Bay Ridge / Morgan's Point

The point had several owners and names before Morgan. Nicholas Rightor settled at its end about 1822 and sold to Johnson Calhoun Hunter by 1824, and about 1828 Nicholas Clopper and his sons bought it as Clopper's Point and planted orange and lemon seeds. Clopper sold James Morgan a 1,600-acre strip in December 1834, and by 1835 Morgan had a store and warehouse and, as agent of the New Washington Association, a planned colony called New Washington. Mexican troops under Juan N. Almonte camped there in 1836 and burned the warehouses.

What the plaque says

Bay Ridge / Morgan's Point The peninsula on Galveston Bay known as Morgan's Point was named for early landowner Colonel James Morgan. Later the area became a favorite summer retreat for wealthy Houston residents who sought refuge from the oppressive heat and humidity of the city. The bluff attracted Gulf breezes and boasted spectacular views and recreational potential. In 1893 twelve prominent Houston families formed the Bay Ridge Park Association and acquired 40 acres of land on which they constructed a resort community for summer residency. to allow each family beach front property the land was platted into long narrow lots chosen by ballots. The first houses built were modest one-and two-story frame dwellings with verandas; most featured Eastlake and Queen Anne style detailing. Homes built in the early 20th century were designed by renowned architects and reflected various styles including Mediterranean revival, colonial revival, and prairie school. Among the many grand houses is one patterned after the White House built for Texas Governor Ross Sterling and his wife Maude. Listed on the National register of Historic Places, the area is one of Texas' most significant seaside residential developments. (1997) Incise on back: Morgan's Point Historic District & Bay Ridge Park Associations

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site — 7.5 mi
  The 1,200 acres of coastal prairie and marsh where the Texas Revolution ended in eighteen minutes, and the 567-foot shaft of fossil-studded limestone that has stood over them since 1939.
• Space Center Houston — 10 mi
  The visitor center of NASA's Johnson Space Center at Clear Lake, with flown capsules, a shuttle replica riding a 747, and tram tours to Mission Control and a Saturn V.
• Emancipation Park — 23 mi
  The Third Ward park that freedpeople bought for Juneteenth in 1872, rebuilt in 2017 on Emancipation Avenue and still the center of the city's June 19 celebration.
• Buffalo Soldiers National Museum — 23 mi
  A museum in Houston's 1925 Light Guard Armory that tells the service of Black soldiers from the Revolutionary War onward, built from one veteran's thirty years of collecting.

More markers nearby

• Gribble-Hofheinz House — 0.3 mi
• Morgan's Point Cemetery — 0.6 mi
• New Washington — 0.7 mi
• Saint Mary's Seminary — 1.3 mi