OR I-JRESERVATION
NEWSLETTER OF THE GREATER HOUSTON PRESERVATION ALLIANCE VOLUME 8, NUMBER
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Requiem for a Landmark By Gerald Moorhead The building known as Kennedy Corner, at Travis and Congress Avenue, built in 1861, was demolished Feb. 26, 1992, by its current owners, Albert Kalas and partners. In its century-plus of existence, the structure was home to uses that ranged from the baking of bread to the storage of war materiel. When the Kennedy Corner structure fell, Houston lost what one preservation professional has described as "the bookend" for two historic blocks. John Kennedy, born in Ireland in 1819, arrived in Houston in 1842, having traveled by way of New Jersey and Missouri. Kennedy opened a bakery on Franktin Avenue between Main and Fannin. In 1843, he began buying land at Travis and Congress A venue. The first parcel, 25'x50', already held a building in which Kennedy operated a trading post. It was a prime business location, across the street from City Hall (Market Square). By 1855, Kennedy had bought all of lots 1 and 2, fronting on the Congress Avenue corner and north along Travis. Buildings already on this land housed the Shakespeare House coffee shop, Hoffman'S Hotel, a bakery, and Hogan's Grocery. A fire in 1860, the first of several which dominate the history of this property, broke out between the bakery and the hotel, destroying the entire city block. Kennedy rebuilt, filling his two lots with a brick load-bearing structure four bays wide and three stories tall. The bearing walls of his new structure were oriented east-west facing Travis, leaving about 20 feet open at the west end of the lots. Into this narrow space, a small building was inserted, facing Congress Avenue. It housed Kennedy's steam-operated bakery. The buildings now referred to as Kennedy Corner and the Kennedy Bakery (La Carafe) were begun in 1860, and probably were completed in 1861. In addition to his commercial activities in town, Kennedy by this time also owned several thousand acres of slaveworked agricultural land in Harris and adjacent counties. Ouring the Civil War, Kennedy received a commission to supply hardtack for the Confederacy. He sometimes hired blockade runners to export cotton and to import ammunition. The military supplies were stored in his buildings in downtown Houston. Shortly after the Confederate surrender in April of 1865, disbanding military units posted along the Texas coast stopped in Houston on their way home, awaiting rail transport. Their stayovers were usually peaceful;
On this February day, the upper western wall of the Kennedy Corner building had already been dismantled by workers using hand tools. The rest of the structure soon followed.
soldiers were fed from military supplies on hand. But by the morning of May 23, military authority had collapsed, and soldiers were ransacking the supply warehouses of food, clothing, weapons and ammunition. Kennedy Corner and other ordinance depots were in imminent danger of being blown up by an explosion of loose powder stored there. Mayor William Anders ordered Protection Fire Co. No.1 to standby status, but the supplies had vanished by noon, and the melee had subsided. When the mayor wrote a report on the incident to City Council, he noted "It was an orderly mob, taking what it considered its own. Private property was in no instance molested." In 1873, Kennedy's daughter, Mary Frances, married William L. Foley (1855-1925), an immigrant from Ireland like her father. When Kennedy died in 1878, he left individual bays of his buildings to his wife and children. Thus, Foley acquired bay 2, and opened a grocery store. When Kennedy's wife, Mathilda, died in 1885, she left bay 4 to Mary Frances, who died the next year. The two northern bays (3 and 4) of the Kennedy Store Building were destroyed by a fire July 13, 1888. Foley then bought bay 3 from Kennedy's son, John Jr., and
rebuilt his three bays in 1889 to the designs of Eugene T. Heiner, as we see them today at 214-218 Travis. The corner portion of the Kennedy Store Building, bay 1, though untouched by the fire, was also remodeled. Its simple brick appearance, probably similar to the bakery building, was updated in Victorian style. The brick walls were covered with stucco, scored to look like stone. Elaborate frames and pediments were added around the windows, and a small, onion-domed turret rose above the corner. The sidewalk on both sides of the building was covered by a wide canopy. In their century and a quarter, many types of business have occupied Kennedy's buildings, and later Foley's: grocers, dry goods, druggists, a meat market, a candy maker, a cigar factory, saloons, barbers, the Texas Dental College, all during the Kennedy-Foley ownership era. The remaining portion of the Kennedy Store Building, known as Kennedy Corner, was insensitively remodeled, probably in the period of the 1940s or 1950s. The groundfloor iron storefronts were enclosed, the turret and canopies removed, and the exterior walls covered with lumpy red stucco. The Victorian window ornament was destroyed. Steel windows replaced the original wood sashes. In 1969, the La Carafe bar' opened
in the only portion of John Kennedy's 1861 mercantile empire retaining its original appearance. DiverseWorks, a non-profit gallery, occupied parts of the Foley Building from 1984 until 1989. The portion of the Foley Building immediately north of Kennedy Corner, the old bay 2, was gutted by fire Feb. 9, 1989. The roof of Kennedy Corner, then vacant, was severely damaged, but the owners took no action to repair the damage, or to protect the structure from further deterioration. As a result of weather exposure, the interior structures collapsed Sept. 15, 1991. Although the brick bearing walls remained in place, they were unbraced for their threestory height and therefore were unstable. The adjacent Foley Building and Kennedy Bakery were threatened by the imminent collapse of the masonry walls. The Greater Houston Preservation Alliance (GHPA) and the Market Square Historic District Project immediately began concerted efforts (see next page) on Feb. 26, 1992, Kennedy Corner became an empty lot. Editor's note: Information on the history of the Kennedy Building is drawn from a chronology prepared by archeologist Roger Moore. Gerald Moorhead is a Houston architect.