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 1 ...

facility in Downtown

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 i ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

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. 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 ...

-style buildingBerkowitz, 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 i ...

''. 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 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 th ...

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 Ca ...

. 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 ...

in 1977.National Register Information System
National Register of Historic Places, ''National Park Service''. The Ideson building reopened in 1979. Lana Berkowitz of the ''

'' 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
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* -

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, Interstate 45, and Interstate 69. The ...

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 {{Texas-struct-stub