Eldorado Ballroom

Location: Houston, Texas

ELDORADO BALLROOM. Throughout the middle part of the twentieth century, Houston's Eldorado Ballroom reigned as one of the finest showcases in Texas for the live performance of black secular music—mostly blues, jazz, and R&B, but occasionally also pop and zydeco. This venue, owned and operated by African Americans, occupied the entire second floor of the Eldorado Building, located across from historic Emancipation Park on the southwest quadrant of the intersection of Elgin and Dowling Streets in the Third Ward, home to the city's largest black population...

Click here for full text of article on the Handbook of Texas Online, courtesy of the Texas State Historical Association.