It doesn’t get more old school than The Houston Club. Founded in 1894, this all-boys club served as the gathering spot for the men who molded the city, from Jesse H. Jones to John Henry Kirby, William Marsh Rice, J.S. Cullinan, W.S. Farish, W.W. Fondren, Will and Mike Hogg, Ben Taub, Hugh Roy Cullen, Mayor Oscar Holcombe, Judge James A. Elkins, George Brown, M.D. Anderson, Judge Roy Hofheinz, General Maurice Hirsh, Gus Wortham, Eddy Scurlock and President George H.W. Bush, who was once club director. It may sound like we’re reeling off street and building names, but these long-standing members, former and present, make up the oldest private membership club in Texas. And it hasn’t changed dramatically in the past 125 years. (Except for the “all boys” part; those of the female persuasion were allowed into its ranks in, ahem, 1982.)
Images: The 1894 Room, circa 1970s; Barber Shop, circa 1950s – 1960s
As it was at the turn of the last century, the HC — modeled after a traditional British gentlemen’s club — remains a social and business enclave where you can meet for a drink, head-huddle on the dilemmas of the day, wheel and deal in well-appointed meeting rooms, and get a shoeshine, a haircut and a nice rye whiskey, too. Founded with just nine members, today its membership has swelled to more than 1,000, with a phalanx of powerful women club-goers. Junior members 39 and under are a growing membership who join to hear lecturers, mingle at cocktail soirées, attend Black Tie Boxing in the Texas Room and rub ranks with the powerful.
Image: The Ed Sullivan Band
Perched on floors eight to 10 in the Houston Club Building at 811 Rusk that was built by Jesse Jones, the HC has a rotary-dial phone in the tiny telephone nook in its 1894 Bar, although the club does have wireless access. In 1955, artist David Adickes created the mural of Houston circa 1893 that still graces the wall of the Rusk Room, a clubby meeting area where the thick walls allow confidential conversations to go no further. The Barber Shop on the eighth floor opened in the ’50s, and little has changed. The same might be said of the health club on the eighth floor, where a vintage belt massage machine (you know, the sort that shakes your hips around as you do nothing but stand still) keeps company next to newer equipment and free weights.
Images: Mimosa Room, 1957; Pete Landry at a Club 17 dance in the Men’s Grill, 1956
Meet at noon for lunch in the Bush Room, and you’ll find it filled with boldfaced notables who might be mentioned in the business pages more than the social ones. This mise en scène includes polite, suited waiters and wonderful, old-school country club food on a groaning buffet, such as prime rib, seafood gumbo, fried chicken and the famous bread pudding served since the ’20s — all of which will convince you that the vibe is the same your dad, grand-dad, perhaps even great-grand dad might have enjoyed. One of the last great bastions of Houston business society, The Houston Club is, thankfully, still a powerhouse.
All images courtesy of "The Houston Club and Its City: One Hundred Years" by Dorothy Knox Howe Houghton, 1994