Live Oak Friends Meeting History

Live Oak Friends Meeting began in the mid-1950s as a handful of seekers who met for evening worship at a private home. Later, as we grew in number, “home” moved eight more times, until we decided to buy a modest, blue-painted frame house with its own small garage apartment in the Heights in 1983 where we stayed for twelve years.

In early 1995, we purchased land in Shady Acres to build a larger Meetinghouse. In December of 1995, Hiram Butler, a newcomer to our meeting, introduced us to James Turrell, a Quaker artist whose medium was light. Turrell spoke of his Quaker background and shared his dream of creating a “ Skyspace ” in a Friends meetinghouse. With the enthusiastic support from many parts of Houston, especially the art community, The Live Oak Meeting House Project was born.

The new building opened in the fall of 2000, and has been a home to LOFM and a resource to the larger community ever since. To provide additional space for children’s religious education, Friends purchased a small frame house from our neighbor, who had lived there with her family for over forty years. The addition of a neighborhood house to the project reflected our desire to become an integral part of the neighborhood. The “Little House” also provides a place for outreach and community participation as a service to the neighborhood.

Timeline

Here’s a timeline of important milestones in Live Oak Friends Meeting history.

1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s