Historic Preservation
THE WORLD WAR I CENOTAPH AND URN
At the Travis Street entrance of the Old City Hall on Market Square, The Gold Star Mothers, mothers who lost sons in the Great War in 1917-1918, erected a cenotaph, a monument naming the nearly 200 young men who died in that recent conflict. In 1921, the John Mc Knitt Alexander Chapter, NSDAR, commissioned a local artist, Henry Davidson, to make a bronze urn to “provide a permanent receptacle for the flowers left to honor the war heroes who died.” It was dedicated to the Gold Star Mothers on November 11, 1921.
“Lest We Forget”
“There are lilies and poppies carved on the front of the urn, the lilies above the poppies, as the spirits of our boys have risen above the blood soaked fields. On one side is the flag and on the other side the insignia of the Daughters of the American Revolution. At the top of the urn, just below the border, are the words: Honor to the Mothers who bore these Undying Sons of Liberty.”
During the move of the cenotaph in 1939 to its new location at Sam Houston Park, the urn was stolen.
The chapter dedicated a new urn in September of 1940. The chapter continues to gather yearly to rededicate the urn to remember the sacrifices of both the Soldiers and their Gold Star Mothers.
The nearly 200 names listed on the cenotaph can be viewed in the video below. Those soldiers with an asterisk had streets in Houston named for them after World War 1.
TEXAS FIRST LADIES HISTORIC COSTUME COLLECTION
As its jubilee project in 1940, the Texas Society Daughters of the American Revolution (TXDAR) began the collection of the inaugural gowns from past Texas First Ladies and their families. This collection opened as the Texas First Ladies Historic Costume Collection at Texas Woman’s University in Denton.
Today, the Collection is housed and owned by Texas Woman’s University. But the TXDAR continues financial support for the restoration, preservation, and storage of these historic State of Texas treasures.
Our chapter is proud to continue its support of this collection to remember a former member of our chapter. Willie Cooper Hobby was the first wife of Governor William P. Hobby and was his First Lady during his years as lieutenant governor and governor (1916-1921). Under Governor Hobby’s administration, women received the right to vote in Texas primary elections, and during his tenure, Texas became the ninth state and first in the South to ratify the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote in all elections.
After leaving public office, the Hobbys settled in Houston, where Mrs. Hobby joined our DAR chapter. After her unexpected death in 1929, at the request of the chapter, Governor Hobby donated a replica of his wife’s First Lady’s inaugural gown, the original having been destroyed in a fire.
HISTORIC MARKERS
The chapter has placed two historical markers in downtown Houston.
One is on the "Gulf Building" (JP Morgan) placed in 1936 to mark the location of the Charlotte Allen home in Houston. It is still visible at the corner of Main Street and Rusk Street. At the 1936 dedication, Regent Mrs. Lockett and Mrs. Amerman presented the marker to Mayor Holcombe and Major John Townes, president of the San Jacinto Centennial Association.
A second marker was placed on the Woolworth Building marking the location of the city's first free secondary school. That building was demolished, and the marker is now missing. In its history, the chapter has marked several graves, including the 1976 marking of the Glenwood Cemetery grave of a Daughter of an American Revolutionary War Patriot who died in Texas. Mary Caroline Dodge Amerman Fisher (died 1858) was the great-great-grandmother of Regent Jane Amerman Vanzant (Regent 1967-1969).
HISTORIC PRESERVATION
Sponsored by our chapter, the Houston Fire Museum received an NSDAR Historic Preservation Grant in May 2021, as part of its capital campaign to renovate the historic Fire Station No. 7. This fire station, now located in the Midtown area near downtown Houston, opened in 1899 and served the surrounding neighborhood where many of our earliest chapter members lived and where many of our earliest chapter meetings were held.
The generous NSDAR grant will fund the replacement and repair of these large windows on the second floor of the Houston Fire Museum. When the museum is reopened, it will showcase exhibits on the history of firefighting and firefighting technology in Houston.
