H8S 4 LIFE Posted August 25, 2009 Share Posted August 25, 2009 I was wondering if anyone had some old pictures of the King George Hotel, before Minute Maid Park was built. It sat right across the street from the Union Station. This hotel was originally my family's, my grandfather opened it in the 20's after landing at Ellis Island and setting up shop here in Houston. My father had many pictures of the "DeGeorge Hotel" as well as pics of the old homestead off of N. Main that were lost in a fire several years ago. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sevfiv Posted August 25, 2009 Share Posted August 25, 2009 When was it called the King George? Here's a 1932 ad for the DeGeorge: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmariar Posted August 25, 2009 Share Posted August 25, 2009 I didn't know it was once called that, but I see a 2001 HBJ article that refers to it as the "historic King George Hotel" ("While the lives of many historic properties in Houston end in a visit from the wrecking ball, some stories have happier endings. The Housing Corp. of Greater Houston has completed a $3.2 million renovation of downtown's old King George Hotel, a property that dates back to 1913. THC, a nonprofit developer and manager of affordable housing projects, has redeveloped the abandoned hotel as a residential facility for U.S. veterans and has rechristened it The DeGeorge at Union Station.").Also saw this ("REPOhistory was invited to Houston, Texas, to create a public art project. We chose to document seven layers of history on the location of the King George Hotel."). H8S - The REPOhistory website has some photos on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kylejack Posted August 25, 2009 Share Posted August 25, 2009 Looks like the building is still there! There's a window unit in every window, so seems like maybe they are indeed using it to house veterans or something. Tried to get about the same angle as the ad sevfiv postedCome to think of it, I think we had a thread on this project a while back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NenaE Posted August 25, 2009 Share Posted August 25, 2009 Ahhhh...nice to see it still standing. That's some impressive research on that bldg. I vaguely remember the hotel name, on ads I come across. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cemeterywolf Posted August 26, 2009 Share Posted August 26, 2009 Here is two pictures I took in 1990 of the King George Hotel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marmer Posted August 26, 2009 Share Posted August 26, 2009 Here is two pictures I took in 1990 of the King George Hotel. Looks like they had coffee parking and a shop garage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdude Posted August 26, 2009 Share Posted August 26, 2009 Some background from this article. The DeGeorge sits on downtown's Block 49, which was once owned by the Allen brothers, who laid out the original area that became Houston.The property was at one time an upscale hostelry for rail travelers and was named after its developer, Michael DeGeorge, a Sicilian immigrant who owned grocery stores. The DeGeorge family operated the hotel until 1956, when it was sold and renamed the King George Hotel. They switched back to the DeGeorge name when it was remodelled for SRO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NenaE Posted August 26, 2009 Share Posted August 26, 2009 Some background from this article. They switched back to the DeGeorge name when it was remodelled for SRO.Nice...they're helping veterans & an old bldg. I am impressed. Interesting, about the interior designer.Replying to marmer's comment, "coffee, parking & shop garage"...what more could a person ask for! haha. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kylejack Posted August 26, 2009 Share Posted August 26, 2009 Here's the old thread from 2005: http://www.houstonarchitecture.com/haif/index.php?showtopic=1495 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sevfiv Posted August 26, 2009 Share Posted August 26, 2009 ^Yeah, I didn't combine them because the old thread wasn't very...informative.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kylejack Posted August 26, 2009 Share Posted August 26, 2009 Agreed. I think there was another thread though, one that perhaps didn't mention the name of the new development...can't remember what it was called... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H8S 4 LIFE Posted August 28, 2009 Author Share Posted August 28, 2009 I didn't know it was once called that, but I see a 2001 HBJ article that refers to it as the "historic King George Hotel" ("While the lives of many historic properties in Houston end in a visit from the wrecking ball, some stories have happier endings. The Housing Corp. of Greater Houston has completed a $3.2 million renovation of downtown's old King George Hotel, a property that dates back to 1913. THC, a nonprofit developer and manager of affordable housing projects, has redeveloped the abandoned hotel as a residential facility for U.S. veterans and has rechristened it The DeGeorge at Union Station.").Also saw this ("REPOhistory was invited to Houston, Texas, to create a public art project. We chose to document seven layers of history on the location of the King George Hotel."). H8S - The REPOhistory website has some photos on it.Thank you, tmariar, and all. I was not aware that our family name had been returned to the hotel after the renovations. This is a pleasant surprise, and would have made my father proud. He was always so ashamed of what the property had become after it was sold. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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