The Houston Club
Houston, Harris County, Texas
Marker Inscription
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. Anderson, Hugh Roy Cullen, Tobias Sakowitz and Ben Taub, among many others. The club expanded its member base with the first African American member joining in 1981 and the first woman in 1982. The club, which moved to this site in 1955, remains a significant center of business, social, cultural and philanthropic influence within the city. (2006)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Chartered in 1894 as a gentlemen-only society for literary conversation, the Houston Club reinvented itself in the 1920s as a business institution tied to the city's Chamber of Commerce. Its rolls read like a directory of Houston's builders—William Marsh Rice, Jesse H. Jones, M.D. Anderson, Ben Taub—and it moved to this site in 1955. The club admitted its first African American member in 1981 and its first woman in 1982.
Why it matters
Private clubs like this one were where much of a growing American city's business, philanthropy, and civic power was quietly brokered, and its late integration mirrors the slow opening of such institutions nationwide.
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Related people
- · William Marsh Rice
- · Jesse H. Jones
- · M.D. Anderson
- · Ben Taub
Themes & tags
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