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How air conditioning caused a Texas boom

It's ubiquitous now, but there was a time when air conditioning in Houston was much less common—and it wasn't as long ago as you think. You can still see vestiges of life without AC, in the form of transom windows and belt-driven ceiling fans in Victorian-era buildings throughout Southeast Texas.

The birth of the modern air conditioning system began in the mid-1800s when a Florida physician, Dr. John Gorrie, devised a machine to help keep hospital rooms cool, believing that diseases like malari
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Galveston, Houston ready to celebrate Juneteenth

For decades, people in Southeast Texas have celebrated Juneteenth unofficially, with backyard barbecues, neighborhood celebrations, and traditions including red punch. In the three years since the day became a national holiday, the festivities have expanded to include a number of bigger events at Houston cultural institutions, including the Heritage Society, POST Houston, local churches and community centers.

There's now even an official city website, organized by the Juneteenth Houston Citywid
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Slow, low and bangin': Houston car culture, explained

Texas culture can get boiled down to barbecue and country music, but some things are unique to a city like Houston. One of them? Swangas, which confused some drivers in Austin recently.

This week, a user posted to the Austin subreddit a photo of an otherwise staid-looking Kia sedan sporting major rims. The post now has more than 900 comments, asking everything from, "What is the point of these?" to, "How is this legal?" A good number of the comments reference classic Houston rap, including Lil'
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Not everyone is celebrating Houston's dueling Pride parades

During a council meeting last week, District H Councilmember Mario Castillo, who is gay, voiced concerns about the city having two Pride parades, calling it a “leadership gap in the community.” Mayor John Whitmire agreed, saying that he wants to bring the two Pride organizations together for a joint celebration.

New Faces of Pride consists of former members of Pride Houston 365, who split with the original group over allegations of financial mismanagement and other issues. Meanwhile, Pride Hous
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How Willie Nelson got himself banned from this Texas university

The ban has been in effect ever since. As recently as 2019, a petition was circulated asking Baylor President Linda Livingstone to lift the ban, but it appears that Willie is still persona non grata on campus. (Calls to Baylor's media relations department to inquire about the ban went to voicemail.)

But why? It makes sense that the Christian university might look down upon the behavior of one of the world's most famous cannabis connoisseurs. But in a deliciously awkward interview from 1988 with
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‘Mao’s Last Dancer’ returns to Houston for film screening, talk

The movie is based on Li's memoir of the same name, which outlines his journey from rural China to America and his disillusionment with the Chinese Communist Party that he once longed to serve.

Li was the subject of an international scandal in 1981 when he was imprisoned inside Houston's Chinese Embassy for 21 hours following an attempt to defect to the United States. He was eventually released, and his Chinese citizenship was revoked.

Li ultimately danced with the Houston Ballet for 16 years
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Houston's Museum of Fine Arts celebrating its 100th anniversary

The oldest art museum in Texas, the MFAH opened on April 12, 1924, with just one structure, the neoclassical Caroline Wiess Law building at Montrose Boulevard and Bissonnet Street. The original museum entrance faced south, overlooking Hermann Park and the Miller Outdoor Theater, which celebrated its centennial last year.

Over the years, the original building was expanded with new wings and galleries, and the museum's campus also grew, with the eastern structure, the Audrey Jones Beck Building,
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Beyoncé's 'Cowboy Carter' references the Chitlin' Circuit. What is it?

Beyoncé's visuals for Cowboy Carter, her country album released Friday, are rife with references to Southern culture, from the border blaster radio stations that gave voice to regional artists in the postwar era, to the trail riders and rodeo queens that help preserve Black cowboy history. With the release of the Cowboy Carter track list earlier this week, some fans might be wondering about another reference: the Chitlin Circuit, mentioned prominently at the top of the track listing.

The Chitli
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Texas man in iron lung since 1952 has died

Paul Alexander, who had lived in the cylindrical-like medical device since the age of 6, died on March 11. He was 78. His cause of death was not listed in his obituary, but in February his social media manager reported that he had been hospitalized with COVID-19. He was released from the hospital before his death.

By 2013, Post-Polio Health International estimated that less than 10 Americans were still living in iron lungs. Alexander was one of them. Around the start of the pandemic, his story
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Historic 'Bonnie and Clyde bridge' washed away by Texas floodwaters

A century-old bridge with a fascinating history is no longer standing after flood waters washed it away during heavy rain in Montgomery County last week.

The metal bridge, which runs along FM 2854 over the San Jacinto River, collapsed sometime between Jan. 24 and Jan. 25, after more than 11 inches of rain fell in Conroe and surrounding areas over three days. The rusty bridge, which was built in 1910 and had fallen into extreme disrepair, is now partially submerged in the San Jacinto River.

The
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Exhibit tells story of neighborhood created from Juneteenth

The partnership between CAMH and HFTC was first announced in January after the organizations, along with the City of Houston and Chicago-based artist Theaster Gates, received a $1.25 million grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. The purpose of the grant was to create community engagement, artist-led activations, a residency program for up-and-coming Black artists, and to help facilitate infrastructure improvements in the Freedmen's Town neighborhood.
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Over 100 years later, Camp Logan convictions overturned

The decision, as first reported by the Houston Chronicle, was reached weeks ago and was celebrated Nov. 13 with a ceremony at Houston's Buffalo Soldiers National Museum. That day, the Army issued a press release on the decision, writing that "the records of these Soldiers will be corrected, to the extent possible, to characterize their military service as honorable."

The decision, approved by Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth, comes after a review board found that the soldiers, 19 of whom
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The Hip Hop Museum is bringing an exhibition to Houston

The Hip Hop Museum, the Bronx-based institution that celebrates one of the most influential musical movements of the last century, will bring a special touring exhibition to Houston next month.

The exhibition will stop in the Second Ward on Nov. 4 as part of a six-city tour celebrating the 50th anniversary of hip-hop and the founding of the museum, which is slated to open in 2025. Other cities on the tour include Atlanta, Charlotte, Los Angeles, and Miami, as well as New York City, all of which
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A guide to Houston's most interesting cemeteries

Houston has a reputation for not preserving its past. But when it comes to cemeteries, there is a lot more history hiding in the Bayou City than first meets the eye. From tiny family plots in the middle of the Galleria to hidden crypts Downtown to spooky cemeteries tucked away in one of the city's largest parks, each gravesite acts as a piece of the puzzle of Houston as it is now.

Brittanie Bliss and her fellow Spring High School FFA members spend their day after school cleaning the Wunsche Fam
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Meet the man keeping Houston’s LBGTQ history alive

The book, titled 1981—My Gay American Road Trip: A Slice of Our Pre-AIDS Culture, captures the brief but promising and heady period between the Stonewall Uprising in 1969 and the AIDS crisis that began in the early 1980s, while also documenting more than180 gay bars and other gay-oriented businesses in the South that existed during that time. The story is told through the eyes of Doyle, whose diary of the trip formed the basis of his memoir.

"It was the only time in my life [I've kept a journal
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Which Texas summer was worse: 2011 or 2023?

In Houston, this summer's grueling temperatures led to melting cars, melting roads, and melting restaurants. Thankfully, the season officially ends on Sept. 23, but 2023 is sure to be brought up years from now as a summer straight from hell.

Houstonians still talk about the last Terrible Texas Summer, 2011, also known as The Year of Fire. That summer, drought-fueled wildfires burned nearly 4 million acres in Bastrop County, the most destructive wildfire in Texas history, along with a fire near
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Houston marker commemorates man who fled slavery in 1864

A ceremony hosted by Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis to celebrate the Freedom Marker and the anniversary of Ben’s escape included a reading from Houston poet laureate Aris Kian Brown and comments from philanthropist Bill Perkins, who conceived the project. September is recognized as International Underground Railroad Month because abolitionists Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman both escaped from slavery in that month (Douglass in 1838 and Tubman in 1849).

The marker will eventually
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New Houston Holocaust Museum exhibit highlights the Green Book

From the 1930s through the '60s, Black road-trippers in America depended on a series of travel guides to help them navigate safe spaces in the Jim Crow South and elsewhere. The best-known of these guides was The Negro Motorist Green Book, published by Harlem postal worker Victor Green from 1936 to 1966. The Green Book, as it was known, is now the subject of a traveling Smithsonian exhibition that opened Sept. 1 at the Holocaust Museum of Houston.

After World War I, Black Americans began to expe
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Audio exhibit tells the story of 1917 Camp Logan incident

A new installation debuting in Memorial Park's Eastern Glades will tell the story of the Camp Logan incident of 1917, a clash between the all-Black 24th Infantry Regiment and Houston police officers, through the words of the Black soldiers who were tried and convicted for what was described at the time as a race riot and mutiny.

The interactive installation will feature oral histories from descendants of Camp Logan soldiers reading letters, recounting stories, and sharing contemporary accounts
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Menil Collection says it never accepted Italian antiquities

The items, which were returned in a special ceremony in New York City and include Etruscan vases, ancient Roman coins and mosaics, are believed to be worth tens of millions of euros. Out of 266 Italian antiquities repatriated, 65 were part of a cache that was offered by a collector to the Menil, but never acquired.

A story published last week by the Associated Press erroneously reported that the artifacts were part of the museum's collection. Menil officials say the items were never accepted in
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For one night only, America's most iconic gay bar comes to Houston

When Adriana Maldonado was a young chef, freshly relocated to New York City, one of the first places she went was the Stonewall Inn. She'd never been to New York before at all, but she suspected she'd find community at the legendary gay bar where, in 1969, the Pride movement was born. And she was right. Sitting at the bar, Maldonado, who is queer, asked for recommendations for a lesbian hangout. "There's one right down the block," bartender Mel Albaladejo told her, directing her to the nearby Cu
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These artists turned Houston's natural beauty into a walking exhibit

Houston may seem like an urban art paradise, but just 40 minutes northeast, at the edge of the Sam Houston National Forest, is a massive 177-acre compound and gallery space founded by two of the city's most influential artists of the past 50 years.

That compound, known as the Locke-Surls Center for Art and Nature, just outside of Splendora, Texas, will host a massive, multidisciplinary outdoor sculpture exhibition co-organized by DiverseWorks, opening April 22 and 23 in honor of Earth Day.

Cal
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How Houston's historic Eldorado Ballroom was restored

In a town that's known for tearing down aging buildings as opposed to preserving them, the renovation of the Eldorado Ballroom feels like a miracle. The Third Ward nightclub, which hosted blues and jazz musicians for more than three decades during a time when Jim Crow laws kept Black performers and audiences segregated from white crowds, isn't just culturally significant. It's also architecturally unique—one of few Art Moderne buildings remaining in Houston.

After a $9.7 million project that in
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One of Houston's coolest museums reopens this weekend

After closing for nearly a year, The Printing Museum (TPM) in Houston will reopen April 1 in its new location, a smaller but more flexible space in Midtown Houston.

The museum, founded in 1979, is dedicated to championing the history and power of the printed word. It houses more than 10,000 objects relating to the industry and technology of printing, including antiquities dating back to 3000 BCE. The museum is also well-known for its workshops on papermaking, bookbinding, letterpress printing,
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