Dear Supporters of The Heritage Society,

As we step into the promise of a new year, I want to take a moment to express my heartfelt gratitude to you, our valued supporters. Your unwavering support has been the driving force behind elevating Houston’s history, and we are truly thankful for the trust you've placed in us to bring you and the public celebratory events, more tour offerings, and educational programs at our museum complex that stretches across 20 acres in the historic Sam Houston Park.

As we embark on the journey into 2024, we are thrilled about what lies ahead. We have exciting plans and projects in the pipeline, all designed with your interests and preferences in mind. We are gearing up to be more interactive, more engaging, and become a strong platform and location for Houston’s diverse communities.

2023 was a year of many highs filled with opportunities and only just a few unexpected lows thankfully. We strived to deliver activities that informed, inspired, and entertained. Although our fiscal year ends in May, we would like to share a calendar of highlights for 2023 of how your support uplifted our progress. Below is also a graphic that displays our improvements.

2023 HIGHLIGHTS

Financials

We participated in a Rice University Capstone Business Plan exercise with two groups for approximately 3 months. We implemented and looked into many of their suggestions. 

Strategic Development

Our Strategic Planning Committee chaired by board member Angela Caughlin conducted a board retreat and was facilitated by a professional museum consultant from the Texas Association of Museums.

Development: Fundraisers/Grants/Membership

We continued the Evening of Heritage at Tony’s and highlighted two restaurants’ (Tony’s and Maxim’s) family history and dynasty. The event, chaired by Joanne Zumbrun, was sold-out and was the highest revenue for this event since 2018.

The Legendary Houston Gala, Love Street Light Circus, chaired by Jillian Jopling and Peter McGillivray, and Honorary Chairs, C. C. and Duke Ensell, honored legendary artist David Adickes. Artwork donated by Christy and Lou Cushman & David Adickes helped to make our silent auction interesting and successful.

Harriet and Truett Latimer & John L. Nau, III co-chaired the Houston Heritage Luncheon featuring James E. Bruseth, archaeologist and author of From a Watery Grave about the excavation and preservation of the La Belle, “the ship that changed history.” Valérie Baraban, Consul General of France in Houston, spoke about French Heritage and the strong France-Texas connection. The event raised the highest revenue for the luncheon since 2007.

We revived See Interesting Places (SIP), at The Beaconsfield, a historic apartment building in downtown Houston built in 1911.

For the Annual Fund, we raised slightly more than previous year for the End of Fiscal Year Campaign. And for the End of Calendar Year Campaign, there was a match from the Bybee Foundation, and we raised 40% than 2022. In addition, we received matched gifts from Shell and CenterPoint Energy.

Here are some of the generous grants we received - Houston Arts Alliance, John P. McGovern Foundation, Strake Foundation, J.W. Couch Foundation, and Albert & Ethel Herzstein Foundation.

Memberships increased by 35% over 2023. We offered member events for the League of Urban Latin American Citizens (LULAC) exhibit, the New Red Book exhibit, and Women’s Equality Day.

Gift Shop

In general, December was our best month for business. Our top sales items were The Heritage Cats T-shirts designed by staff. Our new T-shirts with our historic houses help advertise who we are.

An inventory/sales management project was completed and discontinued items purchased prior to 2021 will be sold in a 2024 winter sale.

We returned to Bayou City Arts Festival for two days instead of one.

Facility Rentals

We had an 8% increase in facility rental sales revenue and served a larger population.

We have a greater ongoing partnership with the Mayor’s Office of Special Events and their regular lessees at Sam Houston Park.

Staff/Interns/Volunteers

We hired Julio Ascencio and Nicole McCarthy. Nicole was a former intern for us. Julio is a long-term volunteer for us.

We had two employees graduate from UH History department.

We recruited one of our volunteers Khi Stephens to be an actress for elevated tours in 2024.

We had more interns this year and a better working relationship with a volunteer source, ReEmployability agency.

Our teen volunteer groups - National Honor Society, Leading Ladies, and Youth Council - returned for the 3rd year to assist us in events.

Collections

Joanne Zumbrun and a team began a THS archives project in preparation for our 70th anniversary.

Houses

The Pillot family had their annual Christmas Dinner at the Pillot House.

The Nichols-Rice-Cherry House was featured on KHOU, and the Kellum-Noble House was on Great Day Houston for Women’s History.

NPR and Constellation Energy nationally featured the Jack Yates House for Juneteenth.

A truck ran into the Nichols-Rice-Cherry House and received a great deal of social media attention.

Our Mexican American mural received media mentions for National Hispanic Heritage Month again.

The Staiti House was invaded by mischievous racoons and is now repaired and open for tours.

Programs

Our Programs committee was revived after many years. Vicki Faulkner is the head of the committee.

German American Heritage interactive learning activities for children were added.

Mister McKinney and an educational software company hosted Teachers to a gallery/bus tours event.

Facebook Live, online history programs, continued for the third year by Mister McKinney. He reached 2,263 Facebook viewers and more viewers on Instagram.

We expanded on the Juneteenth Program, thanks to Martha Whiting-Goddard and Rae Bryant.

We communicated Accessibility through our website.

Tours

HTV Houston filmed our tours many times and used the reels in City presentations and social media.

German American Heritage Tours are now year-round.

Mister McKinney offered four free National Hispanic Heritage Month Bus Tours thanks to sponsor Constellation Energy.

We improved our process for booking Group Tours and Field Trips.

We received formal training, over a 6-month project period, from a Tourism consultant, paid for by VisitHouston, who helped us implement business best practices to prepare for an elevated Black History Tour that will be offered in February.

We extended Teacakes and Tours in June from 1 day to 3 days.

Airbnb added our tours as an experience.

Events 

We outdid ourselves by offering 6.58 events/programs/fundraisers per month, a 23% increase compared to 2022.

A stronger collaboration with AIAH helped us sell out on our events featuring Stephen Fox. We are collaborating with them for a Spring 2024 event.

We upgraded our partnership with Downtown Houston + for Holiday Bus Hub for 14 evenings with hot chocolate, an evening market, free Santa pics that served families and people who had never been to THS or who work during the day. About 40 social media influencers also featured us on their posts.

Exhibits

Constellation Energy was a platinum sponsor for 2 diverse exhibits and created national promotional videos for Juneteenth and Hispanic Heritage Month.

Dr. Lindsay Gary, a new exhibitor, brought us re-enactments, music, and cultural activities. She involved 8+ other Black organizations.

We had an increase in museum gallery admission due to later hours during the holidays.

We had more pop-up exhibits.

Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo (HLSR) revolved heritage themes at their exhibit to be inclusive and recognize Black and Hispanic Heritage. They also had a case highlighting what they do for children with disabilities/illnesses.

We offered a Free Museum Day for the LULAC exhibit that was well attended.

Community Outreach

We reached out to 12 organizations last year, and 9 this year. We had to cancel 3 due to how busy we were with the increase of events. We reached children from Greater Houston/Art Car Parade, Aldine Houston Public Library, and Spring at Pearl Fincher Museum. The rest were historical public speaking events for adults. These were free for attendees.

Community Collaborations

We actively engaged in approximately 98 collaborations with organizations, a 133% increase compared to 2022!

Our board networked with at least 70 organizations, an increase of 17% compared to 2022.

Our Executive Director was on the board of directors for Dia de Los Muertos and Juneteenth Houston for the 3rd year.

City of Houston also recognized us with declarations for Happy Birthday Houston, The New Red Book Exhibit, and The LULAC Exhibit.

Media

We had a banner year with 13 media mentions a month, a 29% increase in mentions compared to 2022. This is the highest we have ever had and 2023 is also the most TV coverage we have ever had.

We were featured in the New York Times; this was the first time we have been mentioned in their publication.

We had record breaking TV coverage with all stations with collaboration with Harris County Clerk Offices and judges (more than half $1 million in TV coverage in value).

We made the Front Page of Houston Chronicle (for the second time, first time was in 2019?) for the LULAC exhibit.

Minnette invested in publicizing the 60th Anniversary for Kennedy’s Visit to Houston with LULAC. We worked with Outreach Strategists (free service) who provided us with the TV media value of $178,520 with 1,045,954 viewership.

Board Member Mister McKinney created media relations opportunities such as River Oaks History and Holiday Lights Bus Tour with KHOU anchors and personalities.

Board Member Dr. Don Williams had more than 8,500 views on a reel for MLK Day Parade Midtown.

We had two record-breaking Instagram posts for Holiday Bus Tours via a collaboration with Downtown District + and Visit Houston (our highest post had 266,763 views, 7,377 likes, and 8,299 shares).

Our Houston First collaboration with travel journalists resulted in reaching millions of tourists’ readership internationally, especially from the UK, and we noticed an increase in international visitors. Mister McKinney, Minnette, and Cian assisted.

Analytics for Google, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Newsletter all had improvements.

We successfully implemented Google Analytics 4 GA4 in June.

Constellation Energy launched national video campaigns for our exhibits for Juneteenth and National Hispanic Heritage Month.

HTV Houston featured our tours in City videos shown to thousands on social media and in City presentations.

VisitHouston made professional park videos of our houses and added to their media gallery.

HOUniquely yours,

Alison Ayres Bell