By Anna Mayzenberg Meyerland grew rapidly from its beginnings in 1955. Homes, such as this one on Valkeith Drive (1960), frequently sold before construction was completed. Photo courtesy of the Houston Metropolitan Research Center, Houston Public Library. In the mid-1950s, the 1,200-acre Meyerland subdivision promised to be a new suburban haven for middle- and upper-class […]
Archive | Religion
Table of Contents, 18.1, Resilient Houston: Documenting Hurricane Harvey
Download the full pdf here18.1 Letter from the Editor, Debbie Z. Harwell 2Before the Storm: Forecasting Hurricane HarveyBy Samantha de Leon5Stories from the Watersheds: How Harvey Impacted Houston’s NeighborhoodsBy Nadia Abouzir8Looking Back: First Responders Reflect on Hurricane HarveyBy Graciela Cortez11Disaster and Dedication: The Story of Meyerland’s Jewish CommunityBy Anna Mayzenberg15Connecting Through Chaos: How Social Media Platforms Helped Save LivesBy Syed […]
Gravestones Tell Stories: San Isidro Cemetery
By Marie-Theresa Hernandez Photo by Myra de la Garza, Tree as Protector Long before Sugar Land was an affluent suburb of Houston, it was known as the home of Imperial Sugar. The company produced and imported sugar cane and processed it in a red brick, six-story building that still stands alongside U.S. Highway 90. Imperial Sugar initially […]
Reverend James Novarro and La Marcha
Baptist minister James L. Novarro and fellow activists left Houston in the sweltering Texas heat in July of 1966, traveling several hours to Rio Grande City in Starr County, where they marched in soldarity with local farmworkers seeking a fair wage. These laborers galvanized national attention when they organized a strike followed by a march, […]
The Growth of the Latter-day Saints Church in Houston and Katy, Texas
By James Thornock The story of the church of Latter-day Saints in Texas began with the founders of the religion as well as the state of Texas. Just before his death in 1844, church organizer Joseph Smith sent a representative to Sam Houston to negotiate for a tract of land where the Latter-day Saints could […]
Summer Sampler Table of Contents 13.3
Download the full pdf. Vol. 13, No. (Summer 2016) Letter from the Editor by retiring Editor-in-Chief Joseph A. Pratt 2 Carolyn Farb: Fundraiser Extraordinaire A Conversation with Carolyn Farb and Bob Boudreaux 10 Los La Rottas de Houston: A Colombian Family’s Immigration Story By Alex La Rotta 15 Binding People Together in The Church of Jesus Christ […]
WIMS Opening Dialogues across Race, Region & Religion
On March 7, 2016, the Welcome Wilson Houston History Collaborative and Center for Public Hisotry hosted it’s second Historically Speaking panel, “Wednesdays in Mississippi: Opening Dialogues across Race, Region, and Religion Then and Now” to discuss how the 1964 project was used at the time to combat racism and how similar methods re currently being […]
An American Chinese in Houston
E. K. T. Chen spent half his life a Texan and died a patriot in Washington, DC, on October 16, 1957, while preventing Chinese internment during the Korean War. This is the story of the extraordinary things accomplished by this ordinary son of Chinese immigrants that benefited all Americans, and my efforts to continue his […]
Vietnamese and Chinese American Cultures
By Jessica Chew For many Vietnamese during the Vietnam War, an international refuge meant hope for survival. Other Asian ethnicities, including the Chinese, looked to the United States with optimism for a better future. Several Vietnamese and Chinese immigrants found their new home in Houston, raising first-generation, American-born children while trying to preserve a piece of their old society. Vietnam War refugees faced […]
The Pinoys of Bayou City
The history of Filipinos in the southern United States stretches back to the mid-eighteenth century, when burgeoning trade routes between the two lands encouraged small numbers of Filipino migrants to settle in some of their first enclaves in the Americas.