Houston Public Library

The library the plaque describes served white Houstonians; Black residents had to win their own. After a campaign led by Ernest O. Smith, Julia Ideson opened a branch in a Black high school in 1909, and in 1913 the Houston Colored Carnegie Library opened on Frederick Street, designed by William Sydney Pittman, Booker T. Washington's son-in-law. An all-Black board ran it until the city took control in 1921. The main system quietly admitted Black adults in 1953, at first only to reference books through a side door. The branch closed in 1961 and was razed in 1962.

What the plaque says

Houston Public Library Within 10 years of its founding in 1836, Houston was a bustling city. Throughout the 1840s, the city's professionals came together in debating societies to discuss a variety of topics. They created the Houston Circulating Library to provide reference materials for their debates. In 1854, they organized the Houston Lyceum. By 1857, the group, which was limited to white, dues-paying males, had almost 800 books in its collection. In 1887, 30 years later and with more than 2,400 books, the Lyceum opened its membership to women. For the next several years, the women members proved to be persistent advocates for creating a public facility. By 1895, the Lyceum provided limited access to non-member adults of Houston. The following year, the library became available to local high school students. In 1899, Houston's city council appropriated money to maintain a free library. Mrs. W. E. Kendall and Mamie Gearing of the Houston Woman's Club wrote a letter to philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, who offered $50,000 for a building. Local organizations, including what had become the Houston Lyceum and Carnegie Library Association, as well as private citizens and businesses, raised money to purchase a site at the corner of McKinney Avenue and Travis Street. The city hired Martin and Moodie Company to design and build the new library, which opened on March 2, 1904 as the Houston Lyceum and Carnegie Library. Under the direction of Julia Ideson, city librarian from 1903 to 1945, the library expanded its services to include several branches and a bookmobile. Ideson oversaw construction in 1926 of a larger central facility, later named in her honor. Her successors continued her work, providing one of the nation's largest cities with books and programs in a variety of locations and languages. (2004)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Sam Houston Park and the Heritage Society — steps away
  Ten historic buildings gathered in a downtown park below the skyscrapers, among them the 1870 house of the Reverend Jack Yates, built five years after emancipation.
• Emancipation Park — 1.6 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 — 1.7 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.
• Rothko Chapel — 2.2 mi
  An octagonal chapel open to all faiths, built by the de Menils around fourteen dark canvases by Mark Rothko, with Barnett Newman's Broken Obelisk standing in the pool outside.

More markers nearby

• Houston City, Republic of Texas — steps away
• Sam Houston Park — steps away
• Thomas William House — steps away
• Edward Mandell House — steps away