Plan to Tour Greater Houston’s UNESCO Slave Route Project

Three of the Heritage Society’s historic homes in Sam Houston Park receive UNESCO designation

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) designated three historic house sites located in Sam Houston Park as part of its “Slave Route Project”.  The three historic houses are located in historic Freedmen’s Town, a neighborhood west of downtown Houston settled by emancipated slaves after the Civil War.

“We applied for the UNESCO designation in 2017 to add the sites and stories of the 1847 Kellum-Noble House, the 1870 Reverend Jack Yates House, and the 1866 Fourth Ward Cottage,” The Heritage Society’s board member and Reverend Jack Yates’ great-granddaughter, Martha Whiting-Goddard said.  “The UNESCO designation helps tell Houston’s Black history stories and how our neighborhoods transformed and how civil rights evolved after Emancipation.”

UNESCO stated that the three houses are an important initiative to preserving the history related to enslaved African Americans in Texas.  The general public tours that The Heritage Society offers give a precise sense of the lives of African-Americans in Houston before and after the Civil War, enabling visitors to better understand the concrete effects that such historical events had on African-Americans’ lives.

The three historic homes will be joining the following seven UNESCO Slave Route Project sites that were designated in 2019: Emancipation Park, 1872; Olivewood Cemetery, 1875; African American Library at the Gregory School, 1810; Reverend Ned Pullum and Emma Eddy Pullum House, 1897;  Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, 1866; Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project at the Port of Galveston, 18th and 19th centuries; and Workman’s Cottage Barber and Beauty Shop.

UNESCO launched the initiative in 1994 to contribute to a better understanding of slavery, to promote sites and itineraries of memory related to the slave trade and the contributions of the descendants of African people, and to preserve archives and intangible heritage associated with this history.  A long-term goal of the Slave Route Project is to create opportunities for heritage tourism, enabling visitors to follow the steps of the forced migration of slavery from Africa to North and South America, as well as other parts of the world such as the Middle East and Asia.

“We give credit to our committee’s persistence and Jane Landers, a Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of History at Vanderbilt University, in obtaining this honorary designation.” The Heritage Society’s board president, Minnette Boesel said.  Landers is a historian of Colonial Latin America and the Atlantic World specializing in the history of Africans and their descendants in those worlds.

“Thanks to board members like Martha Whiting-Goddard, our Black history tours are like walking into a time machine and experiencing lifestyles in the late 19th and early 20th centuries,” said Boesel. “Guests listen to stories and see authentic antiques during Houston’s eras of slavery, emancipation, and reconstruction.”

“Our Black History Tours are docent-led walking tours of the Kellum-Noble House, the Yates House, and the Fourth Ward Cottage.”  The Heritage Society’s executive director, Alison Bell said. A history of the Kellum-Noble house discusses urban slavery in Houston, whereas the Yates House and the Fourth Ward Cottage tell about life in the community known as Freedmen’s Town established by Black Americans.

“One reason to visit these UNESCO designated sites is that The Reader’s Digest also twice named the Jack Yates House as the most famous houses in Texas,” said Bell.  “Another reason to visit is that our houses are beautifully preserved.” The 1847 Kellum-Noble House, the oldest building in Houston still on its original site, was named a 2021 Good Brick Award recipient by Preservation Houston.

Black History Tours are available from Wednesday through Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and on Sundays for reservations made in advance.  Picnics and outings in the City’s oldest park, Sam Houston Park, are encouraged. 

Tour information is available at https://www.heritagesociety.org/black-history-tours.