BAYOU BEND

In 1836 Augustus and John Allen established a small settlement along a muddy and mosquito-infested area of the Buffalo Bayou. They named the town after Sam Houston, who had won independence for Texas at the Battle of San Jacinto earlier that year. Houston prospered, and in 1914 the winding bayou was converted into a shipping channel, fueling the city's growth as a center for timber, cotton, and cattle shipping. As the twentieth century unfolded, an oil boom assured Houston's future as a world energy center.

By the 1920s Houston was experiencing many of the problems faced by other cities across the nation. Many of its leading citizens joined forces to control growth and to formulate ideas for planning and beautification. Although many of their proposals were never realized, the city benefited immeasurably from these efforts. Among Houston's most civic-minded citizens was Will Hogg, who gave his own land to the city to create Memorial Park and other public green spaces.

Will Hogg's commitment to urban planning was matched by an entrepreneurial spirit. In 1924, together with his brother Mike and their associate Hugh Potter, he began planning a lush subdivision that would allow Houstonians to escape from the noise, dirt, and congestions of the city. River Oaks, as the new suburb was named, was built on 1100 acres of open farmland and rustic woodland west of downtown Houston. Advertised as a "distinguished experiment in fine living." it became a national model for community planning.

One 80-acre area in the heart of River Oaks was set aside as a separate subdivision called Homewoods. This enclave contained just fourteen lots, the largest of which was reserved by the Hoggs and would become Bayou Bend.

The House
Miss Hogg and her brothers wanted the design of their new home to reflect the history, culture, and climate of the Texas Gulf Coast. They were fortunate in hiring an architect of exceptional skill to realize this vision. Born in Tennessee, John F. Staub had arrived in Houston in 1921 and rapidly became the city's leading residential architect.


Bayou Bend soon after completion in the 1920s. Staub's plan for Bayou Bend combined the refined symmetry of eighteenth-century Georgian architecture with elements that are distinctly Southern. There is also the romantic influence of Spanish Creole architecture, which characterizes the French Quarter of New Orleans, in Bayou Bend's pink stucco and black iron work. In fact, the antique wrought iron balcony on the southern facade of the house was salvaged from a demolished New Orleans building. Other aspects of Bayou Bend's design, such as the central hallway, curving stairway, columned northern portico, and double frontage, are borrowed from Southern plantation houses. Miss Hogg, who worked closely with Staub, coined the term "Latin Colonial" to describe the eclectic new style. The interiors borrow more heavily from the architectural traditions of the North. In 1920 Miss Hogg had begun assembling an important collection of American decorative arts. To provide suitable settings for these extraordinary antiques, Staub designed simple but stately interiors in the style of colonial American rooms. In Miss Hogg's bedroom and sitting room, he incorporated floorboards and paneling rescued from two eighteenth-century Massachusetts houses.

The Hoggs shared Bayou Bend for only a brief time. Mike Hogg married and moved away in 1929; Will Hogg died the following year, leaving his sister as sole occupant of the house. Miss Hogg donated Bayou Bend to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston in 1957, but continued living at the estate until 1965. She oversaw the transformation of her home into a house museum, which opened to the public in 1966.

MISS IMA HOGG

A Legend is Born
"Our cup of joy is now overflowing! We have a daughter of as fine proportions and of as angelic mien as ever gracious nature favor a man with, and her name is Ima!"


Miss Ima Hogg as a young woman,
c. 1894. These proud words were written by James (Jim) Hogg upon the birth of his only daughter in Mineola, Texas, in 1882. The child's name, which may seem an unfortunate choice, was borrowed from an epic poem written by Jim Hogg's brother, Thomas. The heroine of the poem was called Ima, short for Imogene. Miss Hogg was later to recount: "My grandfather Stinson lived 15 miles from Mineola and news traveled slowly. When he learned of his granddaughter's name he came trotting to town as fast as he could to protest but it was too late. The christening had taken place, and Ima I was to remain."

Ima Hogg and her three brothers, William, Michael, and Thomas, were born into a family whose tradition of public service was an integral part of Texas history. Her grandfather, Joseph Lewis Hogg, took the oath of allegiance to the Republic of Texas in 1839, helped write the Texas Constitution, fought in the Mexican War, and served as a brigadier general in the Confederate Army during the Civil War.

Miss Hogg's father, Jim Hogg, was a self-educated man who became a newspaper editor and a district attorney. Elected in 1890 as the first native-born governor of Texas, he proved himself a strong champion of the people. During Jim Hogg's two terms of office the family lived in the Greek-revival Governor's Mansion in Austin, an experience that may have kindled Miss Hogg's love of historical architecture and furnishings. She never forgot the thrill of sleeping in the mahogany four-poster bed that once belonged to Sam Houston.

In 1901, while involved in the fledgling oil industry, Jim Hogg purchased the Varner Plantation near West Columbia, Texas. Confident that oil would one day be discovered there, he stipulated in his will that Varner could not be sold until 15 years after his death. In 1918 -- 12 years after Jim Hogg died -- oil was indeed found on the property. Their newfound wealth allowed Miss Hogg and her brothers to bestow enormous cultural and charitable gifts upon Houston, the city they had adopted as their hometown.

A Life of Giving to Her Community
"I must say it has ever been the aim of the symphony to serve as a unifying and democratic agency in our region and city, that music may reach and touch every facet of our civic life."


Miss Ima Hogg at the dedication of the Murphy Room, 1959. Believing that inherited money was a public trust, Miss Hogg became one of Houston's most generous benefactors. In addition to her mission to collect and preserve antiques and art, she also sought to share her great love of music with others. Precociously talented, Miss Hogg could play piano by the age of four and later studied music in New York and Berlin. A cosmopolitan woman who missed the rich culture that she enjoyed on her travels, she strived to establish a cultural community at home. In 1913 she became a founder of the Houston Symphony Society, serving several terms as its president.

Compassionate by nature and progressive in outlook, Miss Hogg was deeply concerned with the welfare of all Texans. Having fought her own battle with depression, she became a zealous proponent of mental health care. In 1929 Miss Hogg established the Child Guidance Center in Houston, the first organization of its kind in the nation. When her brother Will died in 1930, she used his estate to establish the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health and Hygiene at the University of Texas at Austin. Most of her own estate was also bequeathed to the foundation.

Although she never married or had children, Miss Hogg was committed to public education. In 1943 she was elected to the Houston School Board, where she profoundly improved the education of Houston's children. Many of her innovations were of fundamental and far-reaching importance, such as her insistence that African-American students receive art classes as did white students. Others were more subtle, such as her personal donation of a fireplace to a kindergarten classroom so that the children would feel at home.

Miss Hogg also worked to preserve the heritage of her family and her state. She restored the Varner Plantation and her parents' first home in Quitman, Texas, as well as number of Texas-German buildings in Winedale. She then donated the Winedale properties to the University of Texas at Austin for use as a study center.

THE GARDENS

In October 1926, before construction on the house had even begun, Will Hogg telegrammed his sister, urging her to plant magnolias, crepe myrtles, and other flowering trees with strong Southern associations. This connection to the South would become an important feature of both the house and the gardens.


Garden designs for Bayou Bend. Most of Bayou Bend's gardens evolved between 1934 and 1942. Miss Hogg collaborated with professional landscape architects, especially the partnership of Pat Fleming and Albert Sheppard, to create an elegant series of gardens. An active and intrepid gardener, she acquired plants from across the country and experimented until she found varieties that could tolerate Houston's sultry weather, poor drainage, and alkaline soil. Miss Hogg is often credited with introducing camellias to Houston and with popularizing azaleas. In 1934 Bayou Bend was included in Houston's first Azalea Trail, sponsored by the River Oaks Garden Club, and since then it has been a highlight of the annual event.

The gardens changed little until the late 1950s, when the transformation from private to public estate began. A new entrance was added to the northwest of the house, and visitors now approach via Westcott Drive rather than the original entry on Lazy Lane.

Miss Hogg had been a member of the River Oaks Garden Club since 1928 -- just one year after it was established. In 1961 she invited the organization to assume permanent supervision of the grounds. Since then, the club's volunteers have generously devoted their time, talent, and resources to protecting, preserving, and restoring the estate. Now, after seven decades, the gardens at Bayou Bend remain a living testament to Miss Hogg's life and vision.

http://www.mfah.org/bayoubend