The Reverend Ned P. Pullum

The house the Pullums began here in 1898 still stands, and a 2007 city landmark report describes it. They bought the lot for $200 down and $800 more at $10 a month, and the house appears on the 1907 Sanborn map much as it looks now. A wraparound porch faces Andrews Street; leaded and art glass, a pocket door and arched doorways mark the interior, and Doric columns on brick pedestals mix Colonial Revival with Victorian gingerbread. The raised brick foundation and decorative skirting reflect Pullum's brick business. The San Felipe streetcar ran past the door until 1936.

What the plaque says

The Reverend Ned P. Pullum The Rev. Ned P. Pullum was an influential African American pastor in 19th and 20th century Houston. Born c. 1861 in Pickensville, Alabama, he was ordained a Baptist minister by 1889 and in 1895 accepted the pastorate of Antioch Baptist Church in Beaumont, Texas. In 1896, he moved to the Freedmen's Town community, founded after emancipation in Houston's fourth ward. Later, he was chosen as pastor of Bethel Baptist Church after the death of the Rev. John "Jack" Yates. In 1898, the Rev. Pullum purchased land at this site and soon began building his family residence here. In 1903, the Rev. Pullum left the Bethel congregation to organize Friendship Missionary Baptist Church. He conveyed land and raised funds to build the church building. He pastured there 24 years until his health began to fail. The Rev. Pullum died on June 18, 1927 and was survived by his wife, Emma (Eddings) and their two children. He is buried in Houston's College Park Cemetery. In addition to spiritual leadership, the Rev. Ned P. Pullum provided vital direction in local civic affairs. As a member of Magnolia Masonic Lodge No. 4, he helped establish Houston's Carnegie Colored Library, as the institution was known during the era of segregation, and contributed to Union Hospital, an early medical facility founded and operated by African American doctors. A successful entrepreneur, he owned real estate, founded Pullum Standard Brick Work in 1904 and, shortly after, People's Pride Shoe Repair and two drugstores. (2006)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Sam Houston Park and the Heritage Society — 0.6 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.
• Buffalo Soldiers National Museum — 1.4 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 — 1.5 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 — 1.6 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.

More markers nearby

• J. Vance Lewis — steps away
• Gregory School — steps away
• New Zion Temple Church - Worldwide Fellowship, Inc. — steps away
• Henry Livingston Thompson — steps away