Third Ward Quilt Winter — 2018
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40 Third Ward Quilt Winter — 2018 The Third Ward Quilt project began with This project attempts to recover an intricate bicycle tours of the Third Ward led by tapestry of buildings, people and events, here Nicola Springer, an architect and graduate and gone in Houston's Third Ward. Springer THIRD WARD of Princeton and Rice universities, and and visual artist Jamar Simien created Vice President at Kirksey Architecture. physical maps of the Third Ward on 36-inch- Over the past five years, and with the by-48-inch acrylic sheets, reproduced here. invaluable assistance of Third Ward resident One panel shows the current building lexicon QUILT and historian Carroll Parrott Blue, Ms. outlined in black. In a second layer, based on Springer has systematically documented the a 1943 aerial photograph, the buildings that by Nicola Springer & Jamar Simien architectural history of Third Ward through no longer remain are shown in white, a kind of “ghost” layer. A third layer shows how the with Ernesto Alfaro archival research, photographs, oral history, and observation. construction of the 288 highway cut through the neighborhood, displacing a large portion of the Third Ward and fragmenting 1 Legend San Jacinto Memorial Building 1914, 1928, 1936; Layton & Smith, Hedrick & Gottleib, Joseph Finger; 10 Building City Beautiful Movement Wolf’s Pawn Shop / 6 Originally Wellworths Dry Goods People Wesley Chapel AME Church 1950; Art Deco / Moderne 1926; William Sidney 7 Pittman Douglass Elementary / Now Yellowstone Academy Still here 1927 2 No longer here Temple Beth Israel 1925; Joseph Finger; 11 Late Art Deco 8 6 St John’s Missionary Public Park YWCA Blue Triangle Baptist Church W. Sidney Pittman 1951; Birdsall Briscoe; First 1948; Neo Classical; First African American African American YWCA 2701 Emancipation Ave Architect in Texas; charter in Texas 1875–1958 6a 3 Dr Ben Covington Home Richardson House 1903; J. Perkins 11a Richardson; Colonial 9 Revival Carl Hampton Grand Court of Black Panther killed 1970 Calanthe Building 4 1948; Art Deco 11a Elizabeth Baldwin Park 6a Dedicated 1910 Black Panther Headquarters Booker T Washington 2800 Block Dowling / Stayed with the Covingtons Now Emancipation Blvd 12 Emancipation Park 9 Founded 1872; Mary McLeod Bethune 3018 Emancipation Blvd. Founder of Bethune Cookman University 6b speaks at Grand Court of Calanthe Building 5 Richard Randolph Grovey Barber and Civic Leader, St John Baptist Church 1934 sued for the right to 1946; James M Thomas; vote in primary ballot 12 African American Designer and Builder; New Recreation Building Gothic Revival 2017; Philip Freelon Existing Tree Canopy Existing Buildings Lost Structures (ghost layer) Cite 101 — Place Third Ward Quilt 41 the community. The base layer is a and old, people of all backgrounds. Springer and cultural identity. The intent of this project color negative of the city grid and a fifth and Simien want to connect the community is to show an entire quilt of the space with the current canopy of trees. The final to the rich tapestry of hidden history that lies imperfections and irregularities, resonant panel shows as icons the architecture and latently in the Third Ward. In this sense, we pieces that through time were relegated to influencers of the neighborhood. can refer to the map as a quilt, because of the useless history or, at best, a history out of step. The goal of the project is to reveal the special meaning that these fiber objects hold The quilt is a means by which visitors and palimpsest of history that is the Third Ward, in the context of black America. residents alike can recover this history and the conflicted and collective cultural construct During the 19th century, when enslaved make it come alive for a new generation. With of the neighborhood, shaped by forces of people escaped from their bondage, they funding from a Rice Design Alliance Initiatives capital, institutional racism, the sheer will used quilts as maps. Designed and hand for Houston grant, the next iteration of the of a community to thrive, and the lives of the sewn by the enslaved, each piece creatively Quilt will be a physical installation that will many figures who have dwelled here. The referenced a different step along the way to be deployed in a nomadic manner across the ultimate intention of this project is to educate freedom. The quilt, for the African-American various community entities of the Third Ward, community residents and visitors alike, young community, is a symbol of collective dignity accessible to all members of the community. 13a Flowerman House 2305 Francis Street 23 12 13b Martin Luther King Jack Yates Humanities Center One of the civic fathers Lightnin’ Hopkins 1969; TSU Campus; 16 21 of Houston’s black Blues Guitarist John S. Chase Architect bus stop @ Dowling Street / community; 1872; Founder Yates High School / 19 John Biggers Emancipation Park Now Emancipation Baylor College of Medicine Artist and Muralist; Ryan Middle School Cuney Homes Founder TSU Art 1928; William Ward Watkin 1940, 1942, 1993; John F. Department Staub, MacKie and Kamrath, Landscape Hare and Hare; 3201 Cleburne Ave 24 12 Johnston’s Middle School / Community Center Building Now YWCP 1939; Architect; William 1925 Ward Watkin; WPA 13b Moderne Lightnin’ Sam Hopkins Blues Guitarist 17 21 25 20 Houston Negro Hospital / John S Chase Peggy Park Now Riverside General Architect; 1925–2012; Thurgood Marshall 4101 Almeda Road 1926; 3204 Ennis Street; First African American College of Law Maurice J Sullivan enrolled in UT architecture Texas Southern University; 1976, John S. Chase 26 Weingarten’s 12 Supermarket Location of Theola Petteway 13a Houston’s first Sit-in and Judge Zinetta Burney Cleveland Turner Co-Founders of “Flowerman” Folk artist Emancipation Park 1935–2013 Conservancy 2011 17 21 21 Dr. Rupert Roett Mack Hannah Hall Barbara Jordan and Dr. Ben Covington and Granville Sawyer Graduate of TSU and First Founders of Houston Auditorium: TSU Campus Black woman to represent Negro Hospital 1947; Lamar Qato Texas in the US House of 26 15 Representatives 13 TSU Students Project Row Houses March 4, 1960; Sit-in at Community Artist El Dorado Ball Room Weingarten’s Supermarket 1939; Lenard Gabert; Collective 1994 Lunch Counter Art Moderne Row houses built 1939 18 Nursing School at Houston 21 Negro Hospital / 22 Now Riverside General Heman Sweat Ernest S Sterling 14 1926 His lawsuit against the state 27 challenged the segregation Student Center Sixth Church of Christ 1976; TSU Campus; 15 of the University of Texas Houston Light Guard Scientist John S. Chase. Architect Armory / Now Buffalo 1941; One of only three Rick Lowe Soldier Museum congregations in the US; Co-Founder of Project 1925; Architect Art Deco Row Houses, 1994 Alfred C Finn Highway 288 Incision Urban Tapestry 5 Third Ward Quilt 6 6a 6a 17 9 11 10 11a 11a 12 12 4 13 14 13a 3 13b 15 2 1 27 26 25 24 26 Third Ward Quilt 7 8 21 17 16 18 19 21 20 21 21 23 21 21 22.