The Julia Ideson Building is a
Houston Public Library
Houston Public Library is the public library system serving Houston, Texas, United States.
History Houston Lyceum and the Carnegie Library
The Houston Public Library system traces its founding to the creation of the second Houston Lyceum in 18 ...
facility in
Downtown
''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...
Houston
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 ...
,
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. It is named for
Julia Bedford Ideson, who served as the system's first head librarian for 40 years.
The
Spanish Renaissance
The Spanish Renaissance was a movement in Spain, emerging from the Italian Renaissance in Italy during the 14th century, that spread to Spain during the 15th and 16th centuries.
This new focus in art, literature,
quotes and science inspired b ...
-style building
[Berkowitz, Lana.]
Downtown Houston can be a real ghost town
" ''Houston Chronicle
The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Texas, United States. , it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. With it ...
''. October 21, 2007. Retrieved on March 7, 2010. is part of the Central Library, and houses its archives, manuscripts, and Texas and Local History departments. It is also the site of the Houston Metropolitan Research Center.
From 1926 to 1976 it was Houston's sole main library building.
[ - Cited: p. 59 (PDF p. 1/4)]
History
Designed by
Ralph Adams Cram
Ralph Adams Cram (December 16, 1863 – September 22, 1942) was a prolific and influential American architect of collegiate and ecclesiastical buildings, often in the Gothic Revival style. Cram & Ferguson and Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson are partner ...
of Cram and Ferguson, Boston, the Ideson Building opened in 1926 as HPL's Central Library. Designed in a
Spanish Revival
The Spanish Colonial Revival Style ( es, Arquitectura neocolonial española) is an architectural stylistic movement arising in the early 20th century based on the Spanish Colonial architecture of the Spanish colonization of the Americas.
In the ...
style, it replaced the prior
Carnegie building Carnegie Building may refer to:
*Carnegie Building (Atlanta)
*Carnegie Building (Troy, New York)
*Carnegie Building (Pittsburgh)
See also
*Lists of Carnegie libraries {{short description, None
This is a list of Carnegie libraries.
* List of Carn ...
. In 1976 the Jesse H. Jones Building (as it was named in 1989) opened, and the main portion of the Central Library moved to it.
The building was listed in 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 ...
in 1977.
[National Register Information System]
National Register of Historic Places, ''National Park Service''. The Ideson building reopened in 1979.
Lana Berkowitz of the ''
Houston Chronicle
The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Texas, United States. , it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. With it ...
'' described a local legend that the Ideson Building was haunted by the ghosts of library caretaker Jacob Frank Cramer and his dog Petey.
References
External links
About the Julia Ideson Building-
Houston Public Library
Houston Public Library is the public library system serving Houston, Texas, United States.
History Houston Lyceum and the Carnegie Library
The Houston Public Library system traces its founding to the creation of the second Houston Lyceum in 18 ...
* -
Downtown Houston
Downtown is the largest central business district in the city of Houston and the largest in the state of Texas, located near the geographic center of the metropolitan area at the confluence of Interstate 10 in Texas, Interstate 10, Interstate 45, ...
organization
The Ghost of Jacob, the real story of Jacob Cramer who haunts the Julia Ideson Library.
Houston Public Library
Library buildings completed in 1926
Libraries in Houston
National Register of Historic Places in Houston
Buildings and structures in Houston
Ralph Adams Cram buildings
Libraries on the National Register of Historic Places in Texas
Spanish Revival architecture in the United States
1926 establishments in Texas
Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks
Texas State Antiquities Landmarks
Downtown Houston
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