Alternate design

I found this in the 1907-1908 edition of the Standard Blue Book of Texas Who's Who.

The image says the Chronicle building "will be one of the largest and handsomest newspaper and office buildings in the Southwest."

Of course, the building ended up looking like this:

Now, some may say that first image sure looks like the Rice Hotel. Well, construction on the Rice Hotel as it looks today wasn't complete until 1913. The third wing was added 13 years after that.

Plans change, I guess!

Tek Ram calls you!

This 1899 advertisement appeared in the Houston Daily Post. Basically, a meeting was called to organize efforts to celebrate the first-ever No-Tsu-Oh carnival.

Resembling something like New Orleans’ Mardi Gras celebrations (without the nudity, I assume), the carnival was “designed to stimulate commerce by bringing people to the city,” according to the Handbook of Texas. Parades, balls and even a football game between UT and Texas A&M usually filled about a week’s worth of festivities in November.

By the first week of Nov. 1915, festivalgoers were treated to a game between Texas and Sewanee (University of the South).

But 1915 was also the last year of the festival. No clear definition of its demise was given other than to say WWI may have contributed.

Not helping matters was a Nov. 18, 1915, Houston Chronicle editorial titled, “Let it be our last ‘Carnival.’”

“It is high time that Houston, metropolis of the Southwest, railroad center for this great and growing section of the country, should offer something by way of an annual exhibition other than the tin-horn parades and garrulous horseplay,” the Chronicle opined.

“Houston is getting too big, and its machinery is too nicely regulated to the lives and necessities of its 150,000 inhabitants, to have such an upheaval planted periodically right in the midst of its commercial district without permanent benefit and with temporary feelings of disgust and disappointment on the part of both home folks and visitors.

“This is no longer the center of a small slow growing rural district where the privilege of throwing balls at an African dodger or spinning a wheel for cigars constitutes the acme of pleasure.”

The Chronicle called for an “appropriate annual celebration.”

“Above all else, we want sobriety, decency and respectability emphasized above other qualities because only in this way can the city’s higher purposes be expressed.”

Some photos on No-Tsu-Oh can be found here and here.

(On a somewhat similar note, the downtown hangout No Tsu Oh has reopened.)

Metro-area map of Houston

Here's another map of the area. It was part of a street map put out by Gulf Oil sometime during WWII. (City Hall is identified as "new" in this edition.)

The map also features this little gem:

"On the Ninth Floor of the Gulf Building in Houston -- headquarters of the Gulf Tourguide-Fishguide Bureau -- you will find a comfortable lounge, easy chairs, rest rooms, telephones, a place where you can be at home away from home."

I'm sure this doesn't exist today. I wonder when it was shut down?

(And finally, welcome bloghouston.net readers! I hope my first post explains why I created this blog. One thing I forgot to mention was this caveat: Each entry is not the be-all, end-all on a particular topic. My sources include maps, some reference books and an abnormal stack of newspaper clips from Houston's past. If you find an entry that can use some fleshing out, then feel free to contribute!)

Map of downtown Houston

Here is a WWII-era map of downtown Houston. It was produced by the fine folks at Gulf Oil.