Gov. John B. Connally, Jr. Home
Houston, Harris County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Houston architect Ernest L. Shult designed this mid-century modern house for his own residence in 1959. The home, sited on a triangular lot in the River Oaks neighborhood, is representative of the contemporary style popular in the post-war years. The house has had alterations over the years including a two-story addition on the north side. Prominent features of the house include its asymmetrical façade, white stucco and unornamented exterior wall, multiple roof sections, portions of the front façade extending forward and varying in height, and a large expanse of windowless walls. John Connally, Jr. (1917-1993) and his wife, Idanell “Nellie” Connally (1919-2006), moved here in January 1969 after he served three terms as Governor of Texas. During his residence at this location, Connally was U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and campaigned for the U.S. presidency in 1980. The couple sold the house in 1984. John Connally, Jr. Is known for his extensive career in politics. He was secretary to congressman Lyndon B. Johnson in 1939, served for several years as Johnson’s aide, was Secretary of the Navy under President John F. Kennedy in 1961, and was elected Governor of Gexas in 1962. When President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas on November 22, 1963, Connally, a passenger in the car, was shot and seriously wounded. Among his accomplishments as governor were improvements in the areas of education, government reform, historic preservation and the state’s tourism industry. He joined Houston law firm Vinson, Elkins, Searls and Connally in February 1969 and became President Richard Nixon’s Secretary of the Treasury in 1971. Governor and Mrs. Connally are buried at the Texas State Cemetery in Austin.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Houston architect Ernest L. Shult built this white-stucco, mid-century modern house on a triangular River Oaks lot in 1959, its asymmetrical façade and windowless walls typical of the confident postwar style. A decade later it became home to John B. Connally, Jr.—Texas governor, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, and the man wounded beside President Kennedy in the Dallas motorcade of November 1963. Connally and his wife Nellie lived here from 1969 until 1984, during his years at a Houston law firm, in Nixon's cabinet, and through his 1980 presidential run.
Why it matters
The home ties one address to a turning point in American memory, linking postwar Texas political power to the Kennedy assassination that reshaped the nation.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · John B. Connally, Jr.
- · Idanell "Nellie" Connally
- · Ernest L. Shult
- · Lyndon B. Johnson
- · John F. Kennedy
- · Richard Nixon
Related events
- · Assassination of President Kennedy
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Rice University
Houston, TX
The oil-and-real-estate fortune of William Marsh Rice endowed a university he insisted open only after his death, a wish tangled by his mysterious 1900 murder and the legal battles that followed. When the Rice Institute finally opened in Houston in 1912 under president Edgar Odell Lovett, it united teaching and research on a Mediterranean-inspired campus and quickly earned distinction. In 1962 its stadium hosted John F. Kennedy's call for the nation to reach the moon "in this decade."
Louis Wiltz Kemp
Houston, TX
Louis Wiltz Kemp sold asphalt for Texaco, but his real calling was rescuing Texas history from oblivion. Traveling the state for work after 1920, he documented the neglected graves of more than a hundred Texas heroes and arranged their reinterment in the State Cemetery. As chair of the historians' board for the 1936 Centennial he directed the placement of over 1,100 markers and helped create the San Jacinto Monument, where his own words are carved.
St. Paul's United Methodist Church
Houston, TX
Organized on January 14, 1906 with 153 charter members, St. Paul's took its name at the suggestion of Bishop Joseph Key, who preached the first sermon. Its 1909 sanctuary blended Grecian form with a Byzantine dome, but as Houston boomed the congregation raised funds—$150,000 each from magnates Jesse H. Jones, Walter Fondren, and J.M. West, Sr.—for a grand Neo-Gothic church designed by noted architect Alfred C. Finn. The new building rose in limestone on a steel frame, carrying stained glass and bells from the original church.
Sessums & Virginia Cleveland House
Houston, TX
Built in 1911 by a prominent architectural firm, this Courtlandt Place house was home to civic and Episcopal Church leader Alexander Sessums Cleveland and his wife Virginia. "Sess" Cleveland led the Houston public school board and served as a trustee of the new Rice Institute, helping shape the city's schools in a formative era. The eclectic house blended Classical, Italianate, and Prairie styles and stayed in the family for six decades.