Double Bayou Dance Hall
Double Bayou, Chambers County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Nestled in the thick woods and low-lying marshlands of east Texas lies the predominantly African American community of Double Bayou, named after twin waterways in the area. The community was originally settled by rancher John Jackson around 1847. Later, a local general store became the center of the community. Sugar cane, cotton and oil attracted farmers and workers to the commercial link to Galveston. After a hard day’s work, these workers, African American and Anglo, flocked to the little one-room dance hall which became known as Double Bayou Dance Hall. In the late 1920s and early 1930s during Juneteenth, many celebrants would travel from Galveston to Double Bayou. At its inception, the dance hall was little more than cedar logs laid out as a dance floor. In 1941, a storm destroyed the structure. Using the original materials, the dance hall was rebuilt after World War II not far down the road from the original location by Manuel Rivers, Jr. (1907-1983). Despite its meager appearance, the music that poured through the windows and doors filled the woods with the rich sound of Texas Blues. One resident of Double Bayou, Floyd “Pete” Mayes (1938-2008), grew up around the old dance hall and premiered in 1954 with his band, the Texas Houserockers. Over the next several decades, many blues legends performed at Double Bayou Dance Hall as it was a popular destination along the Chitlin’ Circuit, a group of nightclubs safe for African Americans to perform. Despite cultural and economic differences, once people entered Double Bayou Dance Hall, they shared their love of music and love of Texas Blues.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In the piney woods and marshes of the African American community of Double Bayou, a humble one-room dance hall grew from cedar logs laid as a dance floor into a legendary home of Texas Blues. Rebuilt with its original materials after a 1941 storm, it drew crowds who came for Juneteenth and stayed for the music, becoming a stop on the Chitlin' Circuit—the network of venues where Black performers could play safely under segregation. Homegrown talent like Floyd "Pete" Mayes and his Texas Houserockers carried its sound into the decades that followed.
Why it matters
The hall preserves the story of the Chitlin' Circuit and the roots of Texas Blues, a distinctly American music forged by African American communities during the era of Jim Crow.
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Related people
- · Manuel Rivers, Jr.
- · Floyd "Pete" Mayes
- · John Jackson
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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Founded in 1869 by former slaves in the rural Double Bayou community, St. Paul United Methodist Church grew from land donated by charter member Martha Godfrey, a woman born into slavery in Tennessee around 1812 and brought to Texas as a child. For decades the building did double duty as the Double Bayou Community School, and its muffled toner bell tolled at funerals in the adjoining cemetery Godfrey also helped establish. One of the oldest churches in Chambers County, it remains a focal point that still reflects the ideals of the Freedmen who founded it.
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