The late six-time Grammy winner grew up in East Orange, New Jersey, in a white clapboard house on Dodd Street. Her mother, gospel singer Cissy Houston, kept recording equipment in the basement, where she sometimes held rehearsals for her group, The Sweet Inspirations. The area is home to a number of elementary schools named for significant Black historical figures, like Langston Hughes, Gordon Parks, George Washington Carver, and Toussaint L’Ouverture. Not far from her former residence is the school she once attended, now known as the Whitney E. Houston Academy for Creative and Performing Arts.