League Of United American Citizens Council 60 Club House At 3004 Bagby St.

[trymahjong]

Went to the celebration ceremony of old LULAC clubhouse at Bagby and Anita. American Express donated a little over 100k 5o kickstart the renovations. I love it when little bits of Houston History are saved.

[Texasota]

That is absolutely fantastic. I look forward to seeing what the long-term plans end up being.

[Avossos]

is that the old stucco house on bagby that has the historic plaque? Can someone tell me what the Lulac clubhouse is / was?

[j_cuevas713]

6 hours ago, Avossos said:

is that the old stucco house on bagby that has the historic plaque? Can someone tell me what the Lulac clubhouse is / was?

From what I read, it was a meeting place for many Mexican-Americans during the Civil Right Movement. Pretty awesome. 

[Texasota]

More detail:

https://savingplaces.org/places/lulac

[trymahjong]

THere were lots of oldtymers there and many stories of popcorn machines, pool tables and insight family events.

 

As a side note— I am glad the house is being saved, if the house was built in 1907, the same year Avondale was platted, it would make it one of the oldest structures within Avondale. It is a shame that historic properties can’t be added to adjoining historic districts, Historic Avondale East boundary stops at Baldwin street. I’m not sure but being inside an Historic district and renovating the property used to 8nclude tax benefits.

[Avossos]

38 minutes ago, trymahjong said:

THere were lots of oldtymers there and many stories of popcorn machines, pool tables and insight family events.

 

As a side note— I am glad the house is being saved, if the house was built in 1907, the same year Avondale was platted, it would make it one of the oldest structures within Avondale. It is a shame that historic properties can’t be added to adjoining historic districts, Historic Avondale East boundary stops at Baldwin street. I’m not sure but being inside an Historic district and renovating the property used to 8nclude tax benefits.

 

You can now add adjacent / contiguous properties to existing historic districts. It is rather easy.

[trymahjong]

When did that happen? Recently? Do you have more information?

[Avossos]

46 minutes ago, trymahjong said:

When did that happen? Recently? Do you have more information?

 

PM me. I have been working on plans for OSW. and it happened about a year ago. Pretty exciting.

[Ross]

8 hours ago, Avossos said:

 

You can now add adjacent / contiguous properties to existing historic districts. It is rather easy.

That's just sad. We have too many historic districts that screwed people who owned property in them already. I guess that the added properties at least have a choice, unlike the previous situation, where unwilling property owners were forced, against their will, into historic districts.

 

 

[Avossos]

1 hour ago, Ross said:

That's just sad. We have too many historic districts that screwed people who owned property in them already. I guess that the added properties at least have a choice, unlike the previous situation, where unwilling property owners were forced, against their will, into historic districts.

 

 

 

ALL historic districts required over 2/3rds vote in favor to be created... Which means the people you’re crying for were in the minority. 67% present had to respond YES.

 

I think it would be in your best interest to familiarize yourself with the code. Growing historic districts is an amazing opportunity that is a win win for the home owners, the districts, and the entire community.

 

If you need more information, please contact our Historic Preservation Office. They will help you with facts.

 

 

[Chi-Char-Hou-Dal]

fence around the property, hopefully they get started!

[trymahjong]

I talked to the chair of LULAC

bids are being sought to stabilize the property. The building has leakage problems.

[hindesky]

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/LULAC-kicks-off-fundraising-to-restore-16056142.php#photo-20792148

While the Astrodome sits empty, help is coming to Houston's other 'National Treasure'

Olivia P. Tallet, Staff writer

March 26, 2021Updated: March 26, 2021 1:47 p.m.

 

There are only two places in Houston declared “National Treasures” by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. One is the Astrodome, regarded as “The Eighth Wonder of the World” when it opened in 1965. The other is a small, unpretentious stucco house near downtown that passersby hardly notice.

The curious, however, would spot a plaque in front of the white, two-story building where the Texas Historical Commission marked its prominence. It is the home of the historic League of United Latin American Citizens’ Council 60 Clubhouse, the epicenter of many significant achievements of the Latino civil rights movement of the last century.

Some historians have noted the clubhouse was where the actual Latino political power began to show. Unlike any other Hispanic organizations in contemporary history, the LULAC clubhouse attracted national leaders, including President John F. Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson.

Almost a decade since Council 60 stopped using the clubhouse due to unsafe conditions of the building structure, a renewed LULAC leadership is kicking off a $500,000 fundraising campaign to renovate the historic site and reactivate the clubhouse with a wider community and exhibition value.

“We want people to know this LULAC Clubhouse that serves as an icon of the Mexican American civil rights movement,” said Ray Valdez, chair of C 60 Inc., a nonprofit established to restore the building. “We want to preserve it and renew its use so that people can come by and be proud of all that Latinos have accomplished.”

The fundraising campaign includes the creation of a GoFundMe.com account called “LULAC Clubhouse.” But they plan to escalate it after finishing a significant phase of the construction project at the end of this month.

Construction work — part of an emergency stabilization plan needed after the house was severely damaged during Hurricane Harvey — is being finished, Valdez said.

This phase included structural, foundational and roof repairs, as well as the restoration of exterior walls. Some areas required special treatment to meet Department of the Interior guidelines for historic rehabilitation. One of them was the chimney, which was taken down brick by brick, cataloged and reassembled to the original specifications of the house as it was built in 1942.

Now, the goal is to raise $500,000 for the next construction phase to finish the project.

The campaign is a “tiered crowdfunding initiative to thoughtfully engage individuals across the city, state and country to contribute to the restoration of the historic” place, said Jesús Dávila, project director for the online capital campaign and member of the organization.

The fundraising campaign will include online engagement initiatives and opportunities for people to donate by shopping through corporate charity programs such as Amazon Smile.

Organizers said they hope to attract some large financial contributions. But the goal is to also gather thousands of smaller donations to reflect the spirit of community and advocacy that has marked the clubhouse since its inception, said Dávila, who is the founder of Landing Advisors, a management consulting firm.

The building’s importance is associated with the relevance of Council 60 as one of the most consequential chapters of LULAC in Texas during the civil rights movement. But it also has its own merits from an historic point of view, said Gene Preuss, an associate professor of history at the University of Houston-Downtown and member of the C 60 Inc Board.

LULAC is the oldest and, for periods, the largest active national Hispanic organization. It was founded on Feb. 17, 1929, in Corpus Christi, largely by World War I veterans disenfranchised by segregation and racial discrimination against Mexican Americans, said Cynthia Orozco, a historian at Eastern New Mexico University and author of several books on Mexican American history. The organization solidified by creating councils in neighborhoods across Texas and other states.

Council 60, active since the mid-1930s, initiated numerous court cases against discrimination, said Preuss.

One of the most notorious was Delgado v. Bastrop in 1948, “the first Texas case since the 1930s to rule against public school segregation of Mexican American students,” Preuss said.

Other landmark litigation was Hernandez v. the State of Texas in 1954, the first case won by a Mexican American legal team in the U.S. Supreme Court. The ruling said people of Mexican descent couldn’t be discriminated against in jury selections and created a precedent in striking down overall discrimination based on ethnicity and class.

A year later, Council 60 board members bought the stucco house on Bagby Street, becoming the first time a LULAC council in the United States was able to own a building for its operations, Preuss said. It continues to be the only clubhouse owned by a chapter of the organization in the country, said Valdez.

Besides working on the LULAC national platform on voters’ participation, justice equality, education and healthcare access for veterans, the clubhouse was the hub for the creation of significant programs.

It was there where members organized the Little Schools of the 400, the first bilingual education program adopted by the state of Texas to prepare Spanish-speaking kids with language abilities before entering the school, Preuss said. It later became the basis for a larger state-sponsored program in Texas and for President Johnson’s Head Start project for disadvantaged children, according to Oxford Academic’s Journal of American History.

The council also created the SER Jobs program, still active with a large platform in the Gulf Coast that trains and places around 4,000 job seekers per year from low-income backgrounds, according to its website.

LULAC members said restoring the clubhouse is part of a wider effort to promote the barely known history of the Latino civil rights movement arising from Texas. Most of what is known or taught in schools nationwide is related to farm workers’ struggles in California.

During the last decade, people like David Contreras, the LULAC Texas State Historian, have researched and found numerous valuable documents about the organization scattered in several archives. He put together a website with many previously unpublished documents and videos related to the JFK visit to the annual LULAC gala hosted by Council 60 at the Rice Hotel in Houston the night before he was assassinated in Dallas. He visited with his wife, Jackie Kennedy, who spoke to the party in fluent Spanish, as well as then Vice President Johnson and his wife, Lady Bird Johnson.

The first floor of the clubhouse will have the renovated bar where LULAC members used to strategize political moves and meet with influential visitors over a drink.

“We will not sell alcohol these days, of course,” said Valdez. But they plan to offer beverages and sandwiches to keep the community spirit flowing. Rooms on the second floor will be open for use by other organizations that share similar community interests in the city.

Dávila thinks that now with the COVID pandemic beginning to recede, it’s a good time to launch an effort to collect small donations with a common purpose.

“It’s been a full year where we have been separated and broken apart,” said Dávila. “In contrast and maybe in defiance of this reality, it’s a powerful metaphor to rebuild a historic place of community through collective generosity.”

olivia.tallet@chron.com

 

 

 

 

 

[trymahjong]

Wow

The Chronicle is doing a big article!

[hindesky]

15 hours ago, trymahjong said:

Wow

The Chronicle is doing a big article!

I put the article in the Midtown section.

[j_cuevas713]

On 3/26/2021 at 6:56 PM, hindesky said:

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/LULAC-kicks-off-fundraising-to-restore-16056142.php#photo-20792148

While the Astrodome sits empty, help is coming to Houston's other 'National Treasure'

Olivia P. Tallet, Staff writer

March 26, 2021Updated: March 26, 2021 1:47 p.m.

 

There are only two places in Houston declared “National Treasures” by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. One is the Astrodome, regarded as “The Eighth Wonder of the World” when it opened in 1965. The other is a small, unpretentious stucco house near downtown that passersby hardly notice.

The curious, however, would spot a plaque in front of the white, two-story building where the Texas Historical Commission marked its prominence. It is the home of the historic League of United Latin American Citizens’ Council 60 Clubhouse, the epicenter of many significant achievements of the Latino civil rights movement of the last century.

Some historians have noted the clubhouse was where the actual Latino political power began to show. Unlike any other Hispanic organizations in contemporary history, the LULAC clubhouse attracted national leaders, including President John F. Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson.

Almost a decade since Council 60 stopped using the clubhouse due to unsafe conditions of the building structure, a renewed LULAC leadership is kicking off a $500,000 fundraising campaign to renovate the historic site and reactivate the clubhouse with a wider community and exhibition value.

“We want people to know this LULAC Clubhouse that serves as an icon of the Mexican American civil rights movement,” said Ray Valdez, chair of C 60 Inc., a nonprofit established to restore the building. “We want to preserve it and renew its use so that people can come by and be proud of all that Latinos have accomplished.”

The fundraising campaign includes the creation of a GoFundMe.com account called “LULAC Clubhouse.” But they plan to escalate it after finishing a significant phase of the construction project at the end of this month.

Construction work — part of an emergency stabilization plan needed after the house was severely damaged during Hurricane Harvey — is being finished, Valdez said.

This phase included structural, foundational and roof repairs, as well as the restoration of exterior walls. Some areas required special treatment to meet Department of the Interior guidelines for historic rehabilitation. One of them was the chimney, which was taken down brick by brick, cataloged and reassembled to the original specifications of the house as it was built in 1942.

Now, the goal is to raise $500,000 for the next construction phase to finish the project.

The campaign is a “tiered crowdfunding initiative to thoughtfully engage individuals across the city, state and country to contribute to the restoration of the historic” place, said Jesús Dávila, project director for the online capital campaign and member of the organization.

The fundraising campaign will include online engagement initiatives and opportunities for people to donate by shopping through corporate charity programs such as Amazon Smile.

Organizers said they hope to attract some large financial contributions. But the goal is to also gather thousands of smaller donations to reflect the spirit of community and advocacy that has marked the clubhouse since its inception, said Dávila, who is the founder of Landing Advisors, a management consulting firm.

The building’s importance is associated with the relevance of Council 60 as one of the most consequential chapters of LULAC in Texas during the civil rights movement. But it also has its own merits from an historic point of view, said Gene Preuss, an associate professor of history at the University of Houston-Downtown and member of the C 60 Inc Board.

LULAC is the oldest and, for periods, the largest active national Hispanic organization. It was founded on Feb. 17, 1929, in Corpus Christi, largely by World War I veterans disenfranchised by segregation and racial discrimination against Mexican Americans, said Cynthia Orozco, a historian at Eastern New Mexico University and author of several books on Mexican American history. The organization solidified by creating councils in neighborhoods across Texas and other states.

Council 60, active since the mid-1930s, initiated numerous court cases against discrimination, said Preuss.

One of the most notorious was Delgado v. Bastrop in 1948, “the first Texas case since the 1930s to rule against public school segregation of Mexican American students,” Preuss said.

Other landmark litigation was Hernandez v. the State of Texas in 1954, the first case won by a Mexican American legal team in the U.S. Supreme Court. The ruling said people of Mexican descent couldn’t be discriminated against in jury selections and created a precedent in striking down overall discrimination based on ethnicity and class.

A year later, Council 60 board members bought the stucco house on Bagby Street, becoming the first time a LULAC council in the United States was able to own a building for its operations, Preuss said. It continues to be the only clubhouse owned by a chapter of the organization in the country, said Valdez.

Besides working on the LULAC national platform on voters’ participation, justice equality, education and healthcare access for veterans, the clubhouse was the hub for the creation of significant programs.

It was there where members organized the Little Schools of the 400, the first bilingual education program adopted by the state of Texas to prepare Spanish-speaking kids with language abilities before entering the school, Preuss said. It later became the basis for a larger state-sponsored program in Texas and for President Johnson’s Head Start project for disadvantaged children, according to Oxford Academic’s Journal of American History.

The council also created the SER Jobs program, still active with a large platform in the Gulf Coast that trains and places around 4,000 job seekers per year from low-income backgrounds, according to its website.

LULAC members said restoring the clubhouse is part of a wider effort to promote the barely known history of the Latino civil rights movement arising from Texas. Most of what is known or taught in schools nationwide is related to farm workers’ struggles in California.

During the last decade, people like David Contreras, the LULAC Texas State Historian, have researched and found numerous valuable documents about the organization scattered in several archives. He put together a website with many previously unpublished documents and videos related to the JFK visit to the annual LULAC gala hosted by Council 60 at the Rice Hotel in Houston the night before he was assassinated in Dallas. He visited with his wife, Jackie Kennedy, who spoke to the party in fluent Spanish, as well as then Vice President Johnson and his wife, Lady Bird Johnson.

The first floor of the clubhouse will have the renovated bar where LULAC members used to strategize political moves and meet with influential visitors over a drink.

“We will not sell alcohol these days, of course,” said Valdez. But they plan to offer beverages and sandwiches to keep the community spirit flowing. Rooms on the second floor will be open for use by other organizations that share similar community interests in the city.

Dávila thinks that now with the COVID pandemic beginning to recede, it’s a good time to launch an effort to collect small donations with a common purpose.

“It’s been a full year where we have been separated and broken apart,” said Dávila. “In contrast and maybe in defiance of this reality, it’s a powerful metaphor to rebuild a historic place of community through collective generosity.”

olivia.tallet@chron.com

 

 

 

 

 

Wow what a gem

[trymahjong]

Guess the renovations continue