J. Vance Lewis House

The house at 1218 Wilson Street was built for Joseph Vance Lewis and his wife, Pauline Gray Lewis, in 1907.  Lewis was a mover and shaker in Freedmen’s Town, a pioneering and flamboyant lawyer of considerable ability but with a penchant for getting into trouble.  

Lewis was born into slavery on Christmas Day 1863 in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, near the town of Houma.  Although his parents died when he was still a boy, he nevertheless managed to graduate from Leland University in New Orleans and earn a teaching certificate from the Normal School in Orange, Texas, after which he taught school and became a principal in Angelina County.  Having gone to Pennsylvania to further his studies, he witnessed the Buffalo, New York trial of a Black man who was successfully defended by a Black attorney, and this experience seems to have strengthened his longstanding ambition to become an attorney himself.  In 1894, Lewis attended law school at Ann Arbor, Michigan, and was admitted to the Supreme Court of Michigan.  He subsequently attended the Chicago College of Law, and by 1897 was admitted to the Illinois bar as well.  In the same year, he applied to the bar of the United States Supreme Court and was admitted ten days later.  Of the 18 lawyers granted admittance at that time, he was the only Black admittee.

Lewis returned to New Orleans, but found the place “old and fixed in its way of doing things”.  By 1901, he had found his way to Houston, explaining in his memoirs that “I wanted to get into a city that was young, vigorous and enterprising”.  By this time, he had been practicing both criminal and civil law, and had started to make a name for himself by winning a number of high-profile criminal cases.  Admitted to the Texas bar in 1904, he continued his streak of successes in his newly-adopted hometown, winning an acquittal in his first major criminal trial there, in which he defended a man accused of murder.  As he recounted it later, “The news of the verdict spread rapidly throughout Houston, the reason being that a Negro lawyer, the first and only one that had ever appeared before a Harris County bar, had secured a verdict in favor of a Negro client.”

In 1902, Lewis married Pauline Gray, an educator and librarian, at Antioch Baptist Church in Freedmen’s Town.  He had the house at 1218 Wilson built in 1907 by Lincoln R. Jones, a prominent Black builder and contractor, for a cost of $2,800.  The land for the house was donated to the couple by Isabella Simms, who had been living in a previously-existing dwelling on the site of the new house; she moved next door to 1216 Wilson, today known as the Simms House.  

Lewis’ adult life took a number of diverse twists and turns that suggest an ambitious, restless and venturesome man.  In 1910, he published his autobiography “Out of the Ditch: A True Story of An Ex-Slave”.  In 1919, he co-founded Twentieth Century State Bank and Trust Company, and in 1920 made an attempt at entering politics, running (unsuccessfully) for district judge on the Republican Black and Tan ticket.  For a time, he was barred from practicing criminal law; at another point, he was thrown in jail.  In his autobiography, he made a point of observing that many people, both Black and white, were jealous of his success.  He was known for eloquent and fiery speeches, which he delivered all across the country, promoting the Republican Party and encouraging Blacks to work hard and educate themselves.

Through it all, Lewis continued to run his law practice.  In 1920, he relocated his office from downtown to 1218 Wilson, which thereby became known as the “Van Court”.  This nickname is understandable when one considers the house’s high ceilings, opulent bays and gables, and the elaborate transoms and moldings that grace its doorways.  Ambitious in its design, the Van Court in its heyday would have been impressive indeed, rendered all the more so by the outsize reputation of its proprietor.  Lewis reigned at the Van Court until his death on April 24, 1925, and is buried in Olivewood Cemetery

The J. Vance Lewis house was purchased by the Museum in February 2007, and received a City of Houston Protected Landmark designation as well as a Texas Historical Commission marker later that year.  Although the building has seen plenty of adversity - its foundation piers have deteriorated significantly, and roof leaks have damaged certain sections of the interior - there have been no significant deleterious architectural modifications to the original structure, and the building’s innate grandeur and immense potential are immediately apparent to the most casual visitor.  The Museum is actively seeking funds to underwrite its restoration.  In honor of its builder, the Lewis house will become a museum of law and education.