For Preservation THE NEWSLETTER OF
Volume 21, No. 1
www.ghpa.org
n
greater houston preservation alliance
Houston’s local partner of the National Trust for Historic Preservation
Winter 2011
UH study confirms value of districts
2011 CO R N E R S TO N E D I N N E R
15 projects earn Good Bricks and Truxillo are all previous Good Brick Award recipients. In addition to the juried awards, GHPA will present its 2011 President’s Award to Bob Fretz, Jr. for his outstanding contributions to historic preservation in Houston. As president of Fretz Construction Co., he has played an integral role in restoring several historic churches and is Bob Fretz, Jr. himself a Good Brick Award winner for his adaptive reuse of the former Byrd’s Department Store (1934) as Byrd’s Lofts. “Bob and I have often worked together in designing and building projects and serving as volunteers. He carries on extremely well his family’s tradition of quality conPlease see Awards, Page 2
COURTESY OF DEBORAH KEYSER
GHPA will again showcase outstanding preservation projects and the people who make them possible when it presents the 2011 Good Brick Awards during The Cornerstone Dinner on Friday, February 4. Fifteen projects were chosen to receive awards from almost three dozen nominations. A jury of design and preservation professionals, former Good Brick winners and community leaders selected the recipients. GHPA board member and former Houston Chronicle home design editor Madeleine McDermott Hamm chaired the jury; Tim Beeson of Houston House & Home magazine, Bob Fretz, Jr. of Fretz Construction Co., architect Kerry Goelzer, Galveston Historical Foundation Executive Director Dwayne Jones, Wallace Saage of The Heritage Society, architect Monica Savino and GHPA Director Emeritus Bart Truxillo served as jurors. Beeson, Fretz, Savino
Deborah Keyser and James Stafford are receiving a 2011 Good Brick Award for the renovation of the National Cash Register Co. Building, which was designed by Joseph Finger. The building is shown shortly after its completion in 1929.
WA L K I N G TO U R S
2011 tours will mark Houston’s 175th birthday
GHPA FILE
The capitol of the Republic of Texas, which stood at the corner of Main Street and Texas Avenue, was a landmark in early Houston. The building became the Capitol Hotel after the government moved to Austin. The Post Rice Lofts stands on the site today.
GHPA’s Walking Tours Program will celebrate Houston’s 175th birthday in 2011 with a year’s worth of tours that trace the city’s development. “We developed this year’s tour calendar based on our docents’ favorite tours,” Walking Tours Program Chair Jim Parsons said. “So not only do these tours tell the story of how Houston grew as a city, but they’re also the ones that we most enjoy giving.” The year will begin with three tours in the north end of downtown, which was the extent of the city when it was founded in 1836. On January 9, the tour will cover the area around Market Square, the center of commerce and city government in early Houston. A new tour February 13, “The Town of Houston,” will
explore significant sites and stories from the city’s earliest days. And in March, a tour on the 13th will focus on the Courthouse District, including the magnificent 1910 Harris County Courthouse and stories of Quality Hill, early Houston’s most exclusive residential area. Later tours will explore some of Houston’s early suburbs, including the Old Sixth Ward and Woodland Heights; buildings of the downtown skyline; and the modern architecture of the University of St. Thomas and Menil campus. The walking tours begin at 2 p.m. and cost $7 for GHPA members and students and $10 for the general public. More information on tour meeting points and an updated tour calendar are available at www.ghpa.org/tours.
When preservationists talk about the value of historic preservation, it usually involves intangibles like pride of place and maintaining neighborhood character, but there are dollars and cents reasons for property owners to have their neighborhoods designated as City of Houston historic districts. The University of Houston’s Hobby Center for Public Policy (HCPP) has released the results of a study that clearly illustrates the positive impact historic district designation has on property values in Houston. GHPA commissioned the study to illustrate with hard numbers the economic value of historic district designation. Similar independent studies have been conducted in other cities, including Philadelphia, Dallas and Galveston, but comparisons to Houston were difficult because those communities generally have stronger preservation protections. The HCPP findings show that Houston’s results are in line with those for other cities: Historic properties in designated historic districts have higher appraised values and maintain those values better than comparable properties in adjacent neighborhoods that are not designated historic districts. Methods HCPP conducted a comparative analysis of Harris County Appraisal District records from the past ten years. Appraised values in three Please see Study, Page 2
OL D S I X T H WA R D
New lease on life for historic house According to local historian Chuck Stava, Gottlieb Eisele was a German immigrant and carpenter who built the house for his wife and son. The building was the last surviving house in Vinegar Hill, a Sixth Ward neighborhood that was demolished for the construction of Houston Police Department headquarters and Interstate 45. For decades the house has stood in a city-owned parking lot next to the freeway, where it served as a meeting place for the HPD Explorers youth group.
COURTESY OF CITY OF HOUSTON
A private buyer has purchased the historic Gottlieb Eisele House at auction from the City of Houston. Built in the 1870s as a side-gabled Gulf Coast cottage with Carpenter Gothic detailing, the frame house was given its current bungalow form after being damaged in the 1943 hurricane. The Houston Chronicle reported that the new owner, Lee Roeder, will move the house to the Old Sixth Ward Historic District and restore the building to its original appearance using Eisele family photos.
Gottlieb Eisele House