Eldorado Ballroom

The Historic Eldorado Ballroom at Project Row Houses

Located at 2310 Elgin Street, this historic venue has welcomed generations of Third Ward residents for dancing, celebrations, and special occasions. It has undergone a complete rehabilitation that has restored its historic façade and finishes, brought it up to modern accessibility standards, and upgraded all of its operating systems.

Booking the Ballroom

Please email Shelly Travis or call 713.412.9886 or 713.526.7662 to book the Eldorado Ballroom. 

If you email or leave a message, please include the date(s) you are inquiring about and any information that would be useful for our team to know. 

The Space

The ground floor now features The ‘Rado MKT, a café and local market that has an attached room that can be used for small events or meetings; The Hogan Brown Gallery, a working artists’ gallery; an outdoor patio; and a smaller community  meeting space, the Dupree Room. The 2nd floor ballroom is an incredible venue for live music, dancing, and celebrating, as well as meetings, symposiums, workshops, or other gatherings. The annex has two ancillary rooms that can serve as green rooms or bride and groom rooms, plus an outdoor terrace overlooking Emancipation Park. 

The History

In 2006, Houston History Magazine published a chronicle of the Eldorado’s history, including its legacy as a world-renowned music venue. The Handbook of Texas, a Texas State Historical Association resource, also delves into the Ballroom’s story, and also provides an excellent starting place to learn about its founders, Anna Johnson Dupree and Clarence Dupree, some of Houston’s most influential Black entrepreneurs and philanthropists.

The Duprees engaged Houston architect Lenard Gabert Sr., who, like Anna, was born in East Texas. Many of his works can still be seen across Houston, including temples for Congregations Beth Yeshurun and Emanu El, but the Eldorado stands out as a rare exemplar of late Art Deco and early International style in Houston.

In 1999, the Eldorado Ballroom was gifted to Project Row Houses. After four years of renovations, the Eldorado re-opened in May 2003 for its first major event in over 30 years, raising $75,000 toward continuing improvements on the building, and reminding people of what this proud institution means to the community.

We encourage you to spend some time following the links above. And we definitely encourage you to listen to one of our Eldorado Ballroom playlists, like a mix with blues, jazz, and r&b, or a quick jazz set, of this great mix one of the project’s friends put together. Each one has music from the stars who graced its stage when it was the heart and soul of Third Ward.

As it is now!

We hope you enjoy digging in to the story of this legendary venue, and we’d love your support to help us close out the capital campaign and maintain this amazing cultural institution in perpetuity. Click below to give!