Properties 2020 Vol 1 - Back to the Roaring 1920s

Back to the

Roaring 1920s

by James Glassman

800 block of Main Street facing north. 1920s. Special Collections, University of Houston Libraries. University of Houston Digital Library. Web. March 13, 2020. https://digital.lib.uh.edu/collection/p15195coll2/item/171.

H

ouston is a forward-looking city – we always have been. And even though Houston was founded in 1836, the

Houston that we know today was truly launched in the 1920s. The Ship Channel improvements from the previous decades allowed for increased commerce and money rolled into the Bayou City. So many important events, buildings and institutions were born 100 years ago. Keep an eye open for some of them having their centennial celebrations in the next few years.

THE CITY GROWS

In 1926, the City of Houston annexed Harrisburg, River

annexation, the municipality founded west of Kirby

Oaks, Memorial Park and Cottage Grove, enlarging the

chose to remain independent and has been so ever since.

city to 70 square miles. A major reason Houston grew to become the fourth-largest city in the United States is due

In 1905, the Wright Land Company developed an area

to aggressive annexation. In fact, from the 1940s to the

outside segregated Houston and sold lots to African

1960s, Houston doubled its physical size twice.

Americans. The first deeds were recorded in 1908 and the first school opened in 1911. When Independence

Although the residential community saw its first

Heights was incorporated in 1915, the first four hundred

“country homes� in 1920, West University Place

residents elected George Burgess as their mayor and

incorporated in 1924, allowing itself to provide utilities

worked on providing city services for themselves. In

and civic services. At the time, the City of Houston had

1929, Independence Heights was annexed by the City

no plans to annex the community that was so far from

of Houston.

its city limits. Even when Houston eventually proposed

Top: Schlueter, F. J. , Copyright Claimant. Houston, Texas. Houston Texas United States, 1914. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2007661598/ Right: Texas Historical Commission. [Julia Ideson Building, (Circulation desk)], photograph, 1929; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth687516/m1/1/: accessed March 13, 2020), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https:// texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Historical Commission.

View of Downtown Houston from Esperson Building. 1920. Special Collections, University of Houston Libraries. University of Houston Digital Library. Web. March 13, 2020. https://digital.lib.uh.edu/collection/p15195coll2/item/207.

SERVICES

In 1924, Will and Mike Hogg, with help from Henry

to other Texas towns. The rate for parcels was one

Stude, bought two tracts at the former Army training

dollar per pound. In 1926, Congress had passed

base Camp Logan, and sold it to the city at cost. Later

the Air Mail Act, which authorized the postmaster

that year, Houston established Memorial Park. The

general to contract for domestic airmail service with

park would feature an 18-hole golf course, trails for

commercial air carriers and to set airmail rates.

hikers, bridle paths and an amphitheater.

Houston had enjoyed a public library donated by Local transit company Houston Electric Company,

Andrew Carnegie since 1904, but the booming city

with voter approval, brought bus service to Houston

eventually outgrew it. In 1922, voters approved a

in 1924. Buses were more efficient than existing

central public library, and in 1926, Houston

jitneys (private, oversized cars) and more popular

Public Library opened Downtown. Houston’s first

than trolleys. Houston would have three bus lines by

professional librarian, Julia Ideson, fought for the

year’s end, and trolleys continued to run until 1940.

new building, which was renamed in her honor in 1955. The 1926 structure added a wing in 2011 and

In 1929, Contract Air Mail Route No. 29 was

houses the Houston Metropolitan Research Center

inaugurated by St. Tammany Gulf Coast Airways,

(a great place to become a Houstorian).

from New Orleans, Louisiana to Houston, and on

ARCHITECTURE

In 1923, the atmospheric $1 million theater

of lush European architectural styles and a

opened on 908 Rusk Avenue in Downtown,

ceiling with twinkling “stars” (like today’s

with 2,500 in attendance, including the

Sarofim Hall at the Hobby Center for the

mayor and “Mr. Houston” Jesse Jones.

Performing Arts). The theater would feature

Houston’s latest landmark featured a mix

live performances and motion pictures until 1971 and was demolished in 1972.

The 1913 Rice Hotel was built on the original site of the Republic of Texas’ twostory capitol building. Once the government moved to Austin, the five-story Capitol Hotel was built there. William Marsh Rice bought it in 1886, and it was renamed Rice Hotel following his death. Jesse Jones built the seventeen-story hotel that stands there today as a two-wing building but added to it. In 1927, a third wing and additional floor were completed, making the Rice Hotel the largest hotel south of Chicago.

In 1927, businesswoman Mellie Keenan Esperson built an iconic 32-story skyscraper for her late husband, Niels. The Italian Renaissance–infused

Niels

Esperson

Building has been a fixture in the Houston skyline ever since.

Museum of Fine Arts–Houston opened its doors to the public in 1924. Seven hundred guests attended, and another one thousand were turned away. Seven years to the day earlier, the site of the future museum was dedicated on land donated

by George Hermann, promised months before his death in 1914. Texaco founder Joseph Cullinan helped the Houston Art League secure the land, and Rice Institute’s William Ward Watkin designed the museum entrance to face Hermann Park.

Wings were added in 1926, and from 1958 to 1969, the Modernist Brown Pavilion and Cullinan Hall were added to the back,

following the curve of Bissonnet Street and realigning the main entrance to that side.

Lumber, real estate and oil millionaire George Hermann died in 1914 without any heirs. In his will, he donated 285 acres for a park, adjacent to Rice Institute, which would become Hermann Park and the site for Hermann Hospital. His dream for a new public hospital came to life when Hermann Hospital opened in 1925 and became the first institution in the future Texas Medical Center.

What’s more iconic Houston than the Sam Houston statue at the entrance to Hermann Park? In 1925, the bronze sculpture of General Sam Houston, horseback and set on a granite arch, was unveiled at the Sunken Gardens (now Mecom Fountain site). The gift from the Women’s City Club of Houston had one vocal critic; Sam Houston’s son hated it. Less than one year later, the iconic sculpture by Enrico Cerracchio was relocated to the Hermann Park entrance, where it sits in present day, pointing to the San Jacinto Battlefield.

Calvin Wheat Studio, Copyright Claimant. Official photograph, National Democratic Convention, Houston, Texas. Houston Texas United States, 1928. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2007662471/.

EVENTS

Democratic Party bigwig Jesse Jones was personally

began a decades-long friendship with future president

responsible for bringing the Democratic National

Lyndon Johnson at the multi-day event.

Convention to Houston, and in 1928, with the national spotlight on the Bayou City, the Democratic

A massive flood in 1929 came during the drafting

National Convention convened at the brand-new

of a plan from the newly-formed City Planning

Sam Houston Hall. Twenty-five thousand visiting

Commission,

delegates, politicians and journalists descended on

recommended dredging all bayous to accelerate

Houston that summer. Proving his popularity, Jones

runoff. Criticism from land developers meant that

was even asked to be presidential nominee Al Smith’s

little from the plan was actually realized. Preparation

running mate, but “Mr. Houston” wasn’t interested

for the next massive flood was postponed.

in being a politician. Future mayor Roy Hofheinz

which,

among

other

things,

INSTITUTIONS

In 1927, trustees of the Houston Independent

South Texas School of Law opened as a night

School District Houston Board of Education,

school in 1923, with seven part-time instructors

seeing the need for higher education for

and a class of 34 students. Classes were held in

Houstonians who could neither travel nor

a room in the basement of the YMCA, but by

qualify for local Rice Institute, voted to

1945, enrollment had surpassed the University

establish a junior college. The evening classes

of Texas School of Law.

were held at San Jacinto High School. In 1934, trustees agreed to change the school to include a four-year curriculum and rename the institution the University of Houston.

Top: Haines Photo Co. , Copyright Claimant. Panoram of Houston, Texas. Houston Texas United States, ca. 1910. Photograph. https:// www.loc.gov/item/2007661597/ Right: Howard R. Hughes, Sr (1869–1924), standing outdoors by a trench mining drill, which is underneath a tent-like canopy. Part of the SharpHughes Tool Company’s Second and Girard Streets plant in Houston, Texas (today the site of University of Houston–Downtown) is seen in the background., http://digital.library.unlv.edu/u?/hughes,68

BUSINESS

By the time Howard Hughes Sr. died, he was one

In 1906, Jesse Jones was eager to grow his fortune

of the richest men in the world. He held the patent

beyond lumberyards and sawmills. After buying a

for a revolutionary two-cone rotary drill bit that

half interest of land owned by Houston Chronicle’s

could bust through rock and helped the boom at

founder M.E. Foster, Jones built the Houston

nearby Spindletop. His Hughes Tool Company grew

Chronicle building for the young daily newspaper.

its fortune through licensing the drill bit around

In 1926, Jesse Jones, following years of editorial

the world. Following his father’s death, only child

and political disagreements with Foster, bought the

Howard Hughes Jr. would later successfully petition

other half of the paper. Jones and, later, his Houston

the court to declare him an adult at 19, thus allowing

Endowment, owned the Houston Chronicle until

him to gain control of the entire Hughes estate.

1987, when the Hearst Corporation bought it for

Howard Hughes Sr. is buried in Glenwood Cemetery.

$400 million.

Native Houstonian Gus Wortham established the

Beginning in 1926, and as an offshoot of the oil

John L. Wortham & Son Agency insurance firm with

industry, natural gas companies began supplying

his father early in the 20th century. Following his

domestic and industrial service. In 1928, the new

father’s death, Wortham founded the fire and casualty

Dixie Gulf Gas Company pipeline opened, giving

insurance business American General Insurance

Houston the largest supply of natural gas in the

Company, chartered in 1926. Wortham received the

world, when 85 million cubic feet of gas per day began

backing of Jesse Jones, was president of the Chamber

arriving from Louisiana.

of Commerce and was board chair of the Houston Symphony. Like Jones Hall, the Gus S. Wortham Theater was built with private money and donated to the City of Houston upon completion in 1987.

James Glassman is a fifth-generation Houstonian and works as an architectural project manager in Houston. He has a bachelor of arts in history from Kenyon College and a master of architecture from the University of Houston. In 2006, he founded Houstorian, dedicated to telling the story of Houston. He has been recognized for his advocacy of the Astrodome with quotes in the New York Times, the Guardian, the Atlantic Monthly and the Houston Chronicle. His Houston-inspired graphic designs have been featured in Houstonia Magazine, the Houston Chronicle, the Houston Press and CultureMap. In 2015, The History Press published his first book, The Houstorian Dictionary: An Insider’s Index to Houston, which lists the people, places, things, terms, slang, quotations, events, books, movies and songs that make Houston fun and unique, and in 2019 The Houstorian Calendar: Today in Houston History hit the shelves.