James Robert Cade

The plaque follows Cade's railroad career; the Harris County Historical Commission's sketch of him adds the churchman and neighbor. Before St. Mary's Episcopal Church was organized he was senior warden of the Epiphany Mission, and he held the same post at St. Mary's until his death. He took part in city affairs without seeking office, apart from a term on the school board under Mayor H. Baldwin Rice. His house at 1317 Lee Street on the Near Northside survived into this century: between 2005 and 2008 preservationists and press coverage helped turn the Elysian Viaduct extension onto another route.

What the plaque says

James Robert Cade Born in England in 1845, James Robert Cade immigrated to the United States in mid-1869, arriving in Harrisburg, Texas, in 1873 with his new bride, Annie Mortimer, also of English descent. James Robert previously trained in England as a railroad carpenter and car builder, experience that helped him find employment as a rail car builder with a small railroad located in Harrisburg, the Galveston, Harrisburg, and San Antonio Railway Company. For the next eighteen years, the couple made their home in Harrisburg, where they raised four sons as James Robert advanced to executive status with Southern Pacific Railway Company, which acquired the GH&SA and the Texas & New Orleans Railway. In 1885, Cade was designated Master Car Builder for SP, Atlantic System, which entailed managing the private car manufacturing division and the rail car repair division. Private cars manufactured during Cade's tenure were of the highest quality and craftsmanship, Using the latest technology and finest materials available to the industry. He was an innovator in the national railroad conversion of all rail cars from harvested timbers to iron beams. His 1892 iron rigging design was adopted nationally for safe and better transport ability. In addition to his distinguished career, he co-founded and was very active at St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Houston's fifth ward, was elected President of the Mechanics Building and Loan Association and, as a member of the Masons, received the Order of High Priesthood in 1895. Cade Rothwell Lodge No. 1151 AF&AM, chartered in 1921, was named in his honor. Through his innovation and civic leadership, James Robert Cade significantly contributed to the economic development of Texas following the Civil War. (2016)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Sam Houston Park and the Heritage Society — 1.0 mi
  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.
• Rothko Chapel — 2.1 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.
• The Menil Collection — 2.1 mi
  John and Dominique de Menil's free museum in Montrose: a grey-sided Renzo Piano building among bungalows, holding antiquities, Surrealism and art of Oceania under natural light.
• Buffalo Soldiers National Museum — 2.2 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

• Eugene Thomas Heiner — steps away
• Belle Sherman Kendall — steps away
• Caspar Braun — steps away
• Irvin Capers Lord — steps away