Architectureartwork

The Centennial of the Original Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Building

BY ÉAMON Ó CAOINEACHÁN

2024 marks the centennial of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH). The original building, now named the Caroline Wiess Law Building, first opened to the public on April 12th, 1924. Designed by Houston architect William Ward Watkin in the Greek Neoclassical style – MFAH is the first art museum built in Texas.

Houston commercial photographer, Frank J. Schlueter, visually captured the historic moment of visitors attending its grand opening in 1924. Schlueter’s photograph portrays the museum’s southern facade which overlooks Hermann Park. The scene of museum visitors coming and going is reminiscent of today–a father holds his son over his shoulder, a mother leads her daughter by the hand, a museum attendant watches at the doorway, visitors gather on the steps, while a couple strolls past where Albero folgorato (Lightning Tree) (2012) stands today.

One of the major Greek Neoclassical features of Watkin’s original design is the eight Ionic columns. The ornamental, spiral-scroll volutes magnificently crown the columns – a Houston Parthenon.

Although MFAH is not situated on the highest citadel point of a city, the way the Parthenon sits on top of the

Acropolis in Athens, the building is the artistic apex of Houston’s Museum District.

Over the past one hundred years, Houston has dramatically changed around MFAH, but what has remained constant is the civic ideal carved in stone over the entryway of the museum’s southern facade, “Erected by the people”, and still one hundred years later “for the use of the people.”

The architect of MFAH’s original building, William Ward Watkin, established himself as a seminal figure in Houston history. As the first chair of Rice University’s Architecture Department, Watkin physically represented his theory before his students’ eyes with the many buildings he designed around campus.

He also designed other architecturally significant buildings in Houston: Miller Outdoor Theater (1922), Houston Public Library (1926) Ritz Theater (1926), and Wilson Stationery and Printing Company Building (1932). However, the MFAH neoclassical symmetry and geometry is his crowning architectural achievement.

Watkin’s aesthetic philosophy has its own perceptual symmetry and geometry, which parallels how his vision of architecture relates to beauty as he expressed: “Through all ages men have found in architecture the permanent expression of the beauty of their character and of their spirit. The architect of today, so far as in his power lies, is expressing the beauty of his age. This beauty is the first measure of all architecture. It shall make our cities beloved; our colleges and schools inspiring; our homes charming and precious. Neither the complexities of modern demands nor the confusion of modern avenues of artistic expression should lead the architect away from the ceaseless search for the beauty that is possible of attainment in each of his buildings.”

Watkin’s search for beauty is evident in each of his buildings in Houston, especially the Museum of Fine Arts.

As Houstonians celebrate the MFAH centennial by visiting in 2024, there will undoubtedly be a familiar scene as depicted in Schlueter’s photograph from 1924 – a father holds his son over his shoulder, a mother leads her daughter by the hand, a museum attendant watches at the doorway, visitors gather on the steps, while a couple strolls past.

As the son of an Irish architect and artist, I was surrounded by books of architecture and art growing up, the way the live oak trees surround MFAH. It was the first museum I visited in Texas, which is fitting since it is the first art museum in Texas. As I amble around MFAH today, its exterior masonry is indeed an architectural marvel–I am always awestruck at the artwork within this work of art.

While gazing at the Ionic columns by the Lightning Tree –lightning strikes – I reflect on the shared parallel between the architect’s name and the architecture of the building. The poet in me notes the alliterative quality of William Ward Watkin, and I wonder about the meaning of Watkin’s name.

William is Anglo-Norman and means “resolute protector”, Ward in Old English means a “guardian of the watch,” while Ward in Old Irish means a “poet and storyteller”, and Watkins from Middle English means “powerful ruler.”

I realized standing by the Lightning Tree that the MFAH’s original architecture could be reimagined as a symbolic reflection of the architect’s name–like William, it is a “resolute protector” of the arts – like Ward, it is a “guardian of the watch” and a “poet and storyteller”, and finally– like Watkin, it is a “powerful ruler” – old, and wise – its hallowed walls know – the architect in the architecture echo.