Highrise Tower

I was reading the newspaper The Baytown Sun dated May 31, 1959 and came across an article regarding nurse training at Southmore Hospital & Clinic located at 906 Southmore Ave. Nurse Training Class To Open Pasadena School of Vocational Nursing will open a new training class, June 22. The purpose of the school is to provide communities with persons capable of giving competent nursing care. The Pasadena School of Vocational Nursing is fully accredited by the Texas State Board of Nurse Examiners. The school is operated jointly by the Pasadena Independent School District and the Southmore Hospital and Clinic. The school is located at the Southmore Hospital, 906 East Southmore, Pasadena. Applications are being received at the Texas Employment Commission, 110 South Main, Pasadena.

A fellow HAIF member was slightly confused about all the old Pasadena hospitals and had questions regarding Red Bluff Hospital located at 4040 Red Bluff Road. From the newspaper The Baytown Sun dated November 4, 1965: Experienced LVN's, RN's, O.R. Technicians Red Bluff Hospital Apply Mrs. Milis, 4040 Red Bluff Road, Pasadena. The Baytown Sun dated Tuesday, May 25, 1965: Nurses Wanted - LVN's, also experienced R.N. and Aides. Apply in person, Mrs. Mills, Red Bluff Hospital, 4040 Red Bluff Road, Pasadena. The Baytown Sun dated June 18, 1965: Dr. K.G. Mathis, adminstrator of Red Bluff Hospital in Pasadena, will speak on "Diabetes" at 10:30 a.m. The Baytown Sun dated February 16, 1979: Burkhalter had stood trail three times before being cleared of charges stemming from the Dec. 9, 1966 slaying of Dr. Robert Pendleton, a onetime partner in the ownership of Pasadena Memorial Hospital, then known as Red Bluff Hospital. Burkhalter was handed a life sent in 1970 but the verdict was overturned on appeal. A 1974 trail ended in a mistrial, and he was acquitted at a 1975 trial. Pendleton was gunned down at the hospital and the prosecutors alleged Burkhalter ordered the murder so he could gain control of the hospital and benefit from $210,000 in life insurance paid to the hospital on Pendleton’s death.

That is correct! Dr. Robert Pendleton, a onetime partner in the ownership of Pasadena Memorial Hospital, then known as Red Bluff Hospital.

I was reading the newspaper The Baytown Sun dated February 16, 1979 and came across a help wanted ad for Pasadena Memorial Hospital located at 4040 Red Bluff Road. RN's 3-11 and 11-7 $100 Bonus payable upon employment. Excellent salary and benefits. Pasadena Memorial Hospital 4040 Red Bluff Road Pasadena, Texas 77503 473-3311

I was reading the newspaper South Belt Leader dated December 3, 1980 and came across an employment wanted advertisement for Pasadena Bayshore Hospital located at 4000 Spencer Hwy. Specials for Special Nurses Pasadena Bayshore Hospital is looking for a select group of full-time and part-time RN's and LVN's to join our progressive health care facility. We recognize that nurses are special people and we offer you the opportunity to develop your skills and grow with us. Current openings include-- Pasadena Bayshore Hospital 4000 Spencer Highway * Pasadena, Texas 77504 * 944-6666, ext. 1230 An affiliate of Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) e.o.e.

Family deaths; Joseph Goldman, Abe Levy, Haskell Levy, and Harriet Levy. Sorted in chronological order. The Houston Post. dated February 24, 1915: Joseph Goldman of Levy Bros. Dead Was Secretary-Treasure of the Dry Goods Company. Daughter Was Away Attending College, Hurried to Reach Home Before His Death; Was Too Late Joseph Goldman, aged 60 years, secretary-treasure of the Levy Brothers Dry Goods Company, for 26 years a resident of Houston, died at the family home, 2016 Main Street, at 7:50 Tuesday evening, after an illness of two weeks-- Mr. Goldman was a brother-in-aw of Messrs. Abe M., Like and Haskell Levvy and Miss Harriett Levy of this city, his wife being Miss Fannie Levy; Last December the twenty-fifth anniversary of their wedding was celebrated. Houston Post-Dispatch dated November 12, 1924: Society Will Attend Funeral In Body The entire membership of the Levy Mutual Aid Society will attend funeral services for its founder, Abe M. Levy, at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at the residence of the former merchant, 2016 Main Street. Dr. Henry Barnston will officiate at the ceremonies. Burial will be in the Beth Israel cemetery. Ley Brothers' store and Grand Leader were closed all of Monday in tribute to their former president. They will reopen Wednesday afternoon. Mr. Levy is survived by brother, Haskell, and a sister Miss Harriet. The Texas Jewish Herald dated September 16, 1926: Funeral services for Haskell Levy, 60, was held Sunday, September 12, at 10 'oclock at the family residence, 2016 Main Street. Rabbi Henry Barnston officiation Interment was the family mausoleum in Beth Israel Cemetery. Surviving Mr. Levy is his sister, Miss Harriett Levy-- Texas Jewish Herald dated October 14, 1937: Miss Harriet Levy, Philanthropist and Civic Leader, Dies Miss Harriet Levy, 75, a life-long resident of Houston who was known for her philanthropy and interest in the civic and commercial life of Houston, died at her home, 2016 Main, Saturday. Miss Levy was a sister of Abe M. Levy and Haskell Levy, brothers who founded Levy Bros. Department Store. She was closely associated with the business for 20 years. She was born in Houston, Sept. 13, 1862. Her life had been devoted to charity and welfare work. She gave the ground for the DePelchin Faith Home and was made a life member of the board. She was one of the original patrons of the Houston Symphony orchestra and one of the patrons of the Art Museum-- Dr. Henry Barnston, rabbi of Temple Beth Israel, officiated. Surviving nieces and nephews include Mr. and Mrs. Leopold Meyer, Mr. and Mrs. Albert A. Bath, Mr. and Mrs. Leo M. Levy, all of Houston and Mrs. and Mrs. M.L. Goldman of New York. Active pallbearers were Marcus N. Meyer, C. Bernard Newding, Theodore F. Keller, Walter L. Conover, Dr. Thomas Freundlich, Morris D. Meyer, Joseph Finger and Dave H. Straus.

wow!! HAIF really is a bank of knowledge and information! I'm not sure how @2fatcatsknew this information about the Levy family residences being at 2016 Main Street. Looks like the mansion was also a Benefit of Faith Home (AKA DePelchin Faith Home.) The Houston Post. dated March 1, 1908: Silver Tea for Benefit of Faith Home. The tea from 4 to 7 tomorrow afternoon at the home of Miss Harriet Levy, at 2016 Main Street, is a Benefit for Faith Home. The board of managers for the Faith Home finding that necessary reservation in the building would required more entertainment as a successful plan to meet these demands. In connection with tea there will be a fancy and utility bag bazar. The bags of ever kind and description have been contributed by the women of the city, who never refuse an appeal to to promote the work of Faith Hone, which is the care of helpless infants and children. From the newspaper The Houston Post. dated April 25, 1908: Wanted- A good house girl. Apply Levy's residence, 2016 Main. The Houston Post. dated September 29, 1915: Return of Houstonians. Miss Harriet Levy, Mrs. Joseph Goldman, Miss Adalena Goldman, Mr. and Mrs. I.S. Levy, Messrs. Abe Levy, Haskel Levy and Leo Levy, who attended the Goldman-Bauman wedding in St. Louis Monday morning, are expected home this morning. After a wedding trip of several weeks East, Mr. and Mrs. Maurice Goldman will arrive in Houston, being at home at 2016 Main Street.

In 1928, Joseph Finger planned a four-story building for the Levy Bros. Dry Goods Co. Jesse H. Jones later commissioned Alfred C. Finn to add five-floors of office space above the Levy Bros. store. At the same time, Alfred C. Finn removed most of Joseph Finger’s proposed Art Deco ornamentation. In 1939, Jesse H. Jones commissioned Alfred C. Finn to increase the building’s height to 22-stories. At this time, the company was nicknamed Levy's for short. Note* I had help from the following website: http://www.houstondeco.org/1920s/levys.html

A little confusing, but I believe this Joseph Finger building did not get built. Jesse H. Jones hired Alfred C. Finn to increase the height and change a few things. The original design by Finger was not selected.

wow!! I discovered a new (to me) department store in Houston! I searched around HAIF and there was only 2 or 3 mentions over the past 15 years. Figured I would create an official thread so people can gain more knowledge about the company. In terms of the company name, and searching around the internet, the name was spelled many ways. Levy Brothers Department Store Levy Bros. Department Store Levy Brothers Dry Goods Company Levy Brothers Dry Goods Co. Levy Bros. Dry Goods Co. Levy Brothers Company Looks like the official wording, per company letterhead and invoices, was Levy Bros. Dry Goods Co. From an invoice dated December 12, 1952: Several online Houston history blogs indicate the address was 309 Main Street. The 1907 Sanborn Houston map had the company surrounding the addresses 309, 311, and 313 Main Street. I searched through old newspapers for both 309 and 313 Main Street and did not find any information containing Levy Bros. When searching for 311 Main, I got results. From the newspaper The Houston Post. dated March 8, 1914: Department Stores Dexter, Fred F. 230 W. Seventeenth Ave., H. Hts. Taylor 205 Levy Bros., 311 Main. Preston 36 Munn Co., W.C., Travis St. Capitol Ave. and Main St. Preston 218; A1131. The Houston Post. dated June 24, 1914: J.B. Westover, Adv. Mgr. Levy Bros. Dry Goods Co. Dry Goods and Women's Furnish'gs 311 Main St. Phone P675 From a 1907 Sanborn Houston map: A photo of the Levy Bros. Dry Goods Co. building at 311 Main Street.

Learned something new today! Joseph Finger designed a Battelstein's Department Store in Montrose located at 2010 South Shepherd Drive. Very cool!! I wasn't aware of this store. From the newspaper The Bellaire Texan dated May 6, 1964: Now Available at Battelstein's The Amazing New Finnish Sauna Portable Sauna Bath Have a Beauty SPA in your own home for pennies a day! It cleanses the body, relaxes tension, offers much pleasure and well being. Battelstein's 2010 South Shepherd Interior photo I found online: Interior of Battlestein’s Department Store, 2010 South Shepherd, ca. 1950. This suburban Battlestein’s was designed by Joseph Finger who also designed earlier downtown incarnations of Battlestein’s. The store’s interior was reminiscent of Foley’s Department Store, which opened in 1947.

Originally constructed as the Carnation Dairy and later, the home of the Oak Farms Dairy, this Art Modern building stood as a landmark at 701 Waugh for many years. Designed by Modern specialist Joseph Finger, the dairy was completed in 1947. In the early decades of the twentieth century, Houston had several dairies located within or adjacent to the city limits, another indication of how rural much of the Houston area was at that time.

Throw Back Thursday with demolition pictures of the Houston Methodist Mary Gibbs Jones Hall that was demolished in 2020.

I was looking into the works of Kenneth Franzheim and discovered a rendering for San Jacinto Memorial Hospital located in Baytown. Looks like the hospital was built in 1947 by W.S. Bellows. Was the hospital purchased by Houston Methodist and eventually demolished? I'm not that familiar with Baytown.

Can anyone tell me more about Alfred Charles Finn? I know I could simply Google, but HAIF has more first-hand knowledge than Google. Did he practice architecture solo or was their a firm behind him? Before he died, did he create a firm to carry-on his legacy? Was there any "competition" from fellow "Stararchitects" of the time? Looks like both Kenneth Franzheim and Wyatt Hedrick did major projects in the Houston area at the same time. The "Houston Big 3" I call them. Back in the day, I don't think global firms was a thing. You did not have Gensler, SOM, HOK, HKS, HDR, AECOM, KPF, Stantec, etc. Instead, you probably had drawings single handedly drawn by Arthur Gensler, Louis Skidmore, Gyo Obata, Eugene Kohn, I. M. Pei, etc.

I discovered a proposed hotel called The Red Wolf Hotel designed by Kenneth Franzheim. One of Rice's architectural pages has this blurb about the hotel: Red Wolf Hotel. 1948, Kenneth Franzheim, architect. A 20-story hotel planned for a site in uptown Houston near the Texas Medical Center. My question is, do we know where this was supposed to go? Where exactly in Uptown? The tower in the background looks like San Felipe Plaza by SOM. Anyone else agree?

Can anyone tell me more about Wyatt Cephus Hedrick? I know I could simply Google, but HAIF has more first-hand knowledge than Google. Did he ever practice solo or was he always apart of firm? Was there any "competition" from fellow "Stararchitects" of the time? Looks like both Alfred Finn and Kenneth Franzheim did major projects in the Houston area at the same time. The "Houston Big 3" I can call them.

I did not know Kenneth Franzheim designed the "New Hermann Hospital Building". Very cool!! You can always tell this Memorial Hermann building apart because of those large Corinthian columns in front. I've never seen those "grand entrance" stairs before! I wonder if they were eventually demolished? That looks like a photo and not a rendering. Is it just me or did Kenneth Franzheim and Alfred C. Finn dominate the Houston architectural scene back in the day? Seems like those two were the main, big name, architects around. Wyatt C. Hendrick as well, but he was based in Forth Worth.

Architectural Modernism had so infused Houston by the mid-twentieth century that Kenneth Franzheim even used the style for this proposed A-framed building, ca. 1955, meant to serve as headquarters of the local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (S.P.C.A.).

Alfred C. Finn designed this proposed "Name Here Department Store" in the 1920s. Alfred Finn’s office prepared this rendering in the 1920s for a massive, but ornately designed, department store. The tile work along the eaves suggests that this store would have been another addition to the many Mediterranean style buildings that were constructed in Houston during this time period. Had several proposed Mediterranean-style buildings actually been completed during the 1920s, it would have helped to produce a more uniform architectural style throughout the city.

wow!! I never knew there were two different Woolworth's in downtown! The original F.W. Woolworth Co. 5-10 and 15 Cent Store was located at 920 Main Street. This building was designed by architect Alfred C. Finn. The other building at 613 Main Street was designed by Kenneth Franzheim. Almost every city and town of any size or importance in the United States in the first half of the twentieth century had a Woolworth’s Department Store. Houston’s downtown branch was located at 920 Main Street. The photo can be dated to 1917–1918, because during that time architect Alfred C. Finn maintained an office, visible on the left side of the second floor, in the Woolworth Building. When Woolworth store chain founder Frank W. Woolworth died in 1919, there were over one thousand Woolworth stores in the United States alone.

Alfred C. Finn renderings and some interior photos. The architect titled this as Exposition and Convention Hall.

Rendering of the Contemporary Arts Museum, ca. 1948, by the firm of MacKie & Kamrath. This simple, but modernistic A-frame structure was designed as the first gallery and exhibition space for Houston’s Contemporary Arts Association, founded in 1948. Eventually, this building, located at 502 Dallas, became too small for the needs of the CAM, and it moved to its present, more spacious location on the northwest corner of Montrose and Bissonnet in 1972.

The classically elegant Miller Memorial Theater, located in Hermann Park, was designed by William Ward Watkin in 1921. The theater was demolished beginning in 1967 to make way for the present Miller Outdoor Theater, completed in 1969. The only remnants of Watkin’s original theater are the columns, which flanked both sides of the proscenium. The columns were moved in 1968 to help create the Mecom-Rockwell Fountain and Colonnade at the north end of Hermann Park near the ZaZa Hotel.

Rendering of the South End Christian Church designed in 1922 by Alfred Finn. The imposing neoclassical edifice stood at 4000 Main Street and was constructed at a time when the South End was populated by many of Houston’s more affluent citizens. The Pastor was Dr. A.E. Ewell