Third Ward landmark: the Dr. B.J. Covington House, built in 1911 at 2219 Dowling Street for prominent African-American physician Benjamin J. Covington and his wife, Jennie. Covington, born in Falls County, graduated from medical school in 1900; he moved to Houston in 1903 and maintained a practice here for the next 58 years. Dr. Covington was among the founders of the Houston Negro Hospital (later Riverside General Hospital); his wife helped establish the YWCA Blue Triangle Branch and served as chair of the Texas State Committee on Race Relations. Through the years, the Covingtons hosted a number of prominent African-American visitors, including singer Marian Anderson, orator and writer William Pickens, and educator Booker T. Washington.

The Covingtons died in the 1960s, after which the house was occupied by relatives, then abandoned and vandalized. In the late 1970s, the neighboring Wesley Chapel AME Church announced plans to build an educational building on the Covington House site, and the Houston Citizens Chamber of Commerce attempted to raise money to have the house moved to Baldwin Park on Elgin Avenue, where it would be restored. Unfortunately, those plans didn’t work out and the house was demolished. Its lot, on the northeast corner of Dowling and Hadley, remains vacant today.

Source: Preservation Houston, www.preservationhouston.org