Jesse H. Jones at his desk

Jesse H. Jones built Houston’s skyline and ran the New Deal’s biggest bank

ByYvette Okafor

Photo: Harris & Ewing, photographer, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Jesse Holman Jones was born in Tennessee in 1874 and came to Houston in 1898 to work in his uncle’s lumber business. He went into real estate and construction, and by the 1920s he had built many of downtown Houston’s office buildings, hotels and theaters. He also bought the Houston Chronicle in 1926.

Jones helped bring the 1928 Democratic National Convention to Houston, which drew national attention to the city.

The New Deal

In 1932, President Hoover appointed Jones to the board of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, a federal agency set up to lend money to banks and businesses. Under President Franklin Roosevelt, he became chairman, and the RFC grew into one of the most powerful financial institutions in the country, lending billions to banks, railroads and industries. During World War II, it financed war production plants.

Jones also served as secretary of commerce from 1940 to 1945. He clashed with Vice President Henry Wallace and left government in 1945.

Houston Endowment

In 1937, Jones and his wife Mary Gibbs Jones created Houston Endowment, which became one of the largest private foundations in Texas. It continues to support education, the arts and health in Houston.

Jones died in 1956. His name is on Jones Hall, home of the Houston Symphony, and the Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice. Several of his downtown buildings still stand.

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