Memorial Park - Formerly Camp Logan, U.S. Army Training

   Location of Interest: Memorial Park (Houston, Tx) 

   Previous: Camp Logan: Active 1917 - 1919
   Coordinates: 29° 45’ 53” N 95° 26’ 28” W

Memorial Park is currently a municipal park within the City of Houston, Texas, and it is one of the largest urban parks in the United States. Established in 1924, Memorial Park includes nearly 1, 500 acres within the city's central district, located inside Interstate Loop 610, and south of Interstate 10. Memorial Drive bisects the park, heading east to downtown Houston and west beyond the loop. 

This overlay shows the camp plotted over the current area of
and surrounding Memorial Park. Courtesy of Louis Aulbach*.

While residents enjoy the park's extensive amenities—including the 18-hole Memorial Park Golf Course, (opened in 1936), tennis, softball, swimming, track, croquet, volleyball, skating, cycling and a 2,93 mile running course—many are unaware of the park's original, somewhat notorious backstory.

From 1917 to 1923, Memorial Park was not a municipal facility. It was the site of Camp Logan, a World War I US Army training camp. In those years, the site was on far west the fringes of the city. Concrete remnants from building foundations can still be found, along with trenches used for training or dungheaps. Several trails throughout the park trace the routes of old Camp Logan roads. One stretch of a Camp Logan road remains in original condition, that being the shell-surfaced service road to the golf course.

Construction of Camp Logan was rushed after the US entered WWI in the spring of 1917. As the camp was being constructed, the Third Battalion of the Twenty-fourth United States Infantry Regiment was ordered to Houston. This was an all black regiment, except for seven white commissioned officers. Houston at that time was a segregated city. 

Camp Logan is tainted because black soldiers at the camp were involved in the Houston Riot, a violent action triggered by the belief that a fellow soldier was unfairly jailed by Houston Police. Indeed, two soldiers were unlawfully arrested and beaten by two white officers. Tensions rose due to rumors and resentment between the black soldiers and the Houston police. About 150 armed soldiers marched into west Houston, where tensions erupted into violence. Seventeen people were dead by the time things calmed down. Casualties included four police officers, nine civilians, and two soldiers. One soldier and a police officer later died from wounds received during the riot, and one soldier died in police captivity.

The regiment was sent back to it's original base in New Mexico, while dozens of black soldiers remained at Fort Sam Houston for court martial. They were tried and those not sentenced to hang received life sentences. No white officers were reprimanded.

A year later, Camp Logan became the focal point of the first widespread local outbreak of the deadly 1918 Spanish Flu. By the end of September, more than 600 cases were reported by the US Army surgeons at the camp. The surgeons chose to send the sick to homes and hospitals in the community in an effort to protect remaining healthy soldiers at the camp. Within weeks, 48 of those soldiers died and the flu spread throughout Houston. On October 9th, the epidemic took 33 victims. Flu cases in the city exploded into thousands, and quarantines went into effect and lasting 14 days. This meant that schools, churches restaurants, and other public gatherings were shut down. 

Original map of Camp Logan (UH Digital Library)

By the time Will and Mike Hogg purchased Camp Logan land, the camp had been closed for four years. The Hoggs sold the land to the city of Houston at cost. The decision was to establish a park dedicated to the memory of soldiers who lost their lives serving in World War I.   

Memorial Park Golf Course Details: The course has a course rating of 73 and a slope rating of 122. It was designed by John Bredemus. Rnovations in 1995 cost of $7 million.The ashes of former professional golfer Dave Marr were spread over the course after Marr's death, as Memorial Park was the course where he learned to play golf.

*Louis Aulbach is a Houston historian, and co-authored the paper, Camp Logan - a World War I Training Base on Buffalo Bayou.