Double Bayou Dance Hall - Texas Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

Handbook of Texas Online, Steve Sucher, "DOUBLE BAYOU DANCE HALL," (visit link)

DOUBLE BAYOU DANCE HALL. Double Bayou Dance Hall, located in the small black community of Double Bayou in Chambers County, sixty miles east of Houston, was established in the late 1920s. It was damaged by a storm in the early 1940s and reestablished at its present site in 1946 by returning World War II serviceman Manuel Rivers, Jr., and his wife Ella.

The hall served as a gathering place during the week and a dance hall on the weekends. Mr. and Mrs. Rivers operated the dance hall until Manuel's death in 1983, whereupon their nephew, blues guitarist Floyd "Texas Pete" Mayes, began managing the property. The dance hall was built atop cedar logs and constructed of wood with hogwire for walls; it had a tin roof. Tar paper–covered walls and a low-clearance ceiling were later added. It accommodated 125 people.

From 1946 to the mid-1950s, Double Bayou Dance Hall was home to a thriving live-music scene that operated on the outer edge of the "Chitlin' Circuit." Major touring acts traveling to Houston, including T-Bone Walker and Big Joe Turner, would on occasion make impromptu stops at Double Bayou on a Thursday night. More frequent appearances were made by Amos Milburn (with Texas Johnny Brown on guitar), Gatemouth Brown, Sam Lightnin' Hopkins, Albert Collins, Johnny Copeland, Percy Mayfield, Joe Hughes, Barbara Lynn, and Clifton Chenier.

Pete Mayes and the Texas Houserockers played their first professional gig at Double Bayou Dance Hall in 1954 and served thereafter as the house band into the early 1960s. Weekly offerings of live music began to fade at the dance hall in the 1960s, in part because Mayes began traveling extensively. Nevertheless, the hall remained open as a local gathering spot and watering hole. Pete Mayes and his band routinely performed a Christmas Day matinee from 1955 to 2005. Starting in 1991, they played for scheduled tour groups from Houston and on other major holidays. In May 2003 Mayes and his band recorded a live album at the old hall and eventually released the CD Pete Mayes and the Texas Houserockers LIVE! at Double Bayou Dance Hall. With the onset in 2006 of Pete Mayes's failing health and up to his death on December 17, 2008, activities at the dance hall dropped significantly. The building suffered heavy damage during Hurricane Ike in September 2008 and was not in use in the 2010s.

Marker Number: 18317 Marker Text: Nestled in the thick woods and low-lying marshlands of east Texas lies the predominantly African American community of Double Bayou, named after twin waterways in the area. The community was originally settled by rancher John Jackson around 1847. Later, a local general store became the center of the community. Sugar cane, cotton and oil attracted farmers and workers to the commercial link to Galveston. After a hard day’s work, these workers, African American and Anglo, flocked to the little one-room dance hall which became known as Double Bayou Dance Hall. In the late 1920s and early 1930s during Juneteenth, many celebrants would travel from Galveston to Double Bayou. At its inception, the dance hall was little more than cedar logs laid out as a dance floor. In 1941, a storm destroyed the structure. Using the original materials, the dance hall was rebuilt after World War II not far down the road from the original location by Manuel Rivers, Jr. (1907-1983). Despite its meager appearance, the music that poured through the windows and doors filled the woods with the rich sound of Texas Blues. One resident of Double Bayou, Floyd “Pete” Mayes (1938-2008), grew up around the old dance hall and premiered in 1954 with his band, the Texas Houserockers. Over the next several decades, many blues legends performed at Double Bayou Dance Hall as it was a popular destination along the Chitlin’ Circuit, a group of nightclubs safe for African Americans to perform. Despite cultural and economic differences, once people entered Double Bayou Dance Hall, they shared their love of music and love of Texas Blues. Marker Is Property of The State of Texas (2015)

Visit Instructions:
Please include a picture in your log. You and your GPS receiver do not need to be in the picture. We encourage additional information about your visit (comments about the surrounding area, how you ended up near the marker, etc.) in the log.

Recent Visits/Logs:

There are no logs for this waymark yet.