DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Back in 1928, Houston pulled off something this city had no business pulling off — and it did it in sixty-four days. That's the number you need to hold onto.
Sixty-four days. Because that's how long it took to build the Sam Houston Hall right here on this very site — a twenty-thousand-seat convention hall, raised from nothing at a cost of two hundred thousand dollars, all thanks to the hustle of one Houston businessman named Jesse H. Jones.
Jones is the reason the Democratic National Committee chose Houston as the site of the 1928 Democratic National Convention in the first place. Not New York. Not Chicago.
Houston, Texas. And they had to build the room to hold it. Sixty-four days.
Now that's a Texas-sized deadline. The convention ran from June 26 to June 29, and right away you could tell this wasn't going to be a quiet, polite gathering. One senator — and I wish I had his name for you, but the marker doesn't give it — remarked that the 1928 delegates constituted the most disorderly orderly crowd he had ever seen.
Disorderly orderly. Think about that phrase for a second. That senator earned his keep just coinin' that one.
The big fights on the floor centered on two things: the enforcement of prohibition and the plight of America's farmers. Neither one of those arguments had an easy answer, and the delegates made sure everybody knew it. Then came June 28.
On that day, New York Governor Alfred E. Smith was nominated for president on the first ballot. Smith was an anti-prohibitionist — which, given the mood of that convention floor, tells you something about how those disorderly orderly delegates made up their minds.
And here's the history part, the part that outlasts the noise: Alfred E. Smith was the first Roman Catholic ever nominated for the presidency of the United States by a major political party. The next day, June 29, Senate Majority Leader Joseph T.
Robinson — a Southerner, and a supporter of prohibition, which made for quite the pairing — received the nomination for vice president. Smith himself never set foot in Houston for any of it. He wasn't at the convention.
He later read his formal acceptance speech up in Albany, New York, nowhere near the hall that sixty-four days of Texas determination had built for him. Come November 6, Republican Herbert Hoover won the national election by a wide margin. And here's the kicker — the detail that lands like a slow leak on a long road: Alfred E.
Smith, nominated for the highest office in the land right here in Houston, Texas, did not carry Texas in the November general election. The hall was gone. The delegates had gone home.
And the man Houston crowned couldn't win the state that crowned him. Sixty-four days to build the room. One ballot to pick the nominee.
And in the end, Texas voted the other way.
What the marker says
Due to the efforts of businessman Jesse H. Jones, the Democratic National Committee chose Houston as the site of the 1928 Democratic National Convention. Located on this site, the 20,000-seat Sam Houston Hall was completed in 64 days at a cost of $200,000. The convention met from June 26 to 29. Major issues addressed included the enforcement of prohibition and the plight of America's farmers. One senator remarked that the 1928 delegates constituted the most disorderly orderly crowd he had ever seen. On June 28 New York Governor Alfred E. Smith (1873-1944) was nominated for president on the first ballot. An anti-prohibitionist, Smith was the first Roman Catholic to be nominated for the U. S. Presidency by a major political party. Senate Majority Leader Joseph T. Robinson, a Southerner and supporter of prohibition, received the nomination for vice president on June 29. Smith, who did not attend the convention, later read a formal acceptance speech in Albany, New York. On November 6, Republican candidate Herbert Hoover won the national election by a wide margin. Though Alfred E. Smith had been nominated for the nation's highest office at the Houston convention, he did not carry Texas in the November general election.