Exquisitely Bored in Nacogdoches: Houston

Showing posts with label Houston. Show all posts

June 22, 2011

A ton of fun in Houston

The main carrot on the stick for me on this time traveling expedition primarily deep, deep into the farthest reaches of southern Houston was the neon sign pictured above. In a really good way, it was my Kurtz, if you will. Will you? I really couldn't tell whether or not the charming little motel was still open, but it looked like it was in good shape and possibly motor court style lodging at one time or another. Maybe now!

25 more more neon signs

....or would it be more²?

1.

Houston
I found this one in a weed-covered, cracked cement parking lot, behind a row of abandoned commercial buildings, in a "rough" part of Houston, while looking for a totally different sign (which was gone). The font on this one caught my eye.

25 more neon signs

Pasadena, Texas

Due to the the overwhelming response to the previous....

25 neon signs

Tyler

There is something about a vintage neon sign that just thrills the heck out of me. I've driven a lot of Tejas (and elsewhere) to find them, and I hope to find more. But the very nature of them (vintage) makes them increasingly difficult and rare to find. Add to that factors such as the climate, like it is down along the Gulf of Mexico (where I grew up, down in Galveston). The salty air causes stuff to rapidly rust away, and the occasional hurricanes do their fair share of destroying signs from the past. So, due to my difficulty in locating them, the joy when finding or stumbling upon one is great. These are some of my favorites (out of a set of 336, taken from December 2005 to April 2011).

A Heights sampler

From the Texas Historical Commission's Historic and Architectural Resources of Houston Heights (written in the early 1980s):

One of the first planned suburbs in the state, Houston Heights has retained its architectural and civic identity to an unusual degree. This has been accomplished in spite of its location in one of the fastest growing cities in the United States. The Heights presents a Whitman's Sampler of turn-of-the-century architectural styles. Several notable late-Victorian mansions and substantial early 20th-century public, ecclesiastical, and commercial buildings serve as the anchors of the neighborhood. Nevertheless, the real strength of the Heights rests in its wide array of essentially vernacular, middle-class, and domestic architecture of the period 1893-1932.

A quick one (while he's away)

A couple of neon signs in H-Town:

Houston in the Jazz Age*

*aaand a couple of late 19th century churches....

Links go to each structure's Texas Historical Commission Atlas entry. I also used this extremely helpful list of the National Register of Historic Places in Harris County. A follow-up post featuring primarily Victorian architecture in Houston is coming. But now, looking at Houston through a Roaring '20s (and a little earlier) filter:

A couple of things in Houston

The Globe Theater, c. 1935; Because it looks a little bit like this one, I'd say it is Art Moderne

Here is one of he last remaining examples of the original Jack in the Box building concept, designed by Southern California Googie architect, Russell Forester. I remember there being ones like this down in Galveston, where I grew up. I think one was up on the Seawall, down near the East End of the Island. It's surprising to find this one in Houston still standing:

Houston City Hall @ W5RAN

W5RAN featured my picture of the 1939 Art Deco Houston City Hall for a while today. But on the Internet, is there a "today," I mean, really, or for that matter, a tomorrow?? Perhaps it depends on what the meaning of the word "is" is.

June 22, 2010

Houston City Hall

In downtown Houston, the 1939, Art Deco City Hall buidling, designed by architect Joseph Finger:

Ceiling murals by artist Daniel MacMorris:

I thought this one looked familiar:

Houston Deco: Modernistic Architecture of the Texas Coast
The lawgivers grille, including Hammurabi and Thomas Jefferson:

More pics of City Hall

May 31, 2010

Gulf Coast Deco XII

Liberty County Courthouse, 1931 (Liberty)

Temple of Rest, Beth Israel Cemetery, 1935
(Houston's Fourth Ward*)

*Had a surreal experience as I tried to get a decent picture of the Temple of Rest. The Temple of Rest is a historic Houston landmark because it was designed by architect Joseph Finger, who is also buried there. The Beth Israel Cemetery is the first Jewish burial ground in Texas. It was established in 1844. So it is a very old part of Houston. The area's historic name is the Fourth Ward and it has a reputation, I think, for being a rough neighborhood at some point in its history. I happened to drive down an alley in the neighborhood pictured above, and drove past ~~a gang~~ a group of five or six young men who were sitting on the backdoor stoop of a house backed-up onto the alley. One of the young men either flashed the neighborhood sign or signaled to me he was "holding" as I drove slowly past him and his friends in that tight little alley. For a brief, terrifying moment I didn't know what to do. Do I wave? Do I acknowledge him at all? I figured it probably wouldn't be wise to flash him the sign back, seeing as I wasn't ~~one of the gang members~~ one of his pals. So I kept looking straight, straight ahead, with both hands planted firmly on the steering wheel.

Chambers County Courthouse, 1936 (Anahuac)

Goose Creek Federal Building and Post Office, 1937 (Baytown)

Eldorado Ballroom, 1939 (Houston)

The good old days.

1837 Branard St., 1939 (Houston)

First National Bank of Goose Creek, 1941 (Baytown)

Sixth Church of Christ, Scientist, 1941 (Houston)

According to Houston Deco, this place is endangered. There's also a picture of the cornerstone with the word "COLORED" engraved in it.

St. Joseph Catholic Church, Late Gothic Deco, 1958 (Baytown)

What has come before:

April 24, 2010

Gulf Coast Deco XI

A few posts ago was Gulf Coast Deco X & 1/4, so-named because I had only a few Art Deco structures to share. I've since gone back to Houston and found a couple of other things, so I decided to combine it all together into a whole Gulf Coast Deco post.

Let me begin with the Houston Municipal Airport Terminal. It was built in 1940 and designed by Joseph Finger.