The Club Quarters Hotel is a 16-story, Beaux-Arts high-rise at 710 Fannin Street in downtown Houston,

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 building is 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 ...

as the Texas State Hotel.

History

Site

The Texas State Hotel is located at 720 Fannin, at the corner of Fannin and Rusk in downtown Houston. As recently as 2007, it shared Block 80 with the Kress Building (1913), the Houston Bar Center, and the Kirby Building. This last two buildings have been modified with modern slipcovers. The 2008 NRHP nomination form reported eleven buildings within a block of the Texas State Hotel which predated World War II. The predominant land use of Block 80 was originally residential. The First Baptist Church once occupied the Texas State Hotel site, a neighborhood church which was built in 1883 and occupied through 1905. One commercial building was located on Block 80 in the late-nineteenth century, with two large houses situated on large lots with outbuildings. One of these houses had an address on Rusk Street, the other on Capitol street. They persisted through 1924, even as Main Street hosted extensive commercial development. Block 80 consisted completely of commercial development after 1924. The First Baptist Church site lay vacant for two decades until the construction of the Texas State Hotel.

Building

The Texas State Hotel was designed by

Joseph Finger Joseph Finger (7 March 1887 – 6 February 1953) was an Austrian Americans, Austrian American architect. After immigrating to the United States in 1905, Finger settled in Houston, Houston, Texas in 1908, where he would remain for the duration ...

, a local architect. The footprint of the sixteen-story, steel-framed building was a C-shape facing both Fannin and Rusk streets. The hotel was owned by

Jesse H. Jones Jesse Holman Jones (April 5, 1874June 1, 1956) was an American Democratic politician and entrepreneur from Houston, Texas. Jones managed a Tennessee tobacco factory at age fourteen, and at nineteen, he was put in charge of his uncle's lumbery ...

. The Texas State Hotel was originally planned for the

1928 Democratic National Convention The 1928 Democratic National Convention was held at Sam Houston Hall in Houston, Texas, June 26–28, 1928. Keynote speaker was Claude G. Bowers. The convention resulted in the nomination of Governor Alfred E. Smith of New York for pre ...

, but due to construction and finance difficulties, was not completed until 1929 (with the help of

Jesse Holman Jones Jesse Holman Jones (April 5, 1874June 1, 1956) was an American Democratic politician and entrepreneur from Houston, Texas. Jones managed a Tennessee tobacco factory at age fourteen, and at nineteen, he was put in charge of his uncle's lumbery ...

). At one point in the 1980s, The

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

owned the property and a hotel-management group ran the hotel, but it proved unprofitable and closed. The Hotel eventually went up for auction in 1987, at which a subsidiary of

Texaco Texaco, Inc. ("The Texas Company") is an American Petroleum, oil brand owned and operated by Chevron Corporation. Its flagship product is its Gasoline, fuel "Texaco with Techron". It also owned the Havoline motor oil brand. Texaco was an Indepe ...

had the winning bid of $1.39 million for the property, which was located across the street of their, at the time headquarters at 1111 Rusk. It was left unused until Fannin & Rusk, LP took over the property for redevelopment. The renovation of the Texas State Hotel won the 2006 Good Brick Awards, given by the Greater Houston Preservation Alliance to honor exceptional preservation projects and the people behind them. Since it has opened, it has featured a restaurant, Table 7 Bistro, on the bottom floor.

Residences

The hotel building includes several residences, which have the same amenities as the regular guests The residences are zoned to the Houston Independent School District (HISD). Residents are zoned to the

Gregory-Lincoln Education Center Edgar Gregory-Abraham Lincoln Education Center (GLEC) is a K-8 school located at 1101 Taft in the Fourth Ward area of Houston, Texas, United States. Gregory-Lincoln is a part of the Houston Independent School District (HISD) and has a fine arts ...

(for grades K-8), and Northside High School (formerly Davis High School). Residents were previously zoned to Bruce Elementary School, and E.O. Smith Education Center (for middle school).Smith Middle Attendance Zone
" '' Houston Independent School District''. Retrieved on August 3, 2009.

References

External links

Club Quarters Houston

Residences Atop Club Quarters
{{Buildings in Houston timeline National Register of Historic Places in Houston Hotel buildings completed in 1929 Skyscraper hotels in Houston Residential skyscrapers in Houston Joseph Finger buildings 1929 establishments in Texas Hotel buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Texas