Foundation History

The mission of the Sugar Land Heritage Foundation is to research, collect, preserve, and communicate the history, culture and values of the Sugar Land community, to help guide the community for the future.

The incentive for forming the SLHF was the shutdown of the refinery in 2003. The refinery site, which had been processing sugar since the mid-1800’s, contained a vast treasure trove of historical artifacts, documents, and photographs that traced the evolution of the site from its early days as a working plantation into its more modern era as a company town.

We hope that you’ll become involved with the Sugar Land Heritage Foundation—as a donor, a volunteer, or both. Please help us preserve the rich and unique history of our city for future generations.

The Sugar Land Heritage Foundation was incorporated as a 501(c)(3) organization in March 2008, with the first Board meeting in October 2008.

We want to thank Johnson Development for providing SLHF with temporary headquarters on the Imperial Sugar refinery site in the Engineering and Personnel Building, which was located next to the iconic 1925 Char House. Johnson Development’s generosity allowed SLHF to renovate the space to create an office, a collections storage area, a cataloging workroom, and a small museum exhibit gallery, where we enlightened the public for more than eight years.

We would also like to thank the City of Sugar Land, Kempner Fund, Cherokee Investments, Imperial Sugar, the Fort Bend Museum Association, and community representatives for their generous support in making the SLHF Museum a reality.

The catalyst in the formation of the SLHF was the closing of the Imperial Sugar refinery in 2003. The refinery, which had been in continual operation since the mid 1800s, housed a vast historical treasure trove of artifacts, documents, and photographs that traced the evolution of the site from its early days as a working plantation into its more modern era as a company town.

Many organizations began to work together at this time to ensure that the priceless artifacts and the history of the site were preserved. The City of Sugar Land, the Imperial Sugar Company, and Cherokee Investments developed a partnership approach to the creation of a community-based heritage museum which would collect, preserve, and exhibit the collection on the refinery site.

The Sugar Land Heritage Foundation was incorporated as a 501(c)(3) organization in March 2008, with the first Board meeting in October 2008. The City of Sugar Land has provided the seed funding for the formation of the Sugar Land Heritage Foundation along with generous support from Kempner Fund, Cherokee Investments, Johnson Development, Imperial Sugar, the Fort Bend Museum Association, and community representatives.