Stepping into the Houston Museum of Decorative Arts means stepping into a living history lesson. The museum, which is housed in a Victorian home built in the 1890s, provides the perfect backdrop for the extensive collection of furniture, glassware, and pottery of Anna Safley Houston.
Anna’s life was as colorful and eclectic as her collection. Born in Arkansas in 1876, Anna left home as a teenager to travel the country as a hair model with a group of women called the Sutherland Sisters. “They traveled all over America and taught people about different hair products, how to strengthen your hair, things like that in a time when hygiene was really a new concept in America,” shared Pam Reed, director of the museum. “As Anna traveled, she met a lot of different people from different cultures across the country and was exposed to the finer things in life.” Anna also worked briefly as a buyer for Macy's in New York City and Marshall Field's in Chicago.
Anna moved to the Chattanooga area in the early 1900’s and opened a hat shop before settling into her true passion, buying and selling antiques. “She mostly sold furniture… beautiful handmade pieces, many of them made in Tennessee,” explained Reed. “She would travel all over the US and collect antiques, was very driven and hardworking, and had a big vision to leave these pieces behind.”
Before her death in 1951, when Anna’s collection was housed in a barn-like structure she built herself, Anna mobilized one hundred people in the community who committed to opening a museum to store and exhibit her collection. The first museum location opened in 1961 then moved to its current location on High Street in 1968.
“It's a very broad, one-woman collection of all kinds of things from the Victorian era,” said Reed. “Although her favorite thing to collect was definitely glass and pottery, and we've been historically known as a glass museum, we have swords from the Civil War, a hand grenade from World War I, and music boxes from Switzerland made in the 1890s that still work. We also house what is likely one of the largest collections of furniture made in Tennessee.”
“We have a huge collection of early American patterned glass from when the industry started to make molds,” she adds. “Unlike today, we were not a throwaway society at that time. So when they would go to the store and buy mustard, it would be in this gorgeous glass container shaped like an elephant. It was definitely an innovative time for glass making.”
The collection, which encompasses over twenty thousand pieces, also includes items such as nesting dolls, toys, inkwells, and shaving mugs.
Each year the museum hosts a multi-day antique show and sale fundraising event. This month the 50th Anniversary Antique Show and Sale will be held February 16-18 at the Read House Hotel. The show kicks off on Thursday evening with the Preview Party. Friday includes the opening of the sale to the public and an Appraisal Fair with Reid Dunavant of PBS' Antiques Roadshow, who will also be the keynote speaker at Saturday morning’s Champagne Brunch. A curated selection of vendors will have antiques available for sale during the three-day event.
Proceeds from the show and sale benefit the museum, which is slated to undergo an extensive renovation beginning in March. During the year and a half of renovation work, the museum will have a pop-up exhibit just down the street at the Back Inn Café.
The Houston Museum of Decorative Arts is located at 201 High Street. For more information on the museum, the collection, and the upcoming 50th Anniversary Antique Show and Sale, visit thehoustonmuseum.org or call 423-267-7176.
Follow @houstonmuseumofdecorativearts on Facebook and Instagram for up-to-date information on events and interesting information on the collection.
As Anna traveled, she met a lot of different people...and was exposed to the finer things in life.