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14 i 9 i i n S I t 9 " « C i r .» r * ^ *~T mwnl l&JRi Crystal Ballroom at the Rite Hotel, circa the 1920s. DECONSTRUCTIN (/ o & Crystal Ballroom at the Rice Hotel, mid-1990s, following initial demolition of interior. BY B R U C E C. W E B B Crystal Ballroom of the Rice Hotel, 1998, showing restored stogc and mural. t p > i n IS _1_ 1 L"B •MEMIIlSnW"** :l"'"- N t the short stink of historically significant the derelict building was the subject of a what do you do? Exactly what I'm doing. /(.)») / — In April, Ihe first Capitol of the & buildings left unclaimed in Houston's number ol schemes ih.ii would have Si.o out iii the country. That is the new Republic ol Texas, a two slaty wooden downtown at the advent of the current returned it to service, among them a downtown," structure, is built by John und wave of inner city revivalism, none was I''77 proposal to reopen it as an apart- A feeling ol desperation about losing Augustus Allen on ihe site where the more compelling, or s bigger challenge, mem building with 20 percent of Its pro- their centers altogether propelled cities Rice Holel will eventually stand. In than the old Rice 1 lotel. Boarded up in posed >>S apartments reserved as subsi- into modem formats that traded historic May, the Texas legislature moves in. II 19 . the substantial building had resist- dized housing for low income families — identity lor new symbols of corporate meets here until September 10, 1839, ed both demolition and renovation foi a plan surprisingly similar to the one pul prosperity. The collaboration between when the government is relocated to more than 20 years. Standing vacant with together in the mid '90s by developer developer capitalism and modern archi- Austin The Allen brothers retain own- its once elegant interiors rotting and Randall Davis that finally led to the tecture promoted a species ol urhanism ership of ihe Capitol building, and in December open it as a hotel. crumbling, it had become a taded memo Rice's renovation. Rut before Davis, the based on the high-rise office tower, which ry ot a bygone era as well as a symbol ol deals somehow never got done. The aging gobbled up much of the scale and charm A > //— The Capitol Hotel is leased to M. the (lagging fortunes of downtown's building became more of a liability than ol older cities and converted them into Norwood. Following the Mexican invo north end. an asset, both to its owners and to the nine-to-five workplaces. The more pros- sion of 1842, ihe Capital Holel again I'hc Rice was the third in a series ol city's plans for downtown redevelopment. perous a city became, the more gobbling becomes ihe Capitol building when three hotels to occupy the prominent site Slipping deeper into the shadows ot the it did, and the fewer older buildings were Sam Houston moves ihe legislature on the corner of Travis and Texas prosperous-looking cluster of downtown left for anyone who cared. back to Houston lor seven months. Avenues where the capitol of the office towers to the south, it became a Rut modernizing downtown was an Republic of Texas had once stood. The haven for a collection of transients who incomplete project. By the time it reached AS // —The hotel is sold by the Allen first, .1 conversion of the old wooden found the generous awning that sur- the limits of its success, cities still har- family to R. S. Blount for SI2,000. capitol building, was demolished in IKN1 rounds the building a commodious shel- bored a shadowy ring of plaees with After going through a few owners and and replaced by a Second hotel that was ter from the elements. unabated historic flavor. Although mar- a few name changes — ol various limes it's called the Houston House bought by William Marsh Rice and, fol- ginalized and left to deteriorate, they still and Barnes House — it is razed in lowing his death, ceded to the Rice retained a character that couldn't be May 1881. The then owner ol the Institute. Jesse ! I. Jones bought the Strut I ike man) American cities, I louston's found in the ubiquitous outward migrat- properly, Colonel Abraham Groesbetk, tu re in I''I I and had it razed to make attitude about us downtown during the ing sprawl, with its endless subdivisions, etects o new Capitol Hotel, an elobo way lor ihe present building, designed hv - r> 0s and 1980s was ambivalent at best, malls, and strips ot fast food chains. rale live story brick and stucco strut St. I outs architects Mauran, Russell, and Many ot the city's commercial attractions Several high profile downtown reviraliza- lure thai quickly becomes the cenlet Crowell, The classically detailed building dlifted away, lured out to the open spaces tion projects, most notably in Cleveland of Houston's social life with red brick l.u mgs and terra COtta in the suburbs where the affluent popula- and Baltimore, brought considerable architectural decorations was constructed tion w.is settling. I ell behind was an attention to the development potentials of A ' i' () — Following Colonel Groesbetk's in 1913 as twin 17-story tower wings in expanding cluster ot corporate and specu- inner-city projects. Both cities plotted death, William Marsh Rice buys the a (..-shaped arrangement; a third tower lative office towers intermixed with hold- strategies to catalyze downtown develop- Capitol Hotel lot taxes. He adds a wing was added by I louston architect three-story annex. ing sites temporarily outfitted for on- ment by, among other things, construct- Alfred C. Finn in 1925 ro form the pre- grade parking. Holey"s, the lone remaining ing new retro baseball stadiums attached sent I shaped configuration. /'/1 H '— William Marsh Rite is murdered downtown department store, cut back its to the gritty, 19th-century urban tissue. by his valel. His will leaves ihe hotel More than am other building ol its operation to only six lloors, smaller in Seeking to create a sense of place by and the land it sils an fa his namesake rime, the Rice served as a marker for the square footage than its suburban ston it reinvesting in their histories, these university, the Rice Institute. The Facili- aspirations ol the emerging c m . During Sharpstown Mali. Sakowitz, its upscale cities began to view the older sections ty continues to be run as a holel, its nearly 65 years ol operation it shel- competitor across the street, closed, leav- of their downtowns as marketable com- which is renamed the Rice. Then in tered many of the notables who visited ing the prominent building to suffer an modities tor attracting people back to the 1911 Jesse Jones purchases the build- the t i n , and us refined public rooms dig- ignominious future first as a storage central city. ing, though the land, which Jones leas- nified Houston's social lite MM\ high- warehouse and later as a thinly disguised Unlike Cleveland and Baltimore, es, remains in Ihe hands ol the Rice Institute. st.ikes political wheeling and dealing. Hut multi-level parking garage. though, Houston wasn't built on near-in by the I y"t)s, the Rice had become an Mosl ol the smaller retail shops thai working-class urban neighborhoods and O The original Rice Hotel is demol- antiquated hotel, one badly in need of once lined the downtown streets also heavy industry that had bottomed out. As &'• ished. On February 12, Jesse Jones modernization both to meet 1 loustou's gave up, leaving behind empty storefronts one ol the cities that had led the way in gets a permit lo build a 17-slory struc- new and more stringent lire codes and to and equally empty sidewalks. Visitors to creating an impressive modern sk\hne, ture on ihe site. He goes lo the Si. compete with newer hotels such as 1972's I louston looking for the night life and I louston had lew buildings and little in Louis orchitetlurol firm ol Mauran, John-I'orini.in look-alike I ly.itt Regency shopping that conventioneers and tourists the was of contiguous hloiA districts lell Russell, and Crowell to design his new downtown, with it-, soaring lobby, glass crave were usually directed away from to inspire revitalization. Backtracking was holel, which is erected in the form ol a elevators, and revolving Spindletop cock- the central ciry. They were frequently told a short trip, and led to places such as the C, with two parallel wings jutting out tail lounge. as well to stay off the downtown streets relentlessly dull and obtrusive hull ol the from the main building. According to a Altei passing through the hands oi .11 night. Albert "Thomas Convention Center, which promotional brochure of the lime, the cost ol the new Rice Holel is S2.S mil- several owners, among them the Houston The action was moving our of town, became vacant when the new dcorge R. lion. Interest in the new landmark is Endowment (the Jones' family founda- fueled by the kind ol thinking summed Brown Convention Center was completed so high that when il opens an May 17, tion!. Rice University, and the up by shopping center magnate Edward .ILIOSS t o w n . 1913, some 10,000 people pass Rittenhouse t apital t orporation, the fail DeBartolo in a 1973 article in the New Sitting idle tor many years, its rhree- through its doors — a number iug hotel was sold to C arl luce and York Tunes: "I wouldn't put a penny in block-long, blank concrete walls p r o v i d - enhanced by o trainlaad of Shriners Associates, who operated it for only downtown.

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