Hello to everyone. I am new to the group and have a facination w/Houston's history. I have recently begun a roster of Bldg's (180+) in the downtwon area {defined as Commerce (100 blk.} to the north, Dowling to the east, Mcilheny to the south & Houston ave. to the west} w/Main str. as the center divder down the middle. I suppose the first question I would like to get settled is just where does So. Main begin? Would it be @ the site where the old M&M Bldg. is? Or @ the corner of Main & Commerce? Or elsewhere? Anyway my interest has been spurned after viewing many photos recently @ the historical Houston page. I absolutly hate the new skyscrapers but will not let that influence any comments or input from others. Like many others I prefer the older {1940-1960} architecture. W/that said I have begun to trace sum history of several Bldg's. I will use the beautiful old Gulf Bldg. as an example. While puting my list of 180 Bldg's together and viewing photos I noticed that the same Bldg. had several different names. So far I have read that the Gulf Bldg. was originally the Texas Commerce Bank (TCB) & that 2day it is the JP Morgan Bldg. What I have not yet concluded was the Bldg. purpose built as a bank and over the intervening years new tenants occupied? Does anyone recall if indeed it was @ one time named the TCB or did they have a separate Bldg. elsewhere down town? One of my goals is to get to the Tax assessor's office and try to examine original tax records for a given parcel ID and along w/that to establish physical address' over the intervening years. That would be a hugh help as those records list the original and subsequent owners. I have also traced sum history for the original Bank of the S/W {now Bank One}, SP's Grand Central Sta. {the 5th depot to occupy that site} & now home to a huge Postal serv. facility, Houston Natural Gas which became the Enron Bldg. and the M&M Bldg. which had sum 600,000 square feet of floor space when it opened in the 30's ( considered a very large Bldg. @ that time) and is now occupied by UH. I would welcome all comments for everyone & will post additional findings in the future. I would also share my list w/anyonw who wishes a copy. It is Excel formatted and a works in progress. Respectfully Danny Mac