Catherine D. Anspon
- Posted:
- February 05, 2010
Pages from the Past
Houston has never had a love affair with history. No
surprise for a metropolis billed as Space City: Much of our civic identity has
been about the promise of the future. The distant past for us extends back a
few generations, to the pre-NASA 1950s. And one of our most revered (and now
endangered) landmarks — the Astrodome — boasts a lifespan of less than 50
years. Consequently, only a small percentage of early homes and commercial
buildings survive, in enclaves such as the Heights and the Sixth Ward, to give
a flavor of the 19th century.
Image: Julia Ideson Library, circa 1926. Courtesy of the Houston Metropolitan Research Center, Houston Public Library (RGA13-0358) HPL Collection.
Where to unravel the story of our city's narrative since
the Allen brothers stepped onto the banks of Buffalo Bayou in 1836? The grand
repository of our collective memory is incontestably the Julia Ideson Library
at 500 McKinney, downtown, where its Houston Metropolitan Research Center
(HMRC) is the official keeper of Houston's history, both civic and individual,
epic and intimate, preserving documents and images that detail the bygone eras
and increasing cultural diversity of an ever-shifting community. Encompassing
the well-bred enclaves of River Oaks and Southampton to the rich
African-American heritage of Freedman's Town and the Third and Fifth Wards, and
including vital Hispanic neighborhoods such as Harrisburg and the burgeoning
Asian settlements, the Ideson preserves and protects a trove of historical
treasures spanning nearly two centuries of urban life — records, directories,
posters, playbills, maps, architectural drawings, books, pamphlets, documents,
diaries, journals, newspapers, photographs, images and ephemera that are as
irreplaceable as they are intriguing.
A mere four years ago, the once-proud building that housed
these priceless materials was itself in dire need of preservation. It had
served for 50 years as the city's main library until the neighboring Jesse H.
Jones Library opened in 1976. After some upgrades, the Ideson reopened in 1979
to house the HMRC; rapidly it went from being the showplace of the library
system to a building visited by a much smaller audience of historians. Holes in
its roof, lack of climate control and even a room housing rare manuscripts that
was exposed to the elements, told a tale of benign neglect and disinterest in
the past (with the exception of HMRC's staff of 11 valiant librarians) and
abysmal lack of funding.
Image: Welcome back Arnett Cobb parade and concert at the Pladium Ballroom, Southmore and Sampson, Third Ward, Houston, 1960. Courtesy of the Houston Metropolitan Research Center, Houston Public Library (MSS0322-153) Arnett Cobb Collection
Preservation Has Its DayEnter the Julie Ideson Library Preservation Partners, a
nonprofit formed in 2006 at the prompting of then-mayor Bill White and charged
with the almost formidable task of raising $30-plus million. The whopping price
tag for historic preservation and expansion represents nearly one-third the
cost of erecting a new art museum of the scale of the MFAH's Beck Building or
the approximate amount of Asia Society Houston's new headquarters by
star-chitect Yoshio Taniguchi.The two-step redux — spearheaded by Gensler, led by its
senior associate, Houston architect and historian Barry Moore — revitalizes the
original building via a glorious restoration set to be completed spring 2011.
This phase preserves the 1926 edifice while altering its functions. Gone are
the voluminous stacks; its gracious spaces now will host all manner of social
occasions, exhibitions and private parties as well as a public reading room in
the current Texas Room.An important component to the ambitious fund-raising, and
the first to be realized, will be this spring’s opening of a handsome wing
(naming rights still to be conferred) that adjoins the original Ideson,
seamlessly replicating its style and matching materials while adding 21,500
square feet to the historic building's original 66,000-square-foot blueprint.
The state-of-the-art expansion, which features an environmentally engineered
archival storage area, completes the original vision of architect Ralph Adams
Cram for the south side of the building — a design that was thwarted by the
Depression. This wing will also be home for a reborn Texas Room, the popular
public reading nook (previously located on the second floor of the historic
Ideson) where HMRC librarians are available to plumb the depth of the archive
so the public can peruse Houston's past. As you read this, the Ideson's
holdings are being painstakingly transferred to the new wing. Also being
readied for this spring's unveiling are a new palm-shaded, outdoor reading area
and enclosed gardens created by Texas landscape architects TBG Partners, adding
welcome green space at the juncture where the old and new Ideson components
intersect.
The Final Chapter — History Goes Green, Public Joins
Private
Most importantly, the new Ideson looks to the future, on
track for silver Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)
certification, making it among the first preservation projects in Texas to
garner the green designation. It’s also surely one of the most significant and
visible, being in the block that adjoins Houston City Hall. Finally, the Ideson
stands as another example of outgoing Mayor White's innovative melding of the
public and private sectors. Almost half its funds came from the City of Houston,
which kicked in an astounding $15.5 million and weighs in on design
considerations through its General Services and Library departments.
Foundations and individuals donated the balance, including major gifts from
munificent benefactors Phoebe and Bobby Tudor (for whom the original building's
second-floor central gallery will be named), Joe Jamail Jr. and Kitty King
Powell, plus sizable grants from The Brown Foundation, The Houston Endowment
and The Cullen Foundation. You, too, can save Houston's past. The final $3 million is still being raised; to make
a contribution, contact executive director Margaret Lawler, 713.660.0772; preservationpartners@ideson.org;
ideson.org.
Image: Julia Ideson Library, second-floor interior, circa 1926. Courtesy of the Houston Metropolitan Research Center, Houston Public Library (RGA13-2967) HPL Collection.
The Eyes of the Ideson — Bricks, Mortar and
Architectural Glories
The edifice itself is on every roster that records
important historic architecture: a Texas Historical Landmark, a Texas State
Archaeological Landmark, the National Register of Historic Places and, most
vital for its survival, a City of Houston Protected Landmark. Its original
architects, Cram & Ferguson of Boston, were led by partner Ralph Adams
Cram, an adept practitioner of early-20th-century revival styles whose greatest
hits included St. John the Divine Church in New York City, the United States
Military Academy at West Point and, in Houston, the Rice University campus and
Trinity Episcopal Church. Collaborating with Cram was leading Houston architect
William Ward Watkin, a former employee of the Boston firm, first chairman of
Rice's architecture department and also the architect of the original Museum of
Fine Arts, Houston, which had opened two years earlier. As conceived, it was to
be part of a five-building master plan, including the Houston City Hall,
interrupted by the Depression. (When the economy revived, the Art Moderne style
was in vogue, so a new architect, Joseph Finger, was tapped for that commission
that opened in 1939.)For the Ideson, a restrained Spanish revival style was
selected as appropriate for a metropolis in the Southwest. An elegant
cream-colored brick, stone, stucco and a red-tile roof were the materials of
choice for the facade of the new cultural mecca, which replaced the smaller
Houston Lyceum and Carnegie Library that had opened some 20 years earlier. Mr.
Houston History, Rice University's Stephen Fox, praises the Ideson in the AIA
Houston Architecture Guide: "Set on a tree-shaded block, this low, masonry
building with its arched windows, clay-tile roofs and sculptural decorations
provides a welcome contrast to the tall brittle towers that now surround
it."The drama that the monochromatic facade lacks is
compensated for by the Ideson’s over-the-top interiors. Its three floors
showcase elaborate woodwork, Spanish-tile floors, marble columns, archways
displaying lush floriated capitals, carved balustrades ringing the second- and
third-floor balconies and a sumptuous painted and coffered ceiling — an
impressive perspective visible when a library-goer gazes up at the full expanse
of its three-stories-high entrance.Additional highlights are the fabled Ideson murals, a
cycle completed with funds by the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP), painted
between 1934 and 1936 by three Houston artists to comprise the city's largest
installation of WPA Depression-era public murals. Perhaps the one on the
landing between the first and second floors is the most renowned. Painted by
Ruth Pershing Uhler, who is also represented in the MFAH permanent collection,
it shows The First Subscription Committee,
1854, while drolly incorporating details of an actual window into the artwork.
Image: Julia Ideson Library, second-floor interior, circa 1926. Courtesy of the Houston Metropolitan Research Center, Houston Public Library (RGA13-2967) HPL Collection.
Dateline — The 19th Century
Equally as beguiling as the architecture of this landmark
building is the heritage that it honors and preserves. Its stacks are literally
weighted with history: shelves upon shelves bearing thousands of archival boxes
that comprise the vast holdings of the HMRC. The most tantalizing and
revelatory are: more than 300 early maps of Houston and the Southwest, the
earliest dating from 1561; 125,000 architectural drawings from more than 250
architects; approximately four million photographs that detail historical
occurrences as well as moments from everyday life in the area; 15,000 rare
books and pamphlets in the John Milsaps Collection, donated in 1904 by this
bibliophile, a descendant of a settler who died at the Alamo; 7,000 rare
children's books; the Heiser-Alban Collection of Circus Historical Materials
starring more than 800 vintage lithographic circus posters ; special
collections stocked with volumes such as a 1615 edition of Don Quixote and a 15th-century illuminated Book of
Hours from Flanders, as well as first
editions of literary classics Moby Dick and Alice in Wonderland,
plus the original Houston Town Lot Book. Last fall, I spent a day immersed in the Ideson's Texas
Room (before it moved to its new wing) at the invitation of the Preservation
Partners. I visited with the nonprofit's capable executive director, Margaret
Lawler. (Her grandfather, Maurice Sullivan — an architect who designed St. Anne's
Catholic Church and Holy Rosary Catholic Church — has his architectural plans
preserved at the Ideson.) Under the guidance of Kemo Curry, the efficient
manager of the HMRC, and her well-versed staff, I delved into topics of
personal interest to grasp a sense of the center's extraordinary resources. Anyone enamored of the past would be enthralled by an
opportunity to explore these archives, which bear a swatch of the past two
centuries, rendered and served up in original format rather than via
microfiche. As Curry and her team pulled out carts of books, directories and
file folders, I glimpsed photographs of the interiors and gardens of the grand
homes of Courtland Place from the turn of the 20th century, a definite
discovery of the day (culled from the Houston Heights Collection and the
Domestic Architecture of Harris Country, 1824 – 1914/Junior League Collection).Another top find was the early Houston City Directories.
The first was published in 1866. They relay the names of the heads of
households, along with occupations and street addresses, and are filled with
telling details about booming, Reconstruction-era Houston: ads for cotton
factors (speculators who sold the crop), hotels and merchants (such as a bygone
candy shop on Main Street), banks, railroads, steamboat lines, factories,
houses of worship and even secret and benevolent societies. An 1870 – 1871
directory records the city's population as an "estimated 15,000 to
20,000." In 1873, the City Directory boasts: "Nine railroads are
either completed or in progress ... Glenwood Cemetery has been laid out with
roads, and walks have been constructed; workmen are planting shade trees,
evergreens, and shrubbery. One hundred lots have been taken and about thirty
interments made since the opening of the Cemetery last spring … Work is
continuing on the Ship Channel. There were obstructions at Red Fish Bar, and
Chopper’s Bar, and depth was needed for eight miles between Harrisburg and
Houston ... The Buffalo Bayou Ship Channel Company, organized in 1869, has as
its object first to secure 6 foot regular navigation, and then to deepen to 8
and 9, 11 and 12 feet, widening the channels through the Bay and in the
Bayou."The 1877– 1878 City Directory proclaims additional
urban progress: "The first grain elevator was built, the largest in Texas,
with a capacity of 150,000 bushels. Fifty railroad cars can be unloaded per
day." It also notes, "Houston is no longer the leading market for
cotton in the state; Galveston has taken its place." The 1881 directory
records in the section marked "Of Special Interest: Two ice machines are
now in operation manufacturing a combined 900,000 pounds of ice per month,
nearly 4/5 of it consumed in the city ... The Houston Water Works now has 12
miles of water mains in operation ... The business of Houston is estimated
[underestimated, they say] at $8,000,000, not including Cotton and banking
transactions."Also among the items investigated: ephemera from my alma
matter, Rice University, including ticket stubs to a 1930s-era Cotton Bowl and
a 1916 yearbook; vintage photographs from the glory days of Sakowitz, including
its store in the Gulf Building circa 1930s and ensuing Main Street flagship
with its glamorous glove, purse and departments (the Alfred C. Finn
Collection); the Franklin Beauty School Collection, which highlights an
important trade school that generated economic mobility in the African-American
community; the evocative scrapbook of Rose Jordan, a relative of Barbara
Jordan; pre-Central Business District postcards showing a tree-lined Main
Street filled with grand mansions, populated by horse-drawn vehicles and street
cars; and charming 1960s-era fashion designs in the Evelyn Norton Anderson
Papers, with her illustrations for space suit–inspired apparal for Astrodome
attendants.There’s also a window into the Hispanic past via
photographs of debutantes and members of social clubs (the Catalina Gomez
Sandoval Collection), then a thrilling discovery for jazz lovers: the Arnett
Cobb Collection, containing the archives of Houston's own "wild man of the
tenor sax," made fortuitously after meeting the musician's daughter
Lizette Cobb and his researcher Micque Montgomery-Swinton in the Texas Room.
Finally, even though I did not have time to listen to them, the Ideson is also
the ear to the past; the Oral History Collection contains the voices of great citizens, from Ima Hogg to
George Mitchell.Leading Ladies Two women, nearly a century apart, star in the saga of the
Julia Ideson Library.
Image: Julia Ideson. Courtesy of the Houston Metropolitan Research Center, Houston Public library.
Julia Ideson,
first librarian, Houston Public Library
The first and only head librarian of the Houston Public
Library from 1904 until 1945, Julia Bedford Ideson (1880 – 1945) was one of the
first students in library sciences at the University of Texas. Her passion for
books and learning came from her family, which moved to Houston from Nebraska
in 1892. Her father owned a bookstore. Appointed the first librarian of the
city's Houston Lyceum and Carnegie Library (which occupied the corner of Travis
and McKinney), she was responsible for the tremendous growth of the library
system, from lobbying for the new building that became the Ideson to
instituting a bookmobile and adding five branches to the system. Under her
42-year reign, the library holdings increased from 13,228 to 265,707 volumes,
and annual circulation soared from 60,000 to 600,000. Besides being president
of the Texas Library Association and the first vice president of the American
Library Association, Ideson was the first woman from Houston listed in Who's
Who. Beyond her library duties, she was a
suffragette and a member of the Texas League of Women Voters and Women's
Political Union. She was also a staunch supporter of racial equality, serving
on the Texas Commission on Interracial Cooperation and speaking on the topic of
providing library services for African-Americans in the South at the American
Library Association meeting at Hot Springs, Arkansas, in 1923.
Image: Phoebe Tudor. Photo by Jack Thompson.
Phoebe Tudor, chair,
Julia Ideson Library Preservation Partners
Tapped by Mayor Bill White and his then cultural czar Jill
Jewett to lead the fund-raising campaign for the $32 million restoration, this
well-connected Louisiana belle was a natural for the Ideson project. Her
pedigree and passion for history and preservation include a B.A. in art history
from the University of Virginia and an Ivy League M.A. in historic preservation
from Columbia, plus restoration assignments in culture capitals New Orleans and
New York, as well as living in London. Tudor posed for our portrait in the
library of her family's Birdsall Briscoe–designed, 1920s-era home (she and
husband Bobby received a 2008 Good Brick Award for its sensitive restoration
and were honored this winter by the Rice Design Alliance for their commitment
to Houston's history and built environment). She waxes about the sea change
since she first became involved in our burg's preservation movement in 1990,
which was the terrain of just "a few hardy souls," and the beauty of
the Ideson: "The carved-wood coffered ceiling, the murals, the red-tile
floors, those tall windows, the elegant stucco walls … You can really feel the
history. It's fun to me [to be involved] in this bricks-and-mortar campaign for
the Ideson. There are not many projects like this."
Image at top : The restored and expanded Julia Ideson Library, to be unveiled in two phases, beginning this spring with its new wing. Photo courtesy of Gensler.