The City of Houston has placed the historic Heights waterworks on the market. The two-acre site between West 19th and West 20th streets at Nicholson contains a 750,000-gallon brick reservoir building from 1928 that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, a 1939 Art Deco pumping station built by the Works Progress Administration and a 1949 pumping station. The property anchors the west end of the shopping district along West 19th Street, the main commercial street in Houston Heights, which is experiencing significant retail redevelopment.
Protected landmark designation for Mecom Fountain moves forward
The City of Houston is proceeding with its designation of the Mecom Fountain as a protected historic landmark. Architect Eugene Werlin designed the fountain, which was built in 1964 in the traffic circle where Montrose Boulevard meets Main Street at the entrance to Hermann Park. Houston oilman John Mecom funded the project after he bought the former Warwick Hotel (now Hotel ZaZa) across the street from the fountain's site.
Sing a song of Houston
On Monday, March 7, Preservation Houston donated the restored 1915 prototype of the City of Houston flag to Houston Public Library’s Houston Metropolitan Research Center. The flag will be displayed in the historic Julia Ideson library building downtown.
If you couldn’t attend the program, you missed the Houston Saengerbund and what might have been the first performance of the Houston Municipal Song in a century. The Houston Chronicle’s Lisa Gray picked up the story of the song in her online column today.
A banner event: Celebrating Houston's first flag
In 1915, the city of Houston adopted the design for its official municipal flag: "one lone white star, floating in a sea of azure blue and bearing on its surface the original seal of the city of Houston." Based on a design by railroad retiree W.A. Wheeldon, the flag first took shape as a prototype created by the Levy Bros. department store, which was then used as a model for a 10-by-12-foot silk banner carried in that year's Independence Day parade.
Now, a century later, Preservation Houston will present the restored 1915 flag prototype to the city of Houston — and you're invited to join us.