DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, in my own words. The Houston Club — chartered in 1894, which means it's been around long enough to have opinions about everything. It started out as a gentlemen-only club, the kind of place where serious men gathered to talk about literature and feel very refined about the whole arrangement.
Now, that sounds almost quaint from where we're standing, but give it a few decades and watch what happens. By the 1920s, the literary discourse had given way to something a little more practical — business. The club found itself drawn into association with the Houston Chamber of Commerce, and the conversation at the table shifted accordingly.
Houston was becoming Houston, after all, and the men doing that work needed somewhere to meet. And what men they were. The membership roster over the years reads like a who's who of Texas ambition — William Marsh Rice, John Henry Kirby, Jesse H.
Jones, M.D. Anderson, Hugh Roy Cullen, Tobias Sakowitz, Ben Taub. Names that are still carved into the walls of hospitals and universities and concert halls across this city.
Among many others, as the marker is careful to say — because even a list that long doesn't get everybody. The club moved to this site in 1955, put down roots, and kept on shaping things. Then came two moments worth pausing on.
In 1981, the first African American member joined. In 1982, the first woman. A club that began with one kind of membership in mind had, slowly and measurably, become something wider.
Today it stands as a center of business, social, cultural, and philanthropic influence in Houston. Nearly a hundred and thirty years of conversations — some of them literary, most of them consequential, all of them adding up to something.
What the marker says
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)