The Star Engraving Company Building is a building at 3201

Allen Parkway Allen Parkway is an arterial road west of Downtown Houston, Texas. It has a distance of approximately 2.3 miles (3.7 km), running from Interstate 45 west to Shepherd Drive, where it becomes Kirby Drive. Originally known as Buffalo Parkway, ...

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 ...

, built in 1930 in the

Spanish Colonial 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 by the Star Engraving company to house its

engraving Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a Burin (engraving), burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or Glass engraving, glass ...

factory. The building is currently () owned by the city of Houston and serves as the Houston Center for the Arts, housing the

Stages Repertory Theatre Stages (Houston) is a theatre company in the city of Houston, Texas formerly known as Stages Repertory Theatre. It produces performances at The Gordy, the company's three-stage venue that opened in 2020 in Houston's Montrose, Houston, Montrose neig ...

, the Houston Arts Alliance, and the Bayou Preservation Alliance.

Historical landmark

It was designated a local historic landmark in 1986, and was 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 ...

in 1995.

Residents

The Stages Repertory Theatre has resided in the building since 1985, and the

Children's Museum of Houston Children's Museum Houston (CMH) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit children's museum in the Museum District of Houston, Texas. Founded in 1980 and housed in a building designed by Robert Venturi, it offers exhibits and bilingual learning programs for ch ...

resided there until 1992. The building became the subject of controversy in 1992 when then-owner 3201 Allen Parkway Ltd. indicated its intent to evict the Stages Theatre and the Children's Museum in order to develop the building into

loft A loft is a building's upper storey or elevated area in a room directly under the roof (American usage), or just an attic: a storage space under the roof usually accessed by a ladder (primarily British usage). A loft apartment refers to large ...

condominia in partnership with developer Gross Investments. The Children's Museum had long been planning a move to the Museum District anyway, but Stages and its supporters protested that a move would greatly harm the theatre, and requested local-government assistance in buying the building. A few months later, the development deal with Gross Investments fell through, and 3201 Allen Parkway Ltd. offered to sell the building to Stages. However, Stages couldn't meet its asking price and negotiations broke down. The City of Houston eventually purchased the building, after a controversial threat to use

eminent domain Eminent domain (United States, Philippines), land acquisition (India, Malaysia, Singapore), compulsory purchase/acquisition (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, United Kingdom), resumption (Hong Kong, Uganda), resumption/compulsory acquisition (Austr ...

powers to confiscate it, and turned it into a municipal arts center. In 2020, the property was acquired by Houston-based real estate firm Radom Capital and remodeled into boutique offices, restaurant and retail space.

References

{{NRHP Industrial buildings completed in 1930 Manufacturing plants in the United States National Register of Historic Places in Houston Spanish Colonial Revival architecture in Texas 1930 establishments in Texas Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Texas Engraving