Julia Ideson Building, Houston TX | Nearby Businesses

• Historical Place
• Landmark
• Library

500 McKinney St
Houston, TX 77002
(713) 660-0772

The Houston City Hall building is the headquarters of the city of Houston's government. It was constructed in 1938-1939, and is located in Downtown Houston. It is surrounded by skyscrapers and very similar to dozens of other city halls built in the southwest United States during the same time period. It is flanked by Tranquility Park and the Houston Public Library. The simply designed structure featured many construction details that have helped to make this building an architectural classic.HistoryFrom 1841 to 1939, Houston's municipal government was headquartered at Old Market Square. It was destroyed by fire in the 1870s, and also in 1901, and rebuilt each time. In those days, City Hall was part of the lively commercial atmosphere of the Square. However, by the 1920s, the city leaders decided the site was no longer appropriate for their needs.In 1929, the city's planning commission urged the establishment of a civic center around a downtown park, Herman Square. However, the Great Depression sidetracked the plans for the new center. When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt instituted the Works Progress Administration program, the city applied for a WPA grant to help finance the construction of a new City Hall. The grant was approved, and construction began in March 1938, continuing for 20 months.

Become a part of history at The Historic Magnolia Ballroom. Nestled in Downtown Houston, the Ballroom provides the ideal location for weddings, receptions, corporate meetings, and social events.

The JPMorgan Chase Building, formerly the Gulf Building, is a 37-story 130m Art Deco skyscraper in downtown Houston, Texas. Completed in 1929, it remained the tallest building in Houston until 1963, when the Exxon Building surpassed it in height. The building is the Houston headquarters of JPMorgan Chase Bank, and was formerly the headquarters of Texas Commerce Bank.HistoryJesse H. Jones arranged to have the Gulf Building constructed; it was built in 1929. Designed by architects Alfred C. Finn, Kenneth Franzheim, and J. E. R. Carpenter the building is seen as a realization of Eliel Saarinen's second-place-but-acclaimed entry in the Chicago Tribune Tower competition.Texas Commerce Bank initiated the restoration of the building in 1989, in what is still considered one of the largest privately funded preservation projects in American history. Recent preservation work included restoring the terrazzo floor in the building's Banking Hall, but keeping the hollows worn into the marble border where generations of customers stood to conduct their banking business. Largely through the efforts of JPMorgan Chase, the former Gulf Building was designated a City of Houston Landmark in 2003. The structure was already a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Christ Church Cathedral, Houston is the cathedral church for the Episcopal Diocese of Texas. The congregation was established in 1839, when Texas was still an independent republic. It is the oldest extant congregation in Houston and one of the oldest non-Roman Catholic churches in Texas. Many Episcopal churches in Houston and the surrounding area were founded as missions of Christ Church, such as Trinity Church, Houston, founded in 1893.Located at 1117 Texas Avenue in Downtown Houston, the current building dates from 1893. In 1938 the building suffered a major fire. A firefighter sprayed down the ornately carved rood screen to prevent its destruction, and it survived with only minor damage.Christ Church became the cathedral of the diocese in 1949. Presently, Christ Church has a baptized membership of more than 3000 communicants.ClergyChrist Church’s first rector was the Rev’d Charles Gillett of Connecticut. He led the congregation to build its first church building in 1845. The current dean is the Very Reverend Barkley S. Thompson.

The Annunciation Church is a Catholic church located at the corner of Texas and Crawford in downtown Houston, Texas.Annunciation Church sprung from the congregation at St. Vincent's, Houston's first Catholic church. In 1866, Father Joseph Querat and Galveston Bishop Claude M. Debuis believed the congregation was outgrowing the old building and started planning for a new one. The congregation chose the name for the planned building, "Church of the Annunciation." Nicholas Clayton designed the building that was dedicated on September 10, 1871. The bell tower was added later in 1871 and the twin towers were added in 1884.The property is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.The church remains Houston's oldest existing church and, as such, the property was eventually faced with a foundation problem. A large void had developed underneath the church’s southwest corner and, symptomatically, the foundation subsided. Through a polymer injection process work at Annunciation Catholic Church was completed in two days with minimal disruption to mass and parishioners.

Antioch Missionary Baptist Church is a historic Baptist church at 313 Robin Street in Downtown Houston, Texas. It was historically a part of the Fourth Ward.The church originated from a brush arbor along the Buffalo Bayou. It was built in 1875 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.Jack Yates once served as the pastor of this church.As of 2003 the church has a "Jesus Saves" sign. Rod Davis of the San Antonio Express-News said that the presence of the sign, which "still makes a footnote to the downtown skyscrapers," was "evidence that the oldest African American Baptist church (1875) in the city thrives as well as it did when the Rev. Jack Yates, a former slave, served as its first pastor."

Art & Environmental Architecture, Inc. is a cultural arts organization, operating under a 501 (c) 3 IRS exemption status since 1985. Be a part of the preservation movement and support us by donating on our website.http://www.frosttownhistoricsite.org/funding.html Our website will provide more detail on all of our projects.

First Evangelical Church is a historic Lutheran church at 1311 Holman Street in Houston, Texas. It is part of the North American Lutheran Church.The current church building was constructed in 1927 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.HistoryOn July 1, 1851, a group led by the Rev. Caspar Messon Braun (1822–1880) founded the Erste Deutsche Evangelische Lutherische Kirche, or First German Evangelical Lutheran Church. The State of Texas issued the church's charter on September 21 of that year. First Lutheran was the first Lutheran congregation in Houston and the second Lutheran congregation in Texas. First Lutheran is responsible for the establishment of no less than eight daughter congregations in Harris County.In November, 1851, just 2 months after its founding, six missionaries from St. Chrischona of Basel, Switzerland arrived in Texas. Along with the Rev. Braun, they established the First Evangelical Lutheran Synod in Texas, often called the Texas Synod. The purpose of the synod was to gather the many Lutherans in Texas that were without congregations and a churchly structure. The confession of the synod included subscription to the Lutheran Confessions, adopting unaltered symbolical books as found in the Book of Concord, 1580, accepting the Unaltered Small Catechism, and selecting the German Hymn book of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the United States.The first church building was erected on the southeast corner of Texas Avenue at Milam Street. In 1901, under the Rev. William L. Blasberg (1862–1935), the congregation moved to the northwest corner of Texas Avenue at Caroline Street, to a new red brick and sandstone edifice built in the Gothic tradition. After selling the second structure in 1926, the First Evangelical Church, as it became known, purchased the current site on Holman Street. Under the leadership of the Rev. Detlev Baltzer (1889–1962), the congregation hired architect Joseph W. Northrop, Jr., who had moved to Houston to oversee construction of the original Rice Institute, now Rice University. James West was general contractor for the new church campus, and J. C. Nolan and the Star Electric and Engineering Company held sub-contracts.

Bethel Baptist Church is a historic Baptist church building at 801 Andrews in Houston, Texas.The Late Gothic Revival building was constructed in 1923 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.HistoryThe original Bethel Church building was constructed in 1889 as a haven for former slaves and was entirely constructed of wood. Built by the Reverend Jack Yates, the plot was located in Houston's Freedmantown district. The original structure was destroyed in the Great Storm of 1900. Between 1900 and 1920, a second church structure was erected on top of the remains but it too was later destroyed. Twenty three years later, the church was reconstructed for a third and final time.In 1997, the last church service was held in the building after which it was abandoned.On January 24, 2005, a fire destroyed the interior of the church, leaving only the exterior brickwork intact."The roof, all the interior and even the church's back wall had been destroyed; all that was left were three walls, some concrete supports and the concrete floor."In 2009, the church was sold to the City of Houston. Soon thereafter, the city erected steel supports and a concrete floor to preserve the building.

The 1884 Houston Cotton Exchange Building is located at 202 Travis in downtown Houston, and is a landmark listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Houston Cotton Exchange Board commissioned local architect Eugene Heiner to design a three-story building on Travis Street at the corner of Franklin in Houston. In 1907, the building was remodeled and a fourth floor added. The Houston Cotton Exchange continued to use the building until it moved its operations to a new building several blocks away at Prairie and Caroline in 1924.John Hannah and Jesse Edmundson, III purchased the Cotton Exchange Building in 1973. They restored the building and sold it in 1983. Preservation Houston acknowledged Hannah's restoration work in 1979 with a Good Brick Award.

Join our local guides as they share facts and fun about downtown Houston. Heart of the Tunnel Walks are available Wednesday-Friday from 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Historic Downtown Pub Tours head out for Market Square Park from 6:30 p.m.-9:30 p.m., Wednesday-Saturdays.

Jefferson Davis Hospital operated from 1924 to 1938 and was the first centralized municipal hospital to treat indigent patients in Houston, Texas. It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The building, located in Houston's Historic First Ward, was designated as a protected historic landmark on November 13, 2013, by the Houston City Council and is monitored by the Historic Preservation Office of the City of Houston Department of Planning and Development.The location of the former hospital has gained notoriety as a stigmatized property due to public perception of its haunted origins.Prior to the construction of the hospital building, the lot was used as the former municipal cemetery and burial grounds for the City of Houston where thousands of Confederate States Army soldiers, former slaves, and city officials were laid to rest. The municipal cemetery operated on the lot from 1840 until the mid-1890s when it fell into decay, resulting in the reclassification of the lot for use as a municipal hospital by the Houston City Council in the 1920s.Architectural styleDesigned by Wilkes Alfred Dowdy, Architect for the City of Houston, the building for Jefferson Davis Hospital was constructed as a 4-story red brick structure with handsomely detailed façade that included stone veneers and rows of double-hung windows. The design was considered quite modern at the time of its construction and represented the architectural elements that were favored in the early 1900s for hospital design.

The One Main Building, formerly the Merchants and Manufacturers Building, is a building on the campus of the University of Houston–Downtown. The building is recognized as part of the National Register of Historic Places, is a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, and considered a Contributing Building in Downtown Houston's Main Street/Market Square Historic District. The building was built above Allen's Landing—an area where Houston's founders John Kirby Allen and Augustus Chapman Allen originally settled.The Merchants and Manufacturers Building was built in 1930 and was the largest building in the city at the time. Although the commerce-focused building featured 14 miles of floor space and could accommodate one-third of the city's population, the Great Depression in the United States stifled initial participation. The building was purchased by South Texas Junior College in the 1960s, which became the University of College in 1974.The building remains as a largest facility of the University of Houston–Downtown and was given an official designation as "One Main Building," or simply the "Main Building," by the university.