Third Ward Culture

Third Ward

Walk from the Eldorado Ballroom past Trinity United Methodist and Project Row Houses to Emancipation Park.

4 stops · 0.7 mi

1. 1
   AI illustration

   1939 · Streamline Moderne

   Eldorado Ballroom

   • City Landmark

   Opened in 1939 and designed by architect Lenard Gabert in the Streamline Moderne style, the Eldorado Ballroom in Houston's Third Ward became known as the home of happy feet, serving as the premier Black entertainment venue in segregated Houston. Its stage hosted legendary performers including Duke Ellington, B.B. King, Etta James, and Ray Charles, making it a central hub of the Chitlin Circuit that gave Black musicians performance opportunities during the era of Jim Crow segregation. The ballroom fell into disuse and disrepair for decades following the decline of the surrounding commercial district, but it was rescued and restored in 2003 by Project Row Houses, the acclaimed community arts organization founded in the same Third Ward neighborhood. Its restoration preserved a vital piece of Houston's African American cultural and musical heritage.

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2. 2
   

   1951 · Mid-Century Modern

   Trinity United Methodist Church

   • Locally Recognized

   Trinity United Methodist Church grew from a mission organized in 1848 for the enslaved members of the Houston Methodist Church, which received a sanctuary of its own around 1851. The congregation was officially organized on March 5, 1865, by the Rev. Elias Dibble, and in 1869 laid the cornerstone for a sanctuary at Travis and Bell streets. Dibble and Trinity trustees also helped secure Emancipation Park and Olivewood Cemetery for Black Houstonians. The church played a role in founding Wiley College in 1873 and in organizing what became Texas Southern University in 1925, and it organized many other Houston congregations. One of the earliest Black congregations in Houston, it moved to this Third Ward site in 1951, when the mid-century modern sanctuary and education building designed by George Pierce and Abel B. Pierce was built. A state historical marker was placed here in 1984.

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3. 3
   

   1930 · Shotgun house vernacular

   Project Row Houses

   • Locally Recognized

   Founded in 1993 by artist Rick Lowe along with a group of fellow artists, Project Row Houses transformed a block of 22 historic shotgun houses dating to around 1930 in Houston's Third Ward into an art and social engagement complex combining artist residencies, community programming, and support services for young mothers. The shotgun house, a narrow vernacular residential form with deep roots in African American communities across the American South, had long characterized the working class Third Ward neighborhood, and Lowe's project sought to preserve this architectural heritage while addressing contemporary community needs. Project Row Houses has since expanded into a broader nonprofit encompassing dozens of properties and is recognized nationally and internationally as a pioneering model for preservation based community development, influencing similar art and social practice projects across the United States.

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4. 4
   

   1872 · Historic urban park

   Emancipation Park

   • Protected

   In 1872, Richard Allen, Richard Brock, Jack Yates and Elias Dibble, members of Antioch Missionary Baptist Church and Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church led by Reverend Yates, pooled $800 to buy 10 acres of land in the Third Ward to commemorate the end of slavery. Because the owners lacked funds to keep it open year round, the park was at first used only for Juneteenth celebrations. It is considered the oldest park in Houston and in Texas. The City of Houston received the park in 1916 and made it a municipal park. During parts of the Jim Crow era it was the only public park in the area open to African Americans. The city later added a recreation center, walkways, a swimming pool and a bathhouse, all designed by William Ward Watkin. After decades of decline, a $33 million renovation began in 2013, and the Emancipation Park Conservancy was formed in 2014 to steward it. The park was designated a City of Houston Protected Landmark in 2007.

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