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By Chris O’Connell in
Features, November | December 2021
At
November 1, 2021 at 7:59 am |
John Chase was a man of the firsts. He was the first black graduate student to sign enrollment papers at UT Austin. Chase was the first licensed black architect in the state of Texas and the first to be inducted into the Texas Society of Architects. And Chase, March ’52, Life Member, Distinguished Alumnus, was the first black president of the Texas Exes. These in themselves immeasurable achievements represent only a fraction of his pioneering life.
That’s because Chase wasn’t just on the front lines for so many more – his family, the architectural scene, the cities of Houston and Austin; he was transcendent. While he was not properly recognized for his immense work during his lifetime (he died in 2012 at the age of 87), a new appraisal of his importance recently began with UT architecture professor David Heymann, who co-authored John S. Chase – The Chase Residence, an investigation of this first modernist building in Houston.
And now Tara Dudley, a professor at the UT Austin School of Architecture who went to graduate school with the help of the John S. Chase Fellowship, is working on Chase’s first biography. “He’s so important,” she says. “I want to put everything in the book, but I also realize that I could probably work on it for 10 years and not be satisfied.”
The following pictures are intended to convey a feeling for the inseparable in these facets of this meaningful life: his work, his community and his family.
John Chase was the first black graduate student to sign his enrollment papers at the University of Texas on June 7, 1950 – just two days after the Supreme Court ruling Sweatt v Painter. “He was very humble about the whole ordeal, really, without making it seem like an ordeal,” says Dudley. “Because surely there were things that he went through personally, mentally and emotionally on that occasion. But I think for him it was just one step towards the broader goal of becoming a licensed architect. “
John and Drucie Chase on the plaque marking UT’s Heman Sweatt Campus in 1988. “They definitely had respect for each other,” says Dudley. “Chase realized that without Sweatt he would never have made it into the subtitles. In interviews, he said that when it comes to Chase v. Painter would probably have been the one who would never have graduated because he was the public face of this very important event in history. “
Although Chase designed many houses, his own was the most important. Completed in 1959, the Chase family opened their home to everyone from political heavyweights like Sen. Lloyd Bentsen and Rep. Barbara Jordan to heavyweight boxing champions Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. It became a place for political receptions, high profile parties and a forum for exchanging ideas.
A model of the potential US embassy in Tunis, Tunisia, designed by John Chase’s company in 1992. Although Chase designed many local buildings from his Houston, Dallas, and Austin offices, he also had an office in Washington, DC, and designed buildings at the Washington Technical Institute and the national headquarters of the Delta Sigma Theta Sisterhood.
A depiction of the John Chase residence as seen through the courtyard. This detail was an integral part of the house, as an idiosyncratic design element, as a place of solitude for the family and as a meeting place for parties and political gatherings. However, it was not originally popular with Drucie. “At one point she burst into tears because she didn’t know how this open atrium was supposed to work,” says Dudley. “In many ways it became the heart of the house.”
Chase and his two sons Anthony (left) and John Jr. (right) in front of the Chase residence in Houston. The family was incredibly important to Chase, and the house served as both an office and primary residence. “This is John and the two boys in front of the house he designed for the family and the first incarnation of that, because in 1968 they added this fantastic second story,” says Dudley. “I love it. Tony doesn’t wear shoes, and in the window in the glass to the right of the door you can see Ms. Drucie, her reflection there.”
Copies of John S. Chase – The Chase Residence, published by UT Press in 2020. Written by historian and Rice architecture professor Stephen Fox and UT architecture professor David Heymann, the book tells the story of the John Chase residence, a modernist House by an open air courtyard with its own koi pond.
A depiction of the John Chase residence after an extension in the late 1960s added a bedroom, bathroom and playroom and doubled the height of the courtyard, to which a staircase was added. Chase also built a home office upstairs, but the family man preferred to spend his working hours away from it. “John Chase had his studio space, but he ended up drawing in the family room, the family room of the house,” says Dudley. “He had an office, but it didn’t seem like he used it very much.”
Chase at UT beginning 1985. He founded the Black Alumni Advisory Committee with the Texas Exes and became the organization’s first black president in 1998. “I think he understood how to be a role model for other black alumni, especially African American students who came after him at the School of Architecture,” says Dudley. “Overall, it was definitely a sense of pride to graduate from college and have a relationship, which is wonderful.”
Check out our Alcalde Doc on John Chase.
Credits: Illustration by Ricardo Martinez Ortega, photo research by Matt Wright-Steel, Courtesy Briscoe Center for American History (3), Drawing by David Heymann, Brooke Burnside, Sarah Spielman and Wei Zhou (2), Courtesy of Hester + Hardway, with kind permission Permission from the Chase family (2), courtesy of UT Press
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A Glimpse Into the Life of Trailblazing Architect John Chase
