Fourth Ward Cottage
Original location of the fourth Ward Cottage. Photo courtesy of Gerald Moorhead, photo c. 1988.
MEDICINE bottle was found in the attic when the house was moved in Sam Houston Park in 2002.
This 19th-century cottage was previously located at 809 Robin Street in Houston’s Fourth Ward. It was home to a German immigrant family in the middle of the 19th century before serving as a rental house for more than a century (1883 to 2001). By the turn of the 20th century it was part of the thriving African American neighborhood known as “Freedmen’s Town” which served as a major hub for black education, business, and culture after Emancipation.
The cottage is the result of two separate buildings joined together: a one room Acadian cottage (front portion) and a two-room cottage (back portion), which resulted in a “shotgun” layout, mimicking the adjacent houses on Robin Street. The building was modified over time to meet residents' needs, and evidence of these changes can now be seen in the exposed layers of materials inside the building. The cottage was relocated to Sam Houston Park in 2002.
Interior of the middle room, where visitors can learn more about the cottage's residents through the years.
Fourth Ward Cottage videos
Moving Fourth Ward Cottage
Construction Details Beneath Fourth Ward Cottage
Historic American Buildings Survey Drawings of the Fourth Ward Cottage
See map below for the original location of the Fourth Ward Cottage at 809 Robin Street.
UNESCO SITE OF MEMORY
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On Tuesday, January 18, 2022, 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, owned by the City, located in Fourth Ward, a neighborhood including Freedmen’s Town that was 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 enables us to continue telling African Americans stories in Houston, helps keep our history alive for new generations, and brings tourists to Houston.”
UNESCO stated that the three houses are an important initiative in preserving the history related to enslaved African Americans in Texas. The general public tours that The Heritage Society offers give a 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.
