CIVIC AND CULTURAL LANDMARKS
Only a few of the old buildings exist today. The Julia Ideson Library Building,
named for the long-time Houston librarian, was erected in 1926 as part of the planned
civic center. It is the only building of a proposed complex that was erected.
Designed by Cram & Ferguson, the Ideson Building has been constructed in Spanish
Renaissance style. The historical room of the building houses collections of Texas
history and the Circle M Collection, donated by Salvation Army Major E. T.
Milsaps. Adjoining the Ideson Building is the octagonal shaped new Houston Public Library,
completed in 1976. The Library contains over three and one half million books and
documents. It is linked to the Ideson Building by a pedestrian tunnel.
Next to the public library stand Houston City Hall. Completed in 1939, the structure was designed by Joseph Finger and built by the Public Works Administration using white fossiled limestone. The ceiling murals were painted by Daniel MacMorris and depict the themes of industry, law, culture and administration.
Within a short walking distance, in the heart of downtown, is the Oscar F. Holcombe Civic Center, the site of trade shows, sporting events, operas, ballets, conventions and other events. A $40 million complex of four magnificent exhibition buildings, the Civic Center is close to major hotels, theaters, specialty shops, department stores, restaurants, clubs and office buildings. Included in the complex are the Jesse H. Jones Hall for the Performing Arts, the Sam Houston Coliseum, the Music Hall and the Albert Thomas Convention Center. Jesse Jones Hall, which opened in 1966, stands on the site of the old Houston Auditorium. The Houston Endowment, Inc., a charitable fund set up by Jesse Jones himself, provided the funds for erecting the hall, with a seating capacity of up to 3,000, in memory of Jesse Jones' life of service to the nation and to the city. In the lobby of Jones hall is a sculpture by Richard Lippold. Called Gemeni II, it is an artistic rendition of the spirit of the Space Age made of 2,300 polished aluminum rods held in place by 90,000 feet of gold plated wire, creating an illusion of shimmering rays in space flight. The elegant teakwood paneling of Jones Hall achieves the ultimate in theater-concert hall design.
Named for the long-time Houston Congressman, the Albert Thomas Convention and Exhibition Center has 127,500 square feet of exhibition space, 40,000 square feet of meeting rooms and parking for 2,000 cars. It serves as a complete, flexible meeting place for the nation's business leaders, as well as a magnificent showplace for the products of various industries. It is also the home of the National Space Hall of Fame.
Opposite Jones Hall stands the Nina Vance Alley Theater, built in 1969. It is the home of the repertory theater founded and directed by the late Nina Vance. One of the finest residential professional theaters in the U.S., the Alley features an 800-seat multi-space stage and a 300-seat arena.
Other theaters are found outside the downtown area. The Tower Theater opened originally in 1936 and was converted to a live theater in 1979. It opened its doors with the stage performance of the Texas based play The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, which achieved national acclaim on Broadway.
Miller Outdoor Theater in Hermann Park, recently renovated, is an open-air theater which features professional and amateur productions.
The Houston Museum of Natural Science, in Hermann Park, contains numerous exhibits, including the Milsaps collection of coins and the Westheimer group of minerals. The Burke Baker Planetarium, opened in 1964, is a unit of the museum.
The Museum of Fine Arts, designed by William Ward Watkin, was
completed in 1924 and
features a wide range of exhibits including the Beck collection of French impressionists; Venetto's Portrait of a Man; Tintoretto's baroque exercise, Tancred
Baptising Clorinda, painted around 1852; and Umlauf's The Fishers and The Pieta.
Bayou Bend, the home of the Hogg family at 2940 Lazy Lane, was donated by Miss Ima Hogg to the Museum of Fine Arts in 1966. It houses Miss Hogg's collection of seventeenth to nineteenth century decorative arts and period rooms.
Named for the late painter Mark Rothko, the Rothko Chapel is a small octagonal building commissioned by the de Menil family as an ecumenical chapel. Fourteen huge abstract canvasses by Rothko hang in the chapel, illuminated by a single skylight. The resulting effect is subdued and mysterious. Outside the chapel stands Barnett Newman's sculpture, the Broken Obelisk, also commissioned by the de Menils.
Opened in 1899 as the first city park, the 20-acre Sam Houston Park is now an outdoor
museum containing a permanent exhibition of old Houston homes. The project is
sponsored by the Harris County Heritage Society. Nathaniel Kellum's house, a
plantation-style house
built in 1847, is the oldest brick home in Houston. In 1850, Kellum moved from Houston, selling his home to Abram W. Noble. During the 1850's,
Mrs. Zerviah M. Noble and her daughter, Catherine A. Kelly, operated one of
Houston's first private schools in the Kellum-Noble house. A second restored home in
the park is the San Felipe Cottage, a typical Texas cottage of the 1870's.
Another park feature is the Long Row reconstruction, a replica of
Houston's first
shopping strip. Part of the city's bid to become the capital of the Texas Republic,
the Long Row construction was hastily put together in 1837. The Long Row housed,
among others, R. C. Barry & Company, tailors; A. McGowen, tin, sheet, iron and
copperware vendor; Cooke & Ewing, druggists and Dick Dowling's Bank of Bacchus saloon.
The original structure burned down in 1860.
The Nichols-Rice-Cherry house was originally built in 1850 in a
Greek Revival Style,
for Ebenezer B. Nichols, a native of Cooperstown, New York. William M. Rice
owned the house between 1851 and 1863 and Mrs. Emma Cherry saved it from demolition
in 1897. In 1957, it was presented to the park by Gus Wortham, an insurance
executive.
The lumber of the Pillot House, built in 1868 and moved from
McKinney Avenue to the
park, was chosen by Eugene Pillot, one of the early developers in Houston. It is a
mid-Victorian structure with some significant features, including what is considered to be
the first inside kitchen in a Houston home.
Other Structures in the park include the Old Place,
a cabin built by John W. Williams (an Austin Colonist) on the banks of Clear
Creek about 1824, which is the oldest structure in Harris County.
St. John Church, an Evangelical Lutheran Church, built in
1891; the Spirit of the Confederacy statue placed in the park by the Daughters of
the Confederacy; and the Sam Houston Park bandstand, a replica of the original turn-of-the
century "Houston City Park" bandstand.
