Marsh Rice, John Henry Kirby, Jesse H. Jones, M.D.
Military
The Houston Light Guard
Organized as a Texas militia unit on April 21, 1873, the Houston Light Guard originally participated in parades, ceremonies, and competitive drills, and served as guard of honor for visiting dignitaries. The first commander was Capt. Edwin Fairfax Gray (1829-1884), then the city engineer of Houston.
Architecture
The Kennedy Bakery
Irish native John Kennedy (1819-78) came to Houston in 1842. A baker, he operated a store at other locations in the city before commissioning the construction of this building about 1860 for a steam bakery. Kennedy later established other operations and became a leading businessman of Houston.
Civic & Local
The Kinkaid School
The oldest private non-parochial school in Houston, the Kinkaid School was started in 1906 by Margaret Hunter Kinkaid. Unable to teach in the public schools because of a regulation prohibiting married women instructors, Mrs. Kinkaid began teaching students in her home at the corner of San Jacinto and Elgin streets. The first pupils were seven kindergarten students who met in her dining room.
History
The Klein Community
A farming community developed in this area after a group of German immigrants settled on the banks of Cypress Creek in 1845. The settlement was later named for Adam Klein, who left Germany in 1849 and joined the California gold rush before moving here with his wife Friederika (Klenk) in 1854.
Museums & Art
The Murals of Hannah Hall
The student murals of Hannah Hall, located on the campus of Texas Southern University, embody the culminating experiences of a people as seen through the eyes of student artists. Almost from the beginning of the Art Department in 1950, it became a ritual for art students to paint murals on the walls of their temporary building.
Entertainment
The Playhouse Theatre
The Playhouse Theatre, built in 1950 at 4816 Main Street, was the brainchild of stage manager Joanna Albus and attorney William Rozan. It was one of the first theatres in the country specifically constructed for 'theatre in the round,' a concept that enables the audience to surround the players, who perform on a central stage.
Architecture
The Sheridan Apartments
This three-story apartment building was constructed in 1922 to help ease a housing shortage in Houston. It was built and owned by Robert C. Duff, a prominent Texas railroad man and banker before the Great Depression. The building features bracketed eaves and a tile roof and exhibits influences of the arts and crafts and prairie school periods in architectural styling.
History
The Waldo Mansion
A Confederate veteran, J. P. Waldo (1839-1896) settled in Houston after the Civil War. He married Mary Virginia Gentry (1849-1922), daughter of railroad promoter Abram Gentry. Waldo soon became a prosperous railroad executive. In 1885 he built this house at the corner of Rusk and Caroline (2 mi. N). A Mansard roof and tower originally topped the mansion. Elegant millwork adorns the interior.
History
Theis (Theiss) Family
Among the first German settlers in northwest Harris County was Johann Heinrich Theis (b. 1800), who arrived in 1846 with his wife Katherina (Benner) (b. 1804) and their four children. The following year, Johann acquired 200 acres of land in the Rosehill community, where the Theis family joined other German settlers in organizing the Salem Lutheran Church.
Architecture
Third Church of Christ, Scientist
Intended to serve the congregation that had been organized as an offshoot of the growing First Church of Christ, Scientist, in 1922, this structure was designed by J. Rodney Tabor of the Jonas and Tabor architectural firm.
History
Thomas H. Ball, Jr.
Son of the Rev. and Mrs. Thomas H. Ball, was born in Huntsville, Texas, on January 14, 1859. He graduated from Austin College in Huntsville in 1877. He married Minnie F. Thomason in 1882, and they became the parents of four children. Ball studied law in a Huntsville law office and in 1887, one year prior to his admittance to the Texas Bar, he was elected mayor of Huntsville. He served three terms.
History
Thomas J. and Mary Donoghue House
Thomas J. Donoghue, a Texas company (Texaco) founder and executive, and his wife, Mary, built this house in 1915-16. Designed by noted New York architect Whitney Warren of the firm of Warren and Wetmore, it is an excellent example of Georgian revival architecture with wood and stone carvings by master artisan Peter Mansbendel.
History
Thomas William House
(March 4, 1814 - January 17, 1880) A native of Stoke St. Gregory in Somersetshire, England, T. W. House emigrated to the United States in May 1835. A baker by trade, he soon was employed by the St. Charles Hotel in New Orleans. By 1838 he had moved to Houston and established the company of House and Loveridge, Bakers and Confectioners.
History
Tod-Milby Home Site
John Grant Tod (1808-1877), a Kentuckian, left home at 17 to go to sea. Served in Mexican, U.S. navies. Came to Texas, 1837; served in Republic Navy, 1837-1845, as naval agent, supervising purchase and equipment of vessels of second Texas Navy; commander, naval yard at Galveston; acting secretary of Navy; commodore.
Architecture
Trinity Episcopal Church
Established in 1893, Trinity Episcopal Church acquired this site in 1910. Construction of the sanctuary, designed by architect Ralph Adams Cram, began in 1917 and was completed in 1919. Features of the Gothic Revival structure include a basilica plan with an offset buttressed and pinnacled tower, and art glass windows. Five rectors of the parish became bishops in the Episcopal church.
History
Trinity Lutheran Church Cemetery
A number of German immigrants settled in this area in the 1840s. The community first called Big Cypress was later renamed in honor of pioneer settler Adam Klein. Trinity Lutheran Cemetery serves as a reflection of the German heritage of this part of Harris County. A diphtheria epidemic in 1872 took the lives of three children of the Klein community. Mr. and Mrs.
History
Twentieth-Century Development of Freedman's Town
Founded on the south banks of Buffalo Bayou soon after the June 19, 1865 emancipation of enslaved blacks, Freedman's Town became the center of Houston's African American community. It originally stretched from Buffalo Bayou south to Sutton Street, and west from Milam and Travis streets to Taft Street.
Architecture
W. L. Foley Building
John Kennedy (d. 1878), who had a trading post for frontiersmen and Indians in Houston as early as 1841, built the oldest part of this structure as investment property in 1860. After half of the building burned, his son-in-law, W. L. Foley (d. 1925), rebuilt the lost portion in 1889, giving old and new parts a Romanesque revival design. His architect was Eugene T. Heiner.
Elsewhere in Texas
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