Birthplace of Margo Jones
Livingston, Polk County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(1911-1955) World-famed genius of drama. Won Broadway acclaim directing "The Glass Menagerie." Led move to decentralize American theatre. Established, in Dallas, theatre-in-the-round (first professional, resident, repertory theatre of its kind) and wrote book on its technique. Premiered 58 new plays. Discovered Tennessee Williams, William Inge and others. A dedicated "artistic humanist," she provided channels through which the spiritual qualities of creative people could be communicated. (1967)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Livingston was the birthplace of Margo Jones (1911–1955), a visionary who reshaped American theater. After winning acclaim directing the Broadway premiere of "The Glass Menagerie," she founded in Dallas the nation's first professional resident theater-in-the-round and championed regional theater beyond New York. She premiered dozens of new plays and helped launch the careers of Tennessee Williams and William Inge.
Why it matters
Jones pioneered the decentralized regional-theater movement that still defines how live drama reaches American audiences outside Broadway.
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Related people
- · Margo Jones
- · Tennessee Williams
- · William Inge
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
The Livingston Telephone Company
Livingston, TX
Organized on August 3, 1903, the Livingston Telephone Company became Polk County's oldest public utility, a locally owned exchange running a 24-hour switchboard above a downtown building. It began with just 40 hand-cranked telephones, growing to 124 by the time creosoted poles went up in 1909. In 1959 the exchange finally converted to fully automatic dialing.
Margaret V. "Margo" Jones
Livingston, TX
Livingston native Margo Jones became one of the most influential figures in mid-twentieth-century American theatre, championing nonprofit regional theatre and the theatre-in-the-round staging she pioneered in Dallas. She guided the careers of Tennessee Williams and William Inge, directing Broadway productions including The Glass Menagerie and Inherit the Wind, and organized the Houston Community Players. Named one of the nation's outstanding little-theater directors, she died in Dallas in 1955, but her model of resident professional theatre endures.
Forest Hill Cemetery
Livingston, TX
By 1905 Livingston's old city cemetery was full, so residents formed the Forest Hill Cemetery Association in 1906 and bought a hilltop south of downtown, where Arthur B. Garner became the first burial that November. Women organized the Ladies Cemetery Association in 1908 to beautify the grounds, and in the 1930s Marion Tew's stewardship even prompted the paving of Washington Avenue — Livingston's first paved street. Its stones mark thirty Confederate and one Union soldier alongside circus figures and acclaimed theatre director Margaret 'Margo' Jones.
J. M. Hansbro's Law Office
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Built in 1870, this modest structure became a survivor of San Jacinto County's history: it was the first building moved to the relocated town of Coldspring after fire destroyed the courthouse in 1915. For years it housed the county abstract company, and it holds the distinction of being where the county's first telephone was installed.