Acres Homes: A Freedom Community on the Prairie

On the northwest prairie, far from the city center, Acres Homes grew into what was once the largest unincorporated Black community in the American South. It began during World War I, when Houston landowners sold homesites large enough for a garden, a few chickens, and some hogs — parcels measured by the acre, not the city lot, which gave the community its name. Marketed as 'a bit of genteel country' where African Americans could own land and house together, Acres Homes flourished as a self-contained world even without city water, sewers, or streetlights, its people helping one another the way rural neighbors do. This driving tour visits the churches, schools, and community landmarks that Acres Homes built for itself before Houston finally annexed it between 1967 and 1974. Drive it with respect for a neighborhood that made freedom and self-reliance its foundation.