A History Lover's Guide to Houston

Tristan Smith

• Publisher: The History Press
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781467144667
• eBook ISBN: 9781439669365
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

A guide to the history of the Bayou City for Texans, visitors and armchair tourists alike.
Houston earned its international reputation as a hub for space flight and the oil industry. But visitors don't need to search out the secrets of the stars or the depths of the earth to experience the impressive legacy of the nation's fourth-largest city. Traverse the streets of downtown and find historic treasures from antebellum Texas. Venture to the outskirts to find the world's "Eighth Wonder," as well as the globe's tallest stone monument and one of its largest ports. Discover why the town's exceptional heritage of innovation, industry and architecture has sparked a movement to uncover and embrace its historic structures. Join Tristan Smith for an in-depth exploration of Houston's historic wards.

PART I

DOWNTOWN HOUSTON

1

FIRST WARD

JEFFERSON DAVIS HOSPITAL

1101 Elder Street

Originally the site of a municipal cemetery and burial grounds for the City of Houston, this is where more than six thousand Confederate army soldiers, former slaves and city officials were laid to rest, including thousands of yellow fever and cholera victims. The cemetery operated from 1840 until 1879, with some family burials continuing into the 1890s before falling into disuse. In the 1920s, the city used the site for the new Jefferson Davis Hospital.

The basement was placed above ground when construction began in 1924, and while many graves were relocated, it has since been discovered that there was no wholesale removal of the remains. The hospital served Houston until 1938 and then was used for a variety of purposes before being abandoned in the 1980s.

Today, the building is listed as a city landmark by the City of Houston Archeological and Historical Commission and has been transformed into a series of artist lofts and residential housing units known as the Elder Street Artist Lofts. Restoration was completed in 2005. A remaining unrestored portion was destroyed in a 2013 fire, and the two-floor nurses’ quarters were demolished after storm damage in 2017.

Now the Elder Street Artists’ Lofts, the Jefferson Davis Hospital opened to patients in 1925. Its stigma as a “haunted property” rose from its construction over the site of the former municipal cemetery and burial grounds. Thousands of Confederate States army soldiers, former slaves, yellow fever and cholera victims and city officials were laid to rest here until the mid-1890s. Author’s collection.

TENNISON HOTEL

110 Bagby Street

Vinegar Hill, a rough area of old Houston, sat on some of the most profitable land in town. The city cleaned the area in 1881 to make way for improvements and expansion for the Houston and Texas Central Railway. Vinegar Hill’s reputation gradually changed until it mostly consisted of factories and stores and became home, in 1922, to Henry Booker “H.B.” Tennison’s new eponymous hotel.

Sitting across the street from Southern Pacific’s Grand Central Station, the red-brick Tennison climbed seven stories atop a limestone base, featured 110 rooms and was marked by its green Tennison flag. When rail traffic dwindled and Grand Central Station was demolished, the hotel’s demand declined, until it closed for good in 1972. In 2007, it was renovated as loft apartments.

At the turn of the century, Houston’s Grand Central Station depot was an active hub of activity for both commercial and leisure travel, referred to as “where 17 railroads meet the sea.” Today, only a small Amtrak station, at 902 Washington, casts a shadow of the city’s former rail station prominence. Courtesy of Special Collections, University of Houston Libraries.

MERCHANTS AND MANUFACTURERS BUILDING

1 Main Street

Overlooking downtown, above Allen’s Landing at the confluence of Buffalo and White Oak Bayous, the Merchants and Manufacturers Building was built where rail, water and road transportation intersected in the 1920s. The eleven-story Art Deco/Art Noveau building covers four acres and is built of reinforced concrete. It handled rail traffic through its interior and featured a six-story breezeway that helped cool the building. The lower level contained a three-hundred-car parking garage with fourteen miles of floor space above that held offices and retail outlets. Construction was completed in 1930, but within four years, the developers were bankrupt, and the project fell apart.

The sprawling structure was purchased in 1968 by South Texas Junior College, which merged into the University of Houston system in 1974. Today, light rail runs in front of the building, connecting the campus to Rice University, NRG Park, the Museum District, Texas Medical Center and the rest of downtown.

The Merchant’s and Manufacturer’s Building, commonly known as the M & M Building, today serves as a primary structure on the campus of the University of Houston-Downtown. At the time of its construction, in 1930, it was Houston’s largest building, featuring fourteen miles of floor space. Author’s collection.

FRANKLIN STREET BRIDGE/DONNELLAN CRYPT

Franklin Street and Buffalo Bayou

Spanning 350 feet over Buffalo Bayou, this stringer bridge was constructed in 1914, though a wooden footbridge appeared here as early as 1885. Below, along the banks of the bayou, was the Donnellan Crypt. Prior to the Civil War, this land was part of the Donnellan settlement. The crypt contained the bodies of patriarch Timothy; his wife, Emily; and their son, Henry, who, according to local lore, found a live Civil War cannonball in 1867. Henry and his friend Charles Ritchey attempted to defuse the detonator cap, causing it to explode, killing them both. In 1903, the bodies were moved to Glenwood Cemetery. The crypt remained and was used to store ordnance during World War I and as support for a new bridge in 1914. Rehabilitated in 1998, it continues to handle traffic, seeing nearly fifteen thousand vehicles daily.

2

SECOND WARD

FROST TOWN/JAMES BUTE PARK

512 McKee Street

While the Allen brothers are credited with founding Houston, the area’s first settlement was started by a group of German farmers in the 1820s near the confluence of White Oak and Buffalo Bayous. By 1839, the area had become Frost Town, a thriving community with a post office, school, volunteer fire department, brewery and several places of worship. However, it’s neighbor, Houston, took the lead in growth. By the late 1880s, only a few old wood-frame houses remained, and civic improvements continued to dismantle Frost Town. By 1990, only six homes remained, and those were demolished to make way for freeway expansion, leaving Race Street as the only remnant. Today, it is the site of James Bute Park, named after the owner and founder of the Bute Paint Company, a leading contributor to the city’s development.

FIRST NATIONAL BANK

201 Main Street

This block-long Beaux-Arts building, constructed in 1905, was home to Houston’s first chartered bank, which was established in 1866. Standing at seven stories, it was the city’s first steel-framed building and, at the time, Houston’s tallest. It was the first Houston building designed by the architectural firm of Sanguinet and Staats.

The L-shaped building, which is ornately decorated inside and out, housed First National Bank facilities on the first floor and basement, with leased office space above. In 1908, the building doubled in size, with additional expansions coming in 1911 and 1925. After First National Bank merged with City National Bank in 1956, new tenants moved in. Developers purchased the building in the 1990s and converted the building into the Franklin Lofts, restoring the banking hall as an event space.

SUNSET COFFEE BUILDING

1019 Commerce Street

The 1910 Sunset Coffee Building is one of the few industrial buildings still located directly on Buffalo Bayou. With three floors above ground and one below, this brick low-rise building was built as an annex to the 1880’s W.D. Cleveland and Son’s wholesale grocer supply building. Both were located at the foot of Main Street, processing goods as they came into port.

The Sunset Coffee Building is one of the few remaining industrial buildings on Buffalo Bayou, serving originally as a coffee roasting company. Buffalo Bayou Partnership has since purchased and renovated the building to serve as its headquarters, and it includes an outdoor plaza. Author’s collection.

The building closed in the 1920s, remaining vacant for nearly forty years before local artist David Adickes purchased it in the 1960s and operated Love Street Light Circus and Feel Good Machine on the top floor until 1971. The building then sat vacant until 2003, when Buffalo Bayou Partnership (BBP) purchased it, renovating it for use as offices and a recreation and cultural center and adding a plaza on an adjacent lot. Reconstruction plans took bayou flooding into account with integrated drains and strategically located elevator stops. The ground floor housed an exhibit displaying memorabilia from the building’s history.

ALLEN’S LANDING

1001 Commerce Street

Near here, on August 30, 1836, brothers Augustus Chapman and John Kirby Allen stepped ashore and claimed the location as their own. The steamer Laura began docking at the new port the following year, and just a few months later, the City of Houston was incorporated.

Officially recognized as the birthplace of Houston, Allen’s Landing was advertised as the head of navigation on the bayou and served as Houston’s first wharf. While the moniker is more recent, its location was crucial in establishing Houston’s prominence for decades to come, sitting at the bayou’s confluence with White Oak Bayou, another major tributary. It was named a port in 1841. Author’s collection.

The landing, a natural turning basin, originally served as a dock for Houston real estate development, hosting numerous oceangoing ships, steamers and sailing vessels that loaded from its wharves. The city officially established the port in June 1841. Then in 1910, federal funding paid for the dredging of a ship channel from the Gulf to the present turning basin, located four miles east of this location.

Dedicated as Allen’s Landing Memorial Park in 1967, the site has been improved and developed over the years and serves as a downtown attraction.

TEXAS PACKING COMPANY BUILDING

1119 Commerce Street

Built in 1924, this building, designed by Joseph Finger, was owned and occupied by S.J. San Angelo’s Meat Packing plant well into the 1980s. Standing two stories above and two stories below ground, it is typical of buildings constructed in an industrial vernacular style in 1920s Houston. The exposed concrete frame is infilled with red brick and includes a loading dock spanning the length of its Commerce Street façade. Most recently, it has served as home to a bail bonds business and a restaurant.

PALACE HOTEL

216 LaBranch Street

The three-story Palace Hotel is one of only two surviving Romanesque Revival buildings downtown. Built in 1903, the hotel went by a variety of names and consisted of furnished rooms and a communal bath and was operated primarily by women. Ground-floor tenants have included druggists, shoemakers, real estate enterprises, dry goods merchants and several cafés. In 1924, a hotel annex expanded operations to the west, and in 1927, an awning and plate glass storefront was added. The ground floor underwent reconfiguration into office space, and by 1957, the second and third floors had been completely remodeled, with four baths added to each floor.

A bail bond company operated out of the ground floor though the early 2000s. A partnership between Harris County and Palace Partners resulted in the building’s rehabilitation in 2005 and included a storefront restoration, brickwork repointing and repairs to cast stone.

ELLER WAGON WORKS/PITTSBURGH PLATE GLASS BUILDING

101 Crawford Street

Frank Eller, a local blacksmith, and his son, Homer, built a strong business manufacturing a variety of wagons, carriages, trucks and trimming in Houston. At the turn of the twentieth century, they began to offer automobile repair, painting and trimming as a specialty. In 1909, they constructed a new three-story, brown brick Victorian building for their burgeoning business. When they left, Texas Wagon Works moved in and stayed until 1920, when Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company (PPG) acquired it.

PPG, which still operates, offers plate and window glass, mirrors, paints, varnishes, brushes, roofing and more. In 1920, PPG added a second three-story structure on the south side. Following PPG’s departure in the late 1990s, the complex was converted into artist lofts, apartments and a disabled-adults day service. This building was condemned in 2004 but has since been renovated and redeveloped as residential lofts and office and artist gallery space.

The former home of Eller Wagon Works was renovated in 2004 to house art studios, commercial studios and residential lofts. Remnants of its original purpose are still evident throughout the building today. Author’s collection.

PURSE BUILDING

1701 Commerce

Emblazoned with the Purse & Company name on its exterior façade, this three-story, red brick, box-style building is now home to artist studios. Built...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Preface
• Introduction
• Part I: Downtown Houston
• Part II: Houston’s Wards
• Part III: Outside the Wards
• Bibliography
• About the Author