The story focuses on express questions: What happened?Why did this happen?, leaving aside a more attractive cultural question: where did it happen?
Architecture plays an important role in history, with memorable occasions taking place in modest structures or grandiose places that offer a backdrop for others slowly expanding. Here’s a look at 10 architectural sites in Houston and the role they’ve played in local black history and culture. .
When Moody Nolan architects designed the new Texas University Library Learning Center, they created a stately home for the campus and its third-term neighbors. a column of light that can be seen from afar at night.
The Texas University Library Learning Center, designed by architects Moody Nolan to be a beacon for the traditionally black university and its community.
The northwest view from the Texas Southern University Library and Learning Center encompasses downtown Houston. The traditionally African-American university has several buildings of architectural significance, in addition to this one, through the largest black-owned architecture firm in the country.
Texas South University’s Thurgood Marshall School of Law was designed by architect John S. Chase, the first licensed African-American architect in Texas. negro graduated from his school of architecture.
Architect Wardell Ross of Moody Nolan’s Houston described the new library and learning center as a beacon for his campus and community. Not only is it a construction meant to accommodate everyone, but its 5-story atrium has a soft sky on top, so it can emit a stream of soft light at night.
The Martin Luther King Jr. School of Communications at Texas Southern University designed by architect John S. Chase.
The University of Texas South Texas Library Learning Center was designed by architects from Moody Nolan, the nation’s largest black-owned architecture company.
Moody Nolan is the largest black-owned architecture firm in the United States and has worked on nearly 60 buildings in more than 30 traditionally black schools and universities. check-out.
A to the TSU campus, a school officially organized in 1947, provides the opportunity to see more than this new construction that opened in 2021. Experience the good looks of Thurgood Marshall Law School and Martin Luther King Jr. School of Communications. , constructions designed by the past John S. Chase, the state’s first licensed black architect.
If you have time, look for artwork through artist John Biggers: “Web of Life” at the University Museum (Fairchild Building, first floor); “Family Unit” at the Sterling Student Life Center; and “NUBIA” in the Jesse Jones commercial building.
Perhaps no building in Houston tells the story of african american strength and survival like the Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, a humble stone design with Gothic features that stands proudly in 500 Clay, surrounded by modern glass and metal skyscrapers.
When the Civil War ended and the slaves learned of their freedom, they formed Antioch Baptist in 1866, meeting for the first time under an arbor on the shores of Buffalo Bayou and, despite everything, in the church they built in 1875, with the Rev. Jack Yates as their first full-time pastor.
The Missionary Baptist Church of Antioch was held in 1866 in Houston on Wednesday, June 9, 2021. Jack Yates once served as pastor of the church, which was Houston’s first African-American Baptist congregation.
It is the first black Baptist church in town and the oldest original black church design still stands.
Those who attend on Sunday mornings still sit on the church’s original wooden pews, considering the struggles of those who preceded them more than a century earlier.
We want to encourage verbal exchange and highlight the intersection of race, identity, and culture in one of America’s most diverse cities. Subscribe to the HouWeAre newsletter here.
While Antioch Baptist is the oldest church in the city, Trinity United Methodist Church is the oldest black church, formed in 1848 through slaves who followed the Methodist faith.
The church has been on Live Oak and Holman streets in Third Ward since 1951 and is known for its striking stained glass windows through artist Jean Lacy, depicting biblical stories from creation to crucifixion and depicting those ancient figures as other people of color.
Other panels chronicle more recent struggles, from slavery to the civil rights movement, and depict figures such as Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, and Martin Luther King Jr.
The exterior of Trinity United Methodist Church in The Third Ward is shown Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2022, in Houston.
The exterior of Trinity United Methodist Church in The Third Ward is shown Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2022, in Houston.
Trinity United Methodist Church Photo taken February 8, 1992 HOUCHRON CAPTION (01/31/1999): Trinity United Methodist Church, the oldest African-American church in Houston, is on the list of traditionally black sites in the state.
The 1917 Trinity United Methodist Church 24th Infantry memorial stained glass window in the third quarter is shown Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2022, in Houston.
The stained glass window, with black characters from the Bible and black history, of Trinity United Methodist Church at The Third Ward is shown Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2022, in Houston. From left to right: the window of the churches of the early Trinity, the stained glass window of the quilt of the ancestors, the commemorative stained glass window of the 24th Infantry of 1917 and the stained glass window of civil rights.
The black Methodist window stained glass window of Trinity United Methodist Church in The Third Quarter is photographed Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2022, in Houston.
The stained glass window of the first Triniy of Trinity United Methodist Church in The Third Quarter is photographed Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2022, in Houston.
In 1872, the Rev. Jack Yates, the Rev. Elias Dibble, Richard Allen, and Richard Brock raised $800 to acquire 10 acres to create Emancipation Park in Freedmen’s Town, where former slaves were building a network southwest of downtown.
The park, designed as a place where black Houstonians can celebrate June 16, has experienced its ups and downs over the decades. Lately it is booming, with almost $34 million in innovations in 2017, its official version as a cultural district designated by the state. , and the final touch of 4 ambitious mosaic monuments through artist Reginald Adams to honor its 4 founders.
At the time of segregation, Emancipation Park was the only park black Houstonians could visit. It is now a place that all Houstonians visit with pride.
A decorated application box at Emancipation Park, Tuesday, June 8, 2021, in Third Ward, Houston. After Houston Community College participated in the 149th birthday party on June 19 in favor of the Emancipation Park Conservancy (EPC).
Blue Triangle Multi-Cultural Association, Inc. , won a 2020 Good Brick Award from Preservation Houston for the recovery of John Biggers’ mural The Contribution of Negro Woman to American Life and Education (1953) at the Blue Triangle Community Center in Third Ward.
An organization of historic buildings just outside the downtown Heritage Society in Sam Houston Park, whether it’s the home of Reverend Jack Yates and a former fourth-quarter cottage.
The Heritage Society moved the space built in 1870 through Jack Yates, a former slave turned Baptist minister and black leader, to the park in 1996. Through it, they tell the story of Yates and their efforts to lead the newly formed black community. After emancipation. He and his wife Harriet raised their 11 children in this space, the first two-story space in the African-American community, with Tuscan columns and porches above and on the floor.
The other structure, a 19th-century cottage, originally located on Robin Street in Houston’s fourth quarter and moved to Sam Houston Park in 2002. Its first citizens were German immigrants until it became a rental house for several tenants over the decades.
Think of the DeLuxe Theater as a success for the Fifth Ward Community Redevelopment Corporation, an organization that is revitalizing its community with one task at a time. In 2015, the construction on Avenue de Lyon celebrated its opening, providing a new venue for classes, art exhibitions and performances.
The Fourth Ward Cottage at heritage society.
11/02/2003 — A portrait of Jack Yates hangs inside the space open Tuesday at Yates House in Sam Houston Park. the first elected pastor. FOR SUNDAY’S STORY. Photo via Steve Ueckert/Chronicle
Jack Yates’ house at Heritage Society.
The building opened in 1941 as a movie theater, but closed in 1969. It is now an ancient monument that is part of a thriving cultural and artistic district. The next time the theater presents an engaging show, use it as an excuse to see a beautiful construction. that much to their neighbors.
If you yourself in what remains of the village of the loose in the fourth room, look at the brick streets and appreciate that they were built by the hand of men and women who had spent their entire lives in slavery and began their return as loose people. .
After emancipation, many former slaves migrated to larger cities like Houston, in search of opportunities. Freedmen’s Town evolved around Antioch Missionary Baptist Church and other churches, and was a thriving, albeit segregated, network for decades. In 1930, one-third of Houston’s 36,000 black citizens lived in this neighborhood.
Progress, a new town hall, the Gulf Freeway and other projects, consumed parts of this neighborhood, which became a National Historic Landmark in 1985. Houston Freedmen’s Town Conservancy and Rutherford BH Yates Museum paint on the recovery of the remaining original homes.
Harrison Guy, director of arts and culture for the Fifth Ward Community Redevelopment Corporation, stops under the canopy adorned with photographs of activists and artists in lenses through artist David Graeve as he navigates the “Art for the People” exhibition, which celebrates the 50th anniversary of “The De Luxe Show,” which was the first racially incorporated art exhibition in U. S. history. in 1971. The exhibition is a retrospective look at the original exhibition through photographs from the Menil Collection at the Deluxe Theatre at 3303 Lyons Avenue, on Tuesday, September 9. 21, 2021. , in Houston.
The DeLuxe Theatre renovated in 2014 at Fifth Ward on Wednesday, October 24, 2018 in Houston.
The former Deluxe Theater at Fifth Ward was deserted and condemned on Friday, October 28, 2011 in Houston. The city is partnering with TSU and the Fifth Ward Redevelopment Authority to renovate the abandoned building to feature a performing arts theater, study rooms and casual businesses. development. (Andrew Richardson/Houston Chronicle)
Project Row Houses is an exclusive effort that connects cultural and ancient preservation with the arts and community revitalization. Instead of invasive gentrification, it preserves the legacy of the original community, from Bastrop Streets to Live Oak Streets and from Elgin Streets to Holman Streets.
An organization of African-American artists, led by Rick Lowe, tested an organization of deserted shotgun houses in Holman and Live Oak and saw potential.
For years, they have been replacement agents in bases, urban spaces, also known as shotgun spaces, as workplaces. Shotgun spaces originated in West Africa and slaves brought taste with them. After emancipation, they have become one of the most popular spaces. tastes for newly liberated people.
Homes in the 1500 block of Andrews Street in Freedmen’s Town, Wednesday, December 14, 2016 in Houston. The City Council is set to vote Wednesday on designating a number of Houston Housing Authority rental homes in Freedmen’s Town as landmarks. (Karen Warren/Houston Chronicle)
Homes in the 1500 block of Andrews Street in Freedmen’s Town, Wednesday, December 14, 2016 in Houston. The City Council is set to vote Wednesday on designating a number of Houston Housing Authority rental homes in Freedmen’s Town as landmarks. (Karen Warren/Houston Chronicle)
The Yates Museum increases budget to save historic works like J. Vance Lewis, Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2020, in Freedmen’s Town.
A map of the original design of Freedmen’s Town in Houston’s Fourth District on Tuesday, April 27, 2021. The City of Houston will designate the domain as a heritage district.
The next time art houses hold an exhibition, visit them. Enjoy the art and all the effort it took to create this experience.
John S. Chase overcame many things to be the state’s first licensed black architect. When he graduated from the University of Texas in 1952, he started his own business, building a space for his own circle of relatives to show how his modernist taste translated into residential. projects
The Riverside Terrace space was built in 1953 as a one-story space and then a momentary lot with more bedrooms and bathrooms was added. It was sold to a new owner last year after Chase’s wife, Drucie, died in early 2021. Chase passed away in 2012.
At its peak, the mythical space for its parties, fundraisers and meetings that attracted Hollywood celebrities, political figures and others.
Project Row Houses on Holman Street, Tuesday, September 22, 2009, in Houston. The hybrid social art gallery has a new executive director, Linda Shearer. Project Row Houses targets Third Ward, one of the poorest neighborhoods in downtown Houston. (Karen Warren / Chronicle)
Houston Community Fridges will open a location Saturday at Project Row Houses, 2517 Holman, Wednesday, July 28, 2021 in Houston. It will serve as a net area with art, literature and a net fridge.
In an effort led through the Fifth Ward Redevelopment Company, the Art Moderne building that once housed St. John’s Hospital. Elizabeth and, later, other health care efforts, are becoming much-needed mixed-use housing at 4514 Lyon.
The hospital was designed by architects Wyatt C. Hedrick, Claude H. Lindsley and Thomas E. Lightfoot Jr. , and was built segregated to improve access to physical care for black Houstonians.
The front of the three-story main building, which has the character of a state and national historic monument, has a grand staircase leading to the main lobby and an exterior of polished limestone, limestone, and curved walls of glass blocks on each side of the door.
It is comforting to see the building, an architectural gem, stored through the network itself at a time when buildings are being demolished in the call of progress.
diane. cowen@chron. com
A photo of the interior of the space by African-American architect John S. Chase designed for his own family.
The Houston home of modernist architect John S. Chase, the first qualified African-American architect in Texas.
07/02/1992 – Houston architect John S. Chase designed part of the campus buildings at Texas Southern University.
Photograph of the façade of St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Fifth Ward on Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2022, in Houston.
St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Houston, 4500 Lyons Avenue, is expected to be operational until the end of April 1947.
Hooves and shovels await an innovative rite at the old St. John’s Hospital. Elizabeth in the 5th Ward, which will be moving to mixed-income housing, on Friday, September 24, 2021 in Houston. The assignment caused some controversy among the neighbors. , some of whom denounced it as gentrification.
Photograph of the façade of St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Fifth Ward on Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2022, in Houston.