Bayou Bend - Miss Ima Hogg Bayou Bend MFAH

Her Birth | Civic Life | Collector | Bayou Bend | Gardens

Birth of Bayou Bend

"While I shall always love Bayou Bend and everything there, in one sense I have always considered I was only holding my collection in trust."
Bayou Bend


Bayou Bend, the gracious home set upon 14 acres of formal and woodland gardens, was built for Miss Hogg and her brothers Will and Mike. Completed in 1928, the house was designed by the talented architect John Staub. Miss Hogg worked closely with Staub to develop an architectural style uniquely suited to the Texas Gulf Coast. Inspired by early American houses, Staub designed the interiors at Bayou Bend to showcase Miss Hogg's growing collection of American antiques.

By the 1950s, the collection had achieved national prominence. Although Miss Hogg had always intended to share these rare antiques with the public, there was no museum in Texas capable of housing the vast inventory. Her friend and fellow collector Henry Francis du Pont encouraged Miss Hogg to establish a house museum as he had done at Winterthur in Delaware. In 1957 she donated Bayou Bend and its collection to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Under Miss Hogg's guidance, the comfortable home was transformed into a superb showcase for American decorative arts.

The house opened to the public in 1966, but Miss Hogg continued to collect for her beloved Bayou Bend until her death in 1975 at age 93. Today, visitors to Bayou Bend continue to share the rich legacy of this extraordinary woman.

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This website was a created as a class project by students at the University of Houston College of Education. It is not the approved website for the Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens or the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Refer to the MFAH website for information about Bayou Bend at: http://www.mfah.org.