Isabelle Simms House

The lots at 1216 and 1218 Wilson Street, present-day sites of the Isabelle Simms and J. Vance Lewis houses, were purchased by Isabelle Simms on November 7, 1874, a mere nine years after the conclusion of the Civil War.  Simms worked as a domestic servant for several employers, and her husband Charles was a wood hauler.  The 1870 Census lists the couple as residents of Clay Street in the Fourth Ward and natives of Louisiana.  Although we have no details of their early lives, the timeline suggests that they were likely both born into slavery.  By the time of Mrs. Simms’ purchase, she had been widowed; Reverend Jack Yates, pastor of Antioch Baptist Church, which Mrs. Simms attended, was known to encourage his congregants to purchase land, and assisted Mrs. Simms with her purchase.  

Mrs. Simms soon had a home built on her land, in the place where the J. Vance Lewis house now stands; that residence is listed in the 1879-1880 Houston City Directory.  In 1896, she conveyed a portion of her property to Pauline Gray, a younger woman who may have been a relative, and who later became the wife of attorney J. Vance Lewis.  The 1897-1898 Houston City Directory shows a house at 1216 Wilson under Pauline’s name.  In 1907, by which time Pauline Gray had married Lewis, the couple demolished Mrs. Simms’ house at 1218 Wilson in order to make way for construction of the house today known as the J. Vance Lewis house.  Isabelle Simms moved at this time to the house at 1216 Wilson, which she shared with Rosa Williams, Pauline’s grandmother.  It is not clear whether the 1216 Wilson house extant today was constructed at this time, or whether the existing structure from c. 1897 was renovated.  

After Isabelle Simms’ death in 1915, 1216 Wilson remained in the Lewis family, which used it as a rental property.  Following J. Vance Lewis’s death in 1925, Pauline continued to reside at 1218 Wilson until her death in 1963.  1216 Wilson continued to serve as rental property, passing through the hands of a couple of owners until its purchase by the Rutherford B. H. Yates Museum in 2007.  The house was listed as a contributing property of high significance at the formation of the Freedmen’s Town National Register Historic District in 1985, and designated a Protected Landmark by the City of Houston in 2008 at the behest of the Museum.  Today, it is used for archaeology instruction and field-work programs through a cooperative agreement between the Museum and Lone Star College.

The Isabelle Simms house at 1216 Wilson is a modest, four-room, wood-frame cottage elevated on masonry piers.  It features a frontal gable and intersecting side gable, and a small front porch with shed roof.  What was originally a back porch was enclosed at some point to accommodate a kitchen.  The building’s footprint has remained consistent across Sanborn Fire Insurance Company maps of 1907, 1924 and 1951, indicating that the building retains a high degree of architectural integrity. The R. B. H. Yates Museum is working to raise funds to repair and restore the house.