The Humble Oil Building, is a historic office building, designed in the

Italian Renaissance architecture Renaissance architecture is the European architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 16th centuries in different regions, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of ancient Greek and Roman thought ...

style, located at 1212 Main Street in

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

and listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

. It was constructed by

Humble Oil and Refining Company Humble Oil and Refining Co. is a defunct American oil company founded in 1911 in Humble, Texas. In 1919, a 50% interest in Humble was acquired by the Standard Oil of New Jersey which acquired the rest of the company in September 1959. The Humble b ...

in 1921. The tower section was added on to the building in 1936. The building complex served as the company headquarters for

from 1921 until 1963, when the company moved into what is now the

ExxonMobil Building The ExxonMobil Building (formerly the Humble Building) was built in 1963 in Houston. At that time it was the tallest building west of the Mississippi River at , surpassing the Southland Center in Dallas (the previous record holder). It remained ...

at 800 Bell Street. In 2003, the building complex was renovated for use as a combination hotel and apartments, the apartment section was converted to additional hotel rooms in 2015.

History

The original 9-story structure occupied half of a city block between Main Street and Travis Street, with the front facing Polk Street. This original structure was designed by prominent New York architects

Clinton and Russell Clinton and Russell was a well-known architectural firm founded in 1894 in New York City, United States. The firm was responsible for several New York City buildings, including some in Lower Manhattan. Biography Charles W. Clinton (1838– ...

and cost approximately $1.2 million. It was the largest office building in Houston at the time, containing approximately of space. A 1932 renovation added a central

air conditioning Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...

system to the building, the first in any Houston office building. Humble Oil and Refining Company expanded the building in 1936 with an adjacent 17-story tower. This expansion was designed by

John F. Staub John Fanz Staub (September 12, 1892 – April 13, 1981) was a residential architect who designed numerous traditionally-styled homes and mansions, mostly in Houston, Texas, from the 1920s to 1960s. Early life John F. Staub was born on September ...

and

Kenneth Franzheim Kenneth Franzheim was an architect in Chicago and Boston in the early 1920s with C. Howard Crane. He started an independent practice in New York in 1925 and specialized in the design of large commercial buildings and airports. Franzheim became ...

. Additional expansions were made in 1940 and 1947; and the complex now contains . In 1997, the building complex was purchased by Historic Restoration Inc., with plans to adapt the buildings into a mixed-use hotel, apartments, and retail space. The plans moved forward in 1999 with a loan from the City of Houston in the amount of $4.6 million in order to encourage the development. The plans were completed in 2003 and the building opened as a Courtyard by Marriott hotel, a Residence Inn hotel, and the Humble Tower apartments. It contained 360 hotel rooms, 82 'luxury' apartments, of street-level retail, and a parking garage. It was listed on the

in 1999, under the category "Late 19th and 20th Century Revivals". The apartment section was converted to a third Marriott-branded Hotel in 2015, a Spring Hill Suites.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places National Register of Historic Places in Houston Buildings and structures completed in 1921 Buildings and structures in Houston Italian Renaissance Revival architecture in the United States ExxonMobil buildings and structures Office buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Texas 1921 establishments in Texas

History

See also

References