Heights Chapter House

Heights Chapter House occupies a restored 1910 Victorian bungalow in the heart of the Houston Heights, its wraparound porch and magnolia-shaded garden offering a refuge from the city's relentless pace and subtropical heat. The store was founded in 2004 by a pair of Rice University literature professors who wanted to create the kind of intimate, personal bookstore where staff know customers by name and recommendations are tailored to individual taste. The literary fiction section is the store's backbone, curated with a preference for ambitious prose and emotionally resonant storytelling. The memoir section is equally strong, and the poetry corner hosts one of Houston's longest-running weekly reading series. The gardening section reflects the Heights neighborhood's love of cottage gardens and native Texas landscaping, and the local history shelf documents the neighborhood's fascinating evolution from streetcar suburb to one of Houston's most desirable addresses. Sunday morning porch readings, where authors share their work over coffee and biscuits, have become a Heights institution that regularly draws crowds of fifty or more.