Welcome to Litsy!

This ambitious book, originally published by Rice University Press in 1991, describes Houston home life and culture from the settlement of Houston to World War I, when rapid economic development spelled demolition for many notable nineteenth-century public buildings. Sadie Gwin Blackburn discusses landscape and horticulture, from the early plantations and the farms of German immigrants in Harris County to the residential gardens of early twentieth-century Houston. Barrie M. Scardino traces the development of domestic architecture from the log cabins built along the bayous in the 1820s to the grand Neville house built at 11 Courtlandt Place. Katherine S. Howe focuses on the evolution of home interiors, describing how four-poster beds were used to support mosquito netting and likely had mattresses filled with Spanish moss. Dorothy Knox Howe Houghton addresses domestic life and its influence on the social and cultural fabric of the city, describing how schools, religious assemblies, and even businesses evolved from the home.