NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National RegisterSBR of Historic Places Registration Draft Form
1. Name of Property
Historic Name: American National Insurance Company (ANICO) Other name/site number: NA Name of related multiple property listing: NA
2. Location
Street & number: 1 Moody Avenue (1902 Market Street) City or town: Galveston State: Texas County: Galveston Not for publication: Vicinity:
3. State/Federal Agency Certification
As the designated authority under the National Historic Preservation Act, as amended, I hereby certify that this nomination request for determination of eligibility meets the documentation standards for registering properties in the National Register of Historic Places and meets the procedural and professional requirements set forth in 36 CFR Part 60. In my opinion, the property meets does not meet the National Register criteria.
I recommend that this property be considered significant at the following levels of significance: national statewide local
Applicable National Register Criteria: A B C D
State Historic Preservation Officer ______Signature of certifying official / Title Date
Texas Historical Commission State or Federal agency / bureau or Tribal Government
In my opinion, the property meets does not meet the National Register criteria.
______Signature of commenting or other official Date
______State or Federal agency / bureau or Tribal Government
4. National Park Service Certification
I hereby certify that the property is:
___ entered in the National Register ___ determined eligible for the National Register ___ determined not eligible for the National Register. ___ removed from the National Register ___ other, explain: ______
Signature of the Keeper Date of Action
NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National RegisterSBR of Historic Places Registration Draft Form
5. Classification
Ownership of Property: Private
Category of Property: Building
Number of Resources within Property
Contributing Noncontributing 1 0 buildings 0 0 sites 0 0 structures 0 0 objects 1 0 total
Number of contributing resources previously listed in the National Register: 0
6. Function or Use
Historic Functions: COMMERCE/TRADE/business/office building
Current Functions: COMMERCE/TRADE/business/office building
7. Description
Architectural Classification: MODERN MOVEMENT/New Formalism
Principal Exterior Materials: CONCRETE, GLASS
Narrative Description (see continuation sheets 7-6 though 7-11) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places REGISTRATION FORM NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018
American National InsuranceSBR Company, Galveston, Galveston Draft County, Texas
8. Statement of Significance
Applicable National Register Criteria: C
Criteria Considerations: NA
Areas of Significance: Architecture
Period of Significance: 1968-1971
Significant Dates: 1968
Significant Person (only if criterion b is marked): NA
Cultural Affiliation (only if criterion d is marked): NA
Architect/Builder: Neuhaus & Taylor (architect), Ellisor Engineers, Inc. (engineer), Henry C. Beck Company (general contractor)
Narrative Statement of Significance (see continuation sheets 8-12 through 8-23)
9. Major Bibliographic References
Bibliography (see continuation sheets 9-24 through 9-26)
Previous documentation on file (NPS): _ preliminary determination of individual listing (36 CFR 67) has been requested. _ previously listed in the National Register _ previously determined eligible by the National Register _ designated a National Historic Landmark _ recorded by Historic American Buildings Survey # recorded by Historic American Engineering Record #
Primary location of additional data: _ State historic preservation office (Texas Historical Commission, Austin) _ Other state agency _ Federal agency _ Local government _ University x Other -- Specify Repository: American National Insurance Company
Historic Resources Survey Number (if assigned): NA
Page 3 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places REGISTRATION FORM NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018
American National InsuranceSBR Company, Galveston, Galveston Draft County, Texas
10. Geographical Data
Acreage of Property: 1.79 acres
Coordinates
Latitude/Longitude Coordinates
Datum if other than WGS84: N/A
1. Latitude: 29.306917° Longitude: -94.789933°
Verbal Boundary Description: The nominated boundary is the legal parcel (ID#104208) described by Galveston CAD as ABST 628 M B MENARD SURVEY BLK 559 GALVESTON and shown on Map X. It is a full city block bounded by Mechanic Street (Avenue C) to the north, Market Street (Avenue D) to the south, 19th Street to the east, and 20th Street to the west.
Boundary Justification: The nomination includes all property historically associated with the building.
11. Form Prepared By
Name/title: Anna Mod, Director and Adam Rajper, Associate Organization: MacRostie Historic Advisors, LLC Address: 20 N. Sampson Street, Suite 102 City or Town: Houston State: Texas Zip Code: 77003 Email: [email protected] Telephone: (713) 470-0057 Date: October 1, 2020
Additional Documentation
Maps (see continuation sheet MAP-27 through MAP-28)
Additional items (see continuation sheets FIGURE-29 through FIGURE-49)
Photographs (see continuation sheet PHOTO-50 through PHOTO-67)
Paperwork Reduction Act Statement: This information is being collected for applications to the National Register of Historic Places to nominate properties for listing or determine eligibility for listing, to list properties, and to amend existing listings. Response to this request is required to obtain a benefit in accordance with the National Historic Preservation Act, as amended (16 U.S.C.460 et seq.).
Estimated Burden Statement: Public reporting burden for this form is estimated to average 100 hours per response including time for reviewing instructions, gathering and maintaining data, and completing and reviewing the form. Direct comments regarding this burden estimate or any aspect of this form to the Office of Planning and Performance Management. U.S. Dept. of the Interior, 1849 C. Street, NW, Washington, DC
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American National InsuranceSBR Company, Galveston, Galveston Draft County, Texas
Photograph Log
American National Insurance Company Galveston, Galveston County, Texas Photographed by Adam Rajper, June 2020
Photo 1 Photo 15 North elevation (Mechanic and 19th Streets), view Ground floor, main lobby, view West South Photo 16 Photo 2 Basement parking garage, view East East Elevation (Market and 19th Streets), view West Photo 17 Photo 3 Second floor, elevator lobby, view East South elevation (Market and 20th Streets), view North Photo 18 Photo 4 Second floor, Mary Elizabeth Moody Northen West elevation (Mechanic and 20th Streets), view East Auditorium, view East
Photo 5 Photo 19 North and east elevations, view Southwest Third floor, typical offices, view North
Photo 6 Photo 20 East and south elevations, view Northwest Eighteenth floor, board room entrance, view Northwest
Photo 7 Photo 21 Plaza, corner of Mechanic and 19th Streets, view South Eighteenth floor, board room, view South
Photo 8 Photo 22 Plaza, corner of Market and 19th Streets, view West Eighteenth floor, president’s office, view South
Photo 9 Photo 23 Plaza, corner of Market and 20th Streets, view North Nineteenth floor, dining room, view South
Photo 10 Photo 24 Plaza, corner of Mechanic and 20th Streets, view East Nineteenth floor, cafeteria, view South
Photo 11 Photo 25 Plaza, flag poles and ANICO sign fronting 20th Street, Nineteenth floor, cafeteria, view North view Northeast Photo 26 Photo 12 Nineteenth floor, lounge, view Southwest Covered plaza, view Northeast
Photo 13 Covered plaza colonnade, view South
Photo 14 Ramp from Mechanic and Market Streets to basement, view Southeast United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018
American National InsuranceSBR Company, Galveston, Galveston Draft County, Texas
Narrative Description
The American National Insurance Company (“ANICO”) building is a monumental New Formalist style, twenty-story reinforced concrete corporate office tower in Galveston’s Central Business District. The square plan building is identical on all four elevations and rotated 45 degrees on a full city block; each elevation faces a street corner with the building corners at mid-block. New Formalist characteristics include the building’s three-part composition consisting of base, shaft, and cornice, repetitive façades with regular fenestration, a monumental colonnade, and pure geometric forms emphasized by a white and smooth painted finish. The building is surrounded by a hardscaped plaza with low stairs at the street corners, and mid-block low walls with planters. The building, designed by Neuhaus & Taylor as the corporate headquarters of the American National Insurance Company, is the tallest in the city’s Central Business District, and was Galveston Island’s tallest building until 2008. Architectural design development was well underway by June 1969 and the building was complete in 1971. It is an excellent example of the massing, scale, design, and materials of early 1970s corporate architecture. The ANICO building retains a high degree of integrity and is testimony to the importance of the Moody family and this Galveston-based international corporation. The New Formalist design is representative of Neuhaus & Taylor’s skyscraper design of the period and is unique with the firm’s body of work. The building is also a remarkable work of engineering by Ellisor Engineers, Inc. featuring a tube-in-tube structural design. All seven aspects of integrity are intact, including location, setting, design, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association.
Setting and Site
The American National Insurance Company Building (ANICO) is in Galveston, Galveston County. Located approximately 50 miles southeast of Houston, the city occupies the northeastern end of Galveston Island, a flat, sand barrier island that follows the contours of the upper Texas Gulf Coast. Because the island is not in complete alignment with cardinal directions, local directional references are based on its coastal setting: “bay side” is north, “gulf side” for south; “east” and “west,” respectively are associated with the two opposite ends of the island. (The descriptions here will follow the plan north of the original architectural drawings with each façade given a cardinal direction. Any description of the corners will use the ordinal direction.) The building’s structural design, described later in the nomination, was engineered to withstand extreme weather events and the island’s soft sandy soil. Galveston, virtually sea level, is vulnerable to major storms of destructive high winds and flooding. Notable weather events included the Great Storm of 1900, the United States’ deadliest hurricane recorded, and Hurricane Ike (2008) with winds that reached 148mph.
The 20-story ANICO building towers over downtown Galveston, known for its intact collection of late nineteenth and early twentieth century commercial buildings. It is centered on a city block bounded by Mechanic Street (Avenue C) to the north, Market Street (Avenue D) to the south, 19th Street to the east, and 20th Street to the west (Figure 14). Diagonally across 20th Street to the northwest is The Strand Historic District (NRHP and NHL, 1970), a collection of high style mid-to-late nineteenth century and early twentieth century commercial buildings associated with the economic development of the city, once called the “Wall Street of the South.” A non-contiguous Multiple Resource Area (“MRA”), the Historic Resources of the Galveston Central Business District (NRHP, 1984), includes multiple nearby properties, including the Marschner Building (1914-1916 Mechanic Street) directly across the street to the north and two buildings directly across Market Street to the south, known by their street addresses (1921-1921½ and 1925-27 Market Street). Four blocks to the east and southeast is the East End Historic District (NRHP, 1975), one of the largest and best preserved nineteenth century residential neighborhoods in Texas. Additional historic buildings within the 1984 MRA include the U.S. National Bank, City National Bank, and the individually listed E.S. Levy Building (NRHP, 2003), all on Market Street. Along Postoffice Street are the individually listed Grand Opera House (NRHP,1974) and the Old Galveston Custom House (NRHP, 1970); the Melrose Apartment, Pix, Texas, Eiband’s, Robinson and Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) Lodge A buildings are all included in the 1984 MRA.
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American National InsuranceSBR Company, Galveston, Galveston Draft County, Texas
The ANICO building is sited on an elevated plaza in the center of a full city block. It is rotated 45 degrees and each elevation faces a street corner within Galveston’s regular grid street plan and each building corner at mid-block. The plaza hardscape masonry material is three distinct types of brown brick: the plaza pavers; a standard-sized brown brick used as stretcher coursing on the planters, car ramp and nosing on the plaza steps; and, a unique molded concave brick unit on the stair risers that is also used as a coping cap on the planters and car ramp walls (Photos 7-10). There is a row of palm trees along 19th Street providing an additional buffer for the “back of house” car ramp (Photo 14).
The plaza stairs are all low-rise with an intermediate landing and a minimal metal handrail. The two stairs on the north and southwest corners spill out onto the perimeter sidewalk; the two staircases on the north and southeast are pushed closer to the building and stop short of the a gracefully curved, single lane entry and exit car ramp along 19th Street. The car ramp entry is in the northeast corner from Mechanic and the exit is onto Market. The ramp is buffered by a low curved wall, with a stretcher course of the typical brown brick and a coping of the concave bricks sees on the stair risers and the planters.
There are four brown brick clad planters, each centered on each block face, filled with low shrubs, oleanders, and grasses. The most prominent planter is on the west elevation and includes the building’s identification signage, “American National Insurance Company” with three large flagpoles behind. The corner of the building is directly and dramatically centered on the planter and center flagpole (Photo 11).
ANICO Building
Exterior (Figure 12; Photos 1-6)
The monumental New Formalist style building was constructed between 1968 and 1971 and exhibits many of the typical characteristics of this style: a singular, freestanding composition; an axial plan; symmetry; monumentality; a Classical three-part composition of base, shaft, and cornice; pronounced columnar support; smooth and orderly prefabricated cast concrete wall surface; and repetitive grid fenestration.1 Here, the three-part composition clearly reflects the building’s use and corporate hierarchy: the public plaza and lobby, repetitive private office floors, and finally the executive and viewing gallery of the upper floors. Meanwhile, the building’s sole placement and setback on the plaza, its rotation, and most importantly its monumental scale, all work together to distinguish it among the surrounding commercial neighborhood.
The ANICO building features a tube-in-tube design consisting of an internal concrete core for vertical circulation and outer prefabricated concrete panel exoskeleton whose components were hoisted into place by cranes. The monumental columns and spandrel panels of the prefabricated concrete panels have chamfered corners, resulting in a small degree of softness in an otherwise massive and repetitive grid of concrete and glass. The building’s tube-in-tube engineering places two “tubes” (one is the interior core, and the second the exoskeleton) in a combined system that withstand powerful hurricane force winds while delivering its occupants a flexible, column free interior workspace.2 The exterior concrete is smooth in appearance and has a white painted finish which unifies the building and strengthens its Classical composition. Rising to a height of 358 feet, the building has a square plan measuring 144'-4" x 144'-4" with four identical elevations each with fourteen, hexagon shaped concrete columns spaced ten feet apart at the base. The two columns flanking the cantilevered corners project further from the building plane than those in antis. The result is a subtle A-B-A composition with thirteen interior 10-foot bays flanked by the corner end bays.
1 Docomomo/US. “Explore Modern > Styles of a modern era > New Formalism,” accessed November 4, 2020, https://www.docomomo- us.org/style/new-formalist 2 Ellisor Engineers, Inc. is identified as ANICO’s engineer on the 1969 drawings for the building prepared by Neuhaus and Taylor.
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American National InsuranceSBR Company, Galveston, Galveston Draft County, Texas
The building has a three-part Classical composition of base, shaft, and cornice. The base is the monumental 58-foot tall colonnade, a dramatic open-air space in the center of the plaza (Photos 12-13). Above the base is a wide fascia band where the columns transition to pilasters for the remaining upper floors. The shaft is a strong repetitive vertical grid alternating between the three-sided pilasters and fixed, single lite windows, one per bay. The window glass is tinted and moderately reflective. The corner windows are mitered insulated glass units. Floors two-nineteen are 13'-9" in height and the twentieth floor is 13'-0". Above, the 28'-6" tall cornice repeats the shaft composition only windowless; the cornice obscures a roof mechanical mezzanine and parapet.
The square plan ground floor lobby is enclosed by an elegant, full height travertine clad square box deeply inset, 50'- 2", from the building’s ground level colonnade. There are four entry vestibules, one centered on each elevation, marked by projecting 5'-4" small right angle, full height wing walls. Each has an entry vestibule and a metal framed, full height glass window wall above. These dramatic window walls align with central bay opening of the perimeter columns. The primary entrance on the south elevation has a revolving door; the remaining three have paired glass doors.
Interior
Neuhaus & Taylor organized the ANICO tower vertically in the following manner: a central core surrounded by a covered plaza supported by monumental concrete piloti, eighteen upper floors dedicated to office and executive uses, and a twentieth floor with a 360-degree viewing gallery. The architects adopted a five-foot by five-foot module while planning the building’s 463,162 square feet of interior floor space. The architects also incorporated a chapel, 300- person auditorium, and a full service cafeteria and dining room.
Ground Floor Lobby (Figure 14; Photo 15)
The remaining interior lobby walls are full height and clad in travertine; the flooring is a continuation of the brown plaza pavers. Opposite the primary entrance inside the ANICO building ground floor lobby is a reception desk with a full height travertine wall behind. The base of the desk is the same concave brick as seen outside on the plaza; the upper portion of the desk has been modified. The west and east entries are on axis with the elevator lobby, a travertine clad wall with eight elevator door openings. The ceiling is an acoustical grid and was installed c. 2012 along with a small cluster of new pendant lights. The new ceiling is approximately ten feet lower than the original ceiling yet, given the great height of the space, does not detract from the overall vastness of ANICO lobby.
Basement (Figure 15; Photo 16)
The building’s basement is utilitarian with exposed concrete walls, ceiling, and flooring and is used for parking and deliveries. There are three large submarine doors, one at the entry/exit ramp on the east elevation, and one on either side of the core elevator lobby entrances. The elevator lobby repeats the design and composition of the floors above only with tiled walls and flooring.
Central Core (Figure 13-14)
The central service core is the spine of the building and includes the two elevator chases on opposite parallel walls, a service elevator in the northwest corner, and two full height staircases behind the elevator chase to the north. There are small corridors on each side of the elevator chases; those to the north lead to the fire stairs and those to the south lead to restrooms. Vending machines are placed behind laminate clad cabinets in the northwest corridor along with the service elevator. On the opposite northeast corridor, many of the original timeclock cabinets remain with their
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American National InsuranceSBR Company, Galveston, Galveston Draft County, Texas
associated timecard holders. Beyond this timeclock alcove is a small stair vestibule with a stainless steel framed window and rolling conveyor that are part of the building’s mail distribution system.
The elevator lobby walls are clad in travertine on all floors except the basement, which is tiled, and the eighteenth floor which is ca. 1980s texturized gypsum board likely encapsulating the original travertine. All lobby ceilings are clad with acoustical tiles with perimeter flush mounted fluorescent lighting with waffle diffusers. There is a ¾" dark metal reveal at the top of the travertine walls, a detail that repeats throughout the modular office interiors. There are no baseboards on the travertine walls; the typical baseboard in the spaces beyond is a three-inch dark rubber type ubiquitous of corporate office interiors. Most of the lobby interiors are carpeted; the exceptions are the second and nineteenth floors which are terrazzo, the ground floor which continues the pavers from the plaza, and the basement which is tiled.
The low-rise floors (basement through eleventh floors) and nineteenth floor each have eight elevator door openings. The eleventh floor is a transition floor with access to both the high rise and low-rise floors. The high-rise floors (twelfth through eighteenth floors) have only four elevator doors on the north side; the south elevator lobby wall is travertine. The tenth floor, a mechanical floor, is only accessed by the service elevator. The twentieth floor has only one elevator in the northwest corner. The restrooms on all floors have non-historic finishes.
Typical Office Floors (Figure 18)
Beyond the elevator lobbies, a typical office floor is a combination of individual moveable modular offices and several generations of office cubicles. The floors are carpeted, and the ceilings are a repetitive grid of grouped acoustical tiles (the same as in the elevator lobbies) and square inset lighting with opaque diffusers. The ceiling system was part of the original design and accommodates the modular office systems discussed in more detail below.
Individual offices are a combination of a modular office system that includes gypsum wall panels, the same metal ¾" reveal at the ceiling as seen in the elevator lobbies, and full height stained solid wood doors with dark metal frames. Some offices have sidelights or window walls that these are seamlessly inserted into the walls. Other offices mimic this design standard and are more recent gypsum wall board construction. Offices are clustered against the windows and/or against the back of the service core. Most of the walls are white yet some floors have introduced wall colors. Cubicle arrangements are random throughout the open space dependent upon the planned needs and updates to each of the corporate offices over time.
Unique Floors: Second, Third, Tenth, Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Floors (Figures 16-17, 19-20, 21-22; Photos 17-18, 19, 26)
The following floors have uses and floor plans that vary from the typical office floor.
The second floor includes the building’s mail room, a large mostly open plan space in the northeast section of the floor behind the mail circulation system in the northeast stair alcove. The company auditorium, originally named after Mary Elizabeth Moody Northen, the second president of ANICO and daughter of company founder William Lewis Moody, Jr, is also on this floor in the southeast corner with a large pre-function space that runs north-south from the elevator lobby to the auditorium entrance on the south elevation. The auditorium is a proscenium type with a continental seating plan and two carpeted side aisles. The acoustical wooden walls, rear wooden screen, stage, and velvet upholstered theater seats are all original. On the northwest corner of this floor are training rooms.
The third floor is split between half office use and half fitness/wellness center. The fitness center is on the southwest half of the building.
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American National InsuranceSBR Company, Galveston, Galveston Draft County, Texas
The tenth floor is a mechanical floor with no finishes or elevator lobby. It is only accessed via the staircases or the service elevator. This floor has exposed concrete floors, ceilings, and walls.
The eighteenth floor includes the only elevator lobby that has been moderately altered. The flooring is polished, patterned stone and the travertine walls are likely encapsulated in textured gyp board. The opposite ends of the elevator lobby have paired glass doors with similar wooded surrounds. The ANICO executive offices, board room, and large pre-function space are on this floor and clustered on the west side of the building, off the elevator lobby to the northwest. The two executive corner offices, the chairman and president, are in their respective northwest and southwest corners with large board room, catering kitchen, and work room/office between. Each executive office has a private restroom. The large pre-function area to the east of the board room has two reception desks. There is a smaller glass walled conference room to the north. The executive offices are largely unchanged with their original built in furniture, parquet flooring, and doors as shown on the original architectural drawings. On the opposite end of the elevator lobby to the east, are the offices of the building’s only non-corporate tenant, a law firm. The law firm office entrance is similar: paired glass doors with a similar wood door surround. This is the only floor that has been slightly altered.
The nineteenth floor includes the kitchen, the employee cafeteria, and separate employee and executive dining areas. The northwest side of the elevator lobby is the executive dining room which has a small waiting area, a small buffet area, and dining room. Further to the south is a corridor with smaller executive dining/meeting rooms and restrooms. The kitchen is on the north side of the building adjacent to the employee cafeteria. The employee dining room is open plan and occupies the full eastern side of the building.
The twentieth floor has a 360-degree perimeter viewing gallery/corridor. Exhibits and artifacts, including a model of the building, are displayed in a gallery on the east side of the elevator lobby. The perimeter walls have history exhibits of the Moody family, the American National Insurance Company, Galveston, and the hurricanes that have struck Galveston Island and the Gulf region. This floor also houses the building management offices. On the west side of this floor is the one of the building’s control rooms. There is a glass wall surrounding color coded mechanical equipment that is visible from the perimeter walkway. The twentieth-floor mechanical penthouse is visible from inside the mechanical space.
Integrity
The ANICO building retains all seven aspects of integrity including location, setting, design, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association.
Location and Setting
ANICO possesses integrity of location and setting. ANICO remains in its original location, and the surrounding setting, an urban commercial neighborhood with late nineteenth and early- to mid-twentieth century low-rise commercial buildings, is intact. This includes The Strand Historic District, diagonally across 20th Street to the northwest as well as a non-contiguous Multiple Resource Area, the Historic Resources of the Galveston Central Business District. In summary, the surrounding neighborhood continues to be Galveston’s premier business district. Individually, the building’s location and setting are intact and it remains the sole building on an elevated hardscaped plaza.
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American National InsuranceSBR Company, Galveston, Galveston Draft County, Texas
Design, Materials, and Workmanship
ANICO possesses a high degree of exterior and interior integrity. The building has not had any major alterations to its exterior since its completion in 1971. Minor exterior alterations include the in-kind replacement of a few damaged windows and repainting of exterior concrete as part of routine maintenance. Although the interior of ANICO has undergone partial renovation, the overall configuration of its original interiors, as well as key interior spaces such as the second floor auditorium, eighteenth floor executive office suites, and nineteenth floor cafeteria and dining area, remain intact. Moreover, the building retains most of its original materials and evidence of workmanship.
Feeling and Association
ANICO’s combined integrity of location, setting, design, materials, and workmanship demonstrate integrity of feeling and association. ANICO, which remains the company’s corporate headquarters, continues to convey a feeling of, and significant associations with, a high-rise corporate office building constructed in the late 1960s and early 1970s through its prominent location and scale, New Formalist design, and interior corporate spaces.
Integrity Summary
In summary, ANICO retains a high degree of integrity and is an excellent and intact New Formalist example of the work of Neuhaus & Taylor and a significant engineering feat by Ellisor Engineers, Inc. The property possesses all seven aspects of integrity, including location, setting, design, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association.
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American National InsuranceSBR Company, Galveston, Galveston Draft County, Texas
Statement of Significance
The twenty-story American National Insurance Company building, ANICO, was completed in 1971 as the corporate headquarters of the eponymous firm. It is an excellent example of New Formalist style of architecture and its siting, scale, and massing are bold quintessential elements of American corporate architecture of the early 1970s and it remains the tallest building in Galveston’s Central Business District. Designed by the Houston architectural firm Neuhaus & Taylor with Ellisor Engineers, Inc. as consulting structural engineers, ANICO is nominated National Register of Historic Places under Criterion C, at the local level of significance, in the area of Architecture. The period of significance begins in 1968, when the project was announced and design development and construction began, and goes through 1971, when the building was complete.
Development of Galveston’s Premier Business District (1835-1970)
Located on Galveston Island, two miles off the Texas Gulf coast, Galveston developed in the nineteenth century as the principal port of the Republic, and later state, of Texas. The port’s early growth owed much to the cotton trade which attracted many settlers to Texas in the decades between the Texas Revolution and Civil War.3 High demand for cotton during this period increased the region’s reliance on maritime trade networks and necessitated the expansion of railroads, which, in turn, brought a steady flow of new residents to Texas. Advantageously situated at the transfer point between Galveston Bay and Houston, Galveston became a key port from which cotton was shipped to major trading partners in the east, especially New Orleans and New York.4 The construction of the Galveston, Houston and Henderson Railroad, which extended to Galveston Island via a bridge in 1860, enhanced this connection.5 By 1870, with13,818 residents, Galveston became the largest Texas city. It maintained this status in1880 with a population of 22,248. Although Galveston fell to fourth largest city by 1900, it remained an important Texas economic hub.6 That year, the state produced 3,500,000 million bales of cotton, 2,278,000 of which shipped from the port of Galveston alone.7
Galveston originally developed under the direction of Michel Branamour Menard (1805–1856) who founded the Galveston City Company in 1838. Incorporated the following year by the Texas legislature, the city was subsequently platted in a grid pattern.8 The Strand, or Avenue B, which runs parallel to the bay, was included in the original plat as the city’s premier business district due to its proximity to the port and distance from the flood-prone Gulf side of the island. In particular, the five blocks between 20th and 21st Streets came to be known as the “Wall Street of the Southwest.”9 The district became a magnet for prominent Galveston entrepreneurs, including Colonel William Lewis Moody (1828-1920), founder of the Galveston Cotton Exchange in 1877, and his son, William Lewis Moody, Jr. (1865-1954), founder of American National Insurance Company in 1905. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, large commercial buildings came to line The Strand and adjacent streets, forming a business district that rivaled those of other major Texas and eastern cities. Leading Texas architects, including Nicholas J. Clayton and Andrew Fraser who designed two buildings for ANICO, received major commissions in the district. Late
3 National Register of Historic Places, Strand Historic District, Galveston, Galveston County, Texas, National Register # 70000748. 4 James P. Baughman, “The Evolution of Rail-Water Systems of Transportation in the Gulf Southwest, 1836-1890,” The Journal of Southern History, Volume 34, Number 3, August 1968, 362-64. 5 David G. McComb, “Galveston, TX,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed August 23, 2020, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/galveston-tx. 6 David G. McComb, “Galveston, TX,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed August 23, 2020, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/galveston-tx. 7 National Register of Historic Places, Strand Historic District, Galveston, Galveston County, Texas, National Register # 70000748. 8 David G. McComb, “Galveston, TX,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed August 23, 2020, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/galveston-tx. 9 Betty Hartman, “Strand,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed August 23, 2020, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/strand.
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American National InsuranceSBR Company, Galveston, Galveston Draft County, Texas
Victorian styles dominated, but architects also designed the buildings in other late nineteenth and early twentieth century styles, including the Greek Revival, Classical Revival, vernacular, and Modern.10
While other Texas cities were able to benefit from transcontinental railroad connections, advances in manufacturing, and the discovery of oil during the early twentieth century, Galveston was forced to focus on disaster recovery. Galveston Island had suffered at least eleven hurricanes during the nineteenth century, but in 1900, it was devasted by a particularly strong one. The Great Storm or the 1900 Storm, as it is known, resulted in the death of between 6,000 and 8,000 Galvestonians and caused significant property damage in the city.11 As a preventative measure, a six-mile seawall was thereafter constructed along the island’s Gulf side at a height of seventeen feet above the mean low tide. The grade of the city was also raised using sand pumped from the Gulf. In preparation for this enormous undertaking, over 2,000 buildings, as well as streets, water pipes, and fire hydrants, were elevated.12 Numerous buildings along The Strand were repaired, remodeled, or completely replaced.
Although other Texas cities surpassed Galveston in size during the twentieth century, it remained an important port and tourist destination. The University of Texas Medical Branch, originally founded in 1891 as the Medical Department of the University of Texas, continued to bring people to Galveston. In the 1960s and 70s, the Texas Maritime Academy, Galveston College, and the Marine Biomedical Institute were also established in Galveston, and the city opened its first container terminal.13
Several buildings, including the ANICO building, were built in Galveston during the 1960s and 70s. An early example is the Moody National Bank building (2302 Postoffice Street) built in two phases in the 1960s and designed by Goleman & Rolfe of Houston. The first phase (1962) consisted of a one-story glass and concrete box on a podium. The second phase (1969) consisted of a low-rise office building with a Classical base, middle section, and cornice. In 1970, when The Strand Historic District was listed in the National Register of Historic Places and elevated to National Historic Landmark status, two modern high-rise corporate office buildings were under construction in Galveston’s original business district, transforming the city’s skyline. The first was ANICO, constructed between 1968 and 1971, and the second was the 1972 First Hutchings-Sealy National Bank Building (now Bank of America), three blocks to the west, designed by Caudill Rowlett Scott (CRS) and the Galveston architect Thomas M. Price.14 Several existing nineteenth century commercial buildings were razed to make way for these new high-rises. Rotated 45 degrees, ANICO’s siting on the plaza interrupted the established nineteenth century block face composition. At twenty stories, it was also the tallest building in Galveston, towering above nearby buildings, including the eleven-story Medical Arts Building (belonging to ANICO) across the street. It remained the tallest on the island until the completion of Palisade Palms Condominiums (801 East Beach Drive) in 2008. Several other modern style buildings, all low-rise, were constructed in the 1960s and 1970s. The Guaranty Federal Savings & Loan Association building (2121 Market Street), designed by Rapp Tackett Fash and built in 1973, is one example. ANICO remains the largest from this period in Galveston.
The William Lewis Moody, Jr. Family and American National Insurance Company (1865-1970)
The histories of Galveston, the American insurance industry, and the prominent Moody family are intricately intertwined. Colonel William Lewis Moody (1828-1920), the patriarch, was born in Essex County, Virginia in 1828. After graduating from the University of Virginia in 1851, he migrated to Texas and settled in Freestone County. There,
10 National Register of Historic Places, Strand Historic District, Galveston, Galveston County, Texas, National Register # 70000748. 11 John Edward Weems, “Galveston Hurricane of 1900,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed August 23, 2020, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/galveston-hurricane-of-1900. 12 Alice Chambers Wygant, Yours for Life: The Story of American National Insurance Company’s First 100 Years, 1905-2005 (American National Insurance Company, 2004), 10. 13 City of Galveston, “City History,” accessed August 23, 2020, https://galvestontx.gov/248/City-History. 14 National Register of Historic Places, Strand Historic District, Galveston, Galveston County, Texas, National Register # 70000748.
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he established a law practice and later became a cotton factor. In 1860, he married Pherabe Elizabeth Bradley (1839- 1933) and went on to serve during the Civil War in the Confederate Army, rising to the rank of colonel. Relocating to Galveston in 1866, a port city with a burgeoning cotton trade, Colonel Moody continued to work as a factor, establishing the firm of W.L. Moody & Company and, in 1877, founding the Galveston Cotton Exchange. In 1884, he moved the enterprise to the W.L. Moody & Company Building, prestigiously situated on The Strand and designed by Nicholas J. Clayton in the Renaissance Revival style (Figure 3). His son, William Lewis Moody, Jr. (1865-1954), who would go on to found American National Insurance Company, began his career as a junior partner in his father’s firm (Figure 2). Colonel Moody’s notable contributions to the Texas cotton industry include pioneering the state’s first shipside compress and using motor vehicles to transport the cash crop.15
W.L. Moody, Jr. was born near Fairfield, Texas and moved to Galveston with his parents in his infancy. Schooled in Virginia and Europe, he ultimately made his way back to Texas and studied law at the University of Texas at Austin. Unable to finish his degree due to lifelong health issues, W.L. Jr. persuaded his father to add a bank to the family enterprise. In 1890, he married Libbie Rice Shearn (1869–1943) who came from a prominent Houston family. The couple started their married life in New York, where W.L. Moody & Company had a branch office, and returned to Texas after only a year, concluding that it would be more profitable for the firm to stay local. Following the devastation caused by The Great Storm of 1900, he purchased, at a bargain price, a sprawling William H. Tyndall- designed residence belonging to the Willis family at 2618 Broadway, later known as the Moody Mansion (NRHP, 1994). In doing so, he elevated the status of the Moody family and cemented its association with Galveston.16 W.L. Moody, Jr. and Libbie Rice Shearn had four children: Mary Elizabeth Moody Northen (1892-1986), William Lewis Moody III (1894-1992), Shearn Moody (1895-1936), and Libbie Moody Thomson (1897-1990).
Around the turn of the twentieth century, New York and other major eastern cities dominated the insurance industry. Determined to compete, W.L. Moody, Jr. cofounded the American National Insurance and Trust Company of Houston. On March 17, 1905, W.L. Moody, Jr., with his business partner, Isaac Herbert Kempner (1873-1967), moved the company to Galveston and incorporated it as American National Insurance Company.17 Originally occupying a third- floor office in the W.L. Moody & Company Building, which originally housed his father’s cotton and banking enterprises, ANICO began with only ten employees.
ANICO formed at an opportune moment. Since the Industrial Revolution, and especially after the Reconstruction era, the emerging American middle class had come to see life insurance as a reliable way to protect family assets. Additionally, the Robertson Act, passed by the Texas legislature of 1907, required out-of-state insurance companies to invest a significant portion of their revenues in Texas. This drove many insurance companies out of the state, creating a vacuum for ANICO to fill. In 1909, Kempner, who had been ANICO’s vice president, sold his share in the company to Moody, Jr. ANICO thrived and paid its first dividend in 1911. The following year, Moody, Jr., who had served as president since the company’s founding, received a salary for the first time.18 Kempner went on to serve as Galveston’s mayor from 1917 to 1919.
Outgrowing its original quarters, ANICO moved to a new high-rise designed by Houston architects Lewis Sterling Green and Joseph Finger and completed in 1912 at the northeast corner of 21st and Market Streets (Figures 3-4, it was demolished in 1971 when the subject building was completed). Known as the ANICO building, the Galveston Daily
15 Alice Chambers Wygant, Yours for Life: The Story of American National Insurance Company’s First 100 Years, 1905-2005 (American National Insurance Company, 2004), 4-8. 16 Alice Chambers Wygant, Yours for Life: The Story of American National Insurance Company’s First 100 Years, 1905-2005 (American National Insurance Company, 2004), 12-23. 17 Sandia Sullivan and Philip Boydston, Handbook of Texas Online, "American National Insurance Company," accessed August 23, 2020, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/dja03. 18 Alice Chambers Wygant, Yours for Life: The Story of American National Insurance Company’s First 100 Years, 1905-2005 (American National Insurance Company, 2004), 103-108.
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News described the purchase of the new headquarters as “one of the largest transactions of business property recorded in some time.”19 By 1920, ANICO employed over five-hundred people in Galveston alone and had purchased twenty- seven other insurance companies, establishing itself as the so-called “Giant of the South.”20 Remarkably, during the Great Depression, ANICO employees did not see layoffs. Instead, the company contracted with the American Recovery Administration to generate new jobs.21 Continuing to grow, by 1930 the company also had branches in several other states, as well as Hawaii and Cuba. In 1927, the Medical Arts Building, designed by Andrew Fraser in the Art Deco style, situated adjacent to the 1912 ANICO building, was completed (Figure 4). Together, these two office towers served as the company’s headquarters until 1971 when the new corporate tower on the block to the east was complete. By World War II, the Moody interests had expanded beyond insurance and into the banking, hotel, printing, and newspaper businesses.
All of the Moody children, except for Libbie Moody Thompson, were involved in the family enterprise. Unlike his older sister, Mary Elizabeth Moody Northen, who would succeed her father as ANICO president after his death in 1954, W.L. Moody III, the oldest male child, had a difficult relationship with his father. W.L. Moody III got his own start as president of the Moody-owned American Bank and Trust Company in 1912. In the 1920s, with his business partner, Odie Richard Seagraves, he established United Gas Company, a successful conglomerate of natural gas properties. However, due to financial setbacks caused by the stock market crash of 1929, he declared bankruptcy in 1933. Thereafter, a rift formed between father and son. The untimely death of his younger brother, Shearn, in 1936 brought W.L. Moody III back into the family enterprise, though their business approaches clashed.22 Meanwhile, Libby Moody Thomson, the youngest of the Moody children, married U.S. Representative Clark W. Thompson in 1933 and became a Washington, D.C. socialite.23 Moody, Jr. and Libbie Rice Shearn’s grandchildren, including William Lewis Moody IV (1924-2014), Shearn Moody, Jr. (1933-1996), and Robert Lewis Lee Moody (b. 1935), became active in the Moody enterprise as well.
Moody, Jr. died just before ANICO’s well-attended fiftieth anniversary celebration, a bittersweet occasion. A private man, his fortune was hitherto unknown to the public. When it was made known that he was worth around $440 million at the time of his death, Newsweek called Moody, Jr. “one of the country’s wealthiest and least-known men.”24 Mary Elizabeth Moody Northen, by her father’s wish, assumed leadership of the vast Moody empire, including American National Insurance Company, National Hotel Company, American Printing Company, Moody Compress, Moody National Bank, and Galveston Newspapers, Inc.25 She also became chairman of the Moody Foundation, established by her father in 1942 “to benefit, in perpetuity, present and future generations of Texans.”26 The foundation, one of the Moody family’s greatest legacies to the people of Texas, had and continues to make significant contributions to local
19 Alice Chambers Wygant, Yours for Life: The Story of American National Insurance Company’s First 100 Years, 1905-2005 (American National Insurance Company, 2004), 69. 20 Sandia Sullivan and Philip Boydston, Handbook of Texas Online, "American National Insurance Company," accessed August 23, 2020, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/dja03. 21 Alice Chambers Wygant, Yours for Life: The Story of American National Insurance Company’s First 100 Years, 1905-2005 (American National Insurance Company, 2004), 110-113. 22 Alice Chambers Wygant, Yours for Life: The Story of American National Insurance Company’s First 100 Years, 1905-2005 (American National Insurance Company, 2004), 31-32. 23 Alice Chambers Wygant, Yours for Life: The Story of American National Insurance Company’s First 100 Years, 1905-2005 (American National Insurance Company, 2004), 39. 24 Alice Chambers Wygant, Yours for Life: The Story of American National Insurance Company’s First 100 Years, 1905-2005 (American National Insurance Company, 2004), 26. 25 Alice Chambers Wygant, Yours for Life: The Story of American National Insurance Company’s First 100 Years, 1905-2005 (American National Insurance Company, 2004), 29-30. 26 Moody Foundation, accessed August 23, 2020, https://www.charitydynamics.com/project/moody-foundation/. W.L. Moody, Jr. had willed the majority of ANICO’s stock to the Moody Foundation.
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charities. Before his death, W.L. Moody, Jr. willed most of ANICO’s common stock to the foundation.27 In 1961, Mary Moody Northen stepped down as president, retaining her position on the board.
During the period between Mary Moody Northen’s resignation as president and the completion of the ANICO building in 1971, the company continued to grow under four succeeding presidents: W.L. Vogler, R. A. Furbush, Phil B. Noah, and Glendon E. Johnson. By 1963, ANICO was one of the nation’s top ten stock life health insurance companies, holding assets worth in excess of $1 billion. In 1968, it acquired the Trans World Life Insurance Company of New York, expanded its reach across the United States, Canada, and Europe, and purchased Citadel, Inc. (subsequently renamed American National Growth Fund), a mutual fund management company.28 That year, planning began for the company’s new headquarters in Galveston. In 1970, Glendon E. Johnson became ANICO’s president and successfully brought the firm’s new high-rise corporate office building to completion.
Despite ANICO’s becoming a prestigious multinational corporation, the construction years were turbulent for the company, as controversy surrounding its relationship with the Moody Foundation came to a head. In early 1971, foundation trustees requested an inquiry by the Texas Attorney General into the Moody Foundation “to determine whether…there exist any conflicts of interest, acts of self-dealing, and personal profiteering.”29 The controversy, which hurt business, was ultimately resolved, and by 1972, Johnson had directed the company’s reorganization into a financial holding company.30
Significance under Criterion C: Architecture
ANICO’s Construction Period (1968-1971)
Neuhaus & Taylor designed ANICO between 1968 and 1969. Ground was broken in September 1968, and the building was complete by 1971 (Figures 5-7). In March 1972, when it was officially inaugurated, ANICO was the first solely dedicated corporate tower in Galveston. The New Formalist style office building dominates Galveston’s skyline, its monumental scale directly contrasting with the low-rise buildings of the nearby Strand and Central Business District. This distinction was precisely what the client desired: “We intend for the public to have full view of our company,” ANICO president Glendon E. Johnson stated in 1972 after the building opened.31 Indeed, the building made and continues to make a statement. The project required the demolition of several nineteenth century buildings occupying an entire city block bounded by Mechanic Street (Avenue C) to the north, Market Street (Avenue D) to the south, 19th Street to the east, and 20th Street to the west (Figure 1). Architectural firm Neuhaus & Taylor’s concept was to center a massive twenty-story tower on a podium and rotate it 45 degrees in direct contrast to Galveston’s historic street grid. Although Neuhaus & Taylor looked to the future, they did not ignore what they saw around them; the ANICO building clearly distinguishes itself from its historic urban context, and, like the 1912 ANICO building that formerly stood at the northeast corner of 21st and Market Street, its Classical three-part composition, strong axiality and symmetry, clearly references its adjacent architectural precedents.
The unmatched scale of the project presented Ellisor Engineers, Inc. and the Henry C. Beck Company, the general contractor, with a major challenge, as explained in a March 19, 1972 article appearing in The Texas Star:
27 Robert E. Baker, “Moody Foundation,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed August 23, 2020, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/moody-foundation. 28 Sandia Sullivan and Philip Boydston, Handbook of Texas Online, "American National Insurance Company," accessed August 23, 2020, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/dja03. 29 Alice Chambers Wygant, Yours for Life: The Story of American National Insurance Company’s First 100 Years, 1905-2005 (American National Insurance Company, 2004), 132. 30 Alice Chambers Wygant, Yours for Life: The Story of American National Insurance Company’s First 100 Years, 1905-2005 (American National Insurance Company, 2004), 133. 31 Preston F. Kirk, “ANICO’s Building Features Art, Chapel and View,” Houston Business Journal, March 20, 1972.
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If you want to build a 20-story office building on Galveston Island, six feet above sea level where the soil is soft and silty, you’ve got problems. If you want to build it with a basement and below-grade garage, you’ve got more problems. But that’s what American National Insurance Company wanted to do.32
Mary Elizabeth Moody Northen was a central figure in ANICO’s groundbreaking ceremony on September 19, 1968, where she operated a bulldozer and tossed before cameras the first shovelfuls of dirt with fellow former presidents W.L. Vogler and R. A. Furbush. During the construction period of 1968 to 1971, ANICO’s Personnel Office published a newsletter entitled The Sidewalk Superintendent to keep curious employees up to date on the project’s progress. First, an immense “Hole in the Ground,” as The Sidewalk Superintendent referred to it, was excavated.33 Next, 1,400 fifty- foot-long wooden piles and six-hundred 120-foot long concrete piles were driven into the sand with great force to support the garage and tower, respectively.34 Thereafter, the garage was built and waterproofed, and the tower’s poured in place concrete core began to emerge. The core housed elevator shafts, elevator lobbies, restrooms, stairwells, and service areas. Two groups of four elevators (one group serving the first through tenth floors and the other serving the eleventh through nineteenth) and a service elevator were installed.
Mary Moody Northen was again present on April 8, 1971 when the building was “topped out.” On that day, the final pre-cast concrete panel, autographed by Northen, ANICO president Glendon Johnson, chairman Phil Noah, and board member Leonard Mosele, was lifted to the apex. By December, a year-long moving process was over. The effort was one of the largest of its kind in American history, requiring the relocation, under the watchful eye of police and security personnel, of millions of files, including the seven million card Alpha File documenting every policy holder insured to date, from ANICO’s two previous buildings.35 Furniture was not moved, as the new building was fully furnished and decorated. Around this time, Joe Strimple, an ANICO building operator, set down his impressions of the building in a poem aptly titled “Big Building.” He wrote, “You stand tall and proud and beautiful, above the birds, shouldering the clouds aside, dwarfing the town below. Your windows glitter like diamonds in the sun, and shine like rows of stars at night.”36
To celebrate ANICO’s opening, Galveston Mayor Marcus Lamar Ross declared the week following Sunday, March 19, 1972 as “American National Week.” During that week, public tours of the building were offered, and the Chamber of Commerce presented American National with an anchor carved from local driftwood to symbolize the company’s connection to the port and firm establishment in Galveston, echoing the words of Phil Noah, Glendon Johnson’s predecessor: “This is where American National was born in 1905, and this is where it belongs.”37 The massive tower was literally Galveston’s new business anchor. Galveston Daily News headlines during the week included “American National ‘Gem’ Dedicated on the ‘Jewel of The Coast,” “ANICO Tower Praised,” and “New Building in Galveston Towers Over Old Skyline.”38
American National Insurance Company decorated the interiors of their building with an impressive fine art collection consisting of more than 1,500 original works from North and Central America. Ranging in age from Pre-Columbian to
32 The Texas Star, “A Skyscraper on Sand: A New Galveston Building is an Architectural Gem with a Foundation that ‘Floats,” March 19, 1972. 33 American National Insurance Company, Personnel Office, The Sidewalk Superintendent, no. 3, 1969. 34 Preston F. Kirk, “ANICO’s Building Features Art, Chapel and View,” Houston Business Journal, March 20, 1972. 35 Alice Chambers Wygant, Yours for Life: The Story of American National Insurance Company’s First 100 Years, 1905-2005 (American National Insurance Company, 2004), 82-83. 36 Joe Strimple, “Big Building,” 1971. 37 Alice Chambers Wygant, Yours for Life: The Story of American National Insurance Company’s First 100 Years, 1905-2005 (American National Insurance Company, 2004), 76. 38 “American National ‘Gem’ Dedicated on the ‘Jewel of The Coast,” “ANICO Tower Praised,” and “New Building in Galveston Towers Over Old Skyline,” Galveston Daily News, March 24, 1972.
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contemporary, the collection features artifacts, paintings, sculptures, etchings, drawings, serigraphs, ceramics, textiles, and photographs. The collection remains in the building. 39
Corporate Image and ANICO
During the 1960s, American National Insurance Company became one of the nation’s top ten stock life health insurance companies and expanded its reach across the United States, Canada, and Europe.40 Now a multinational corporation, ANICO commissioned Neuhaus & Taylor in the late 1960s to design a monumental new headquarters in Galveston to convey its evolved international corporate identity and bring its local employees together under one roof. Locally, the building was a statement of the company’s steadfast determination to remain headquartered in Galveston and to be seen from afar on Galveston Island by intentionally interrupting its existing urban fabric and skyline. More broadly, the building conveyed strength, prestige, and legitimacy, taking its cues from trends in New York City and other major corporate centers while adapting to Galveston’s unique soil and topographic conditions and its proneness to hurricanes and flooding.
Like its exteriors, the interiors of ANICO also expressed the company’s corporate identity (Figures 8-11). The tube-in- tube structural system allowed floors to be column free and configured as needed. A modular system, consisting of interlocking partitions integrated with a regular grid of lighting within an acoustical tile drop ceiling, was used for the typical office floor layout. Glass and monochrome partitions with metal frames, full height stained solid wood doors, and florescent lighting characterized the interiors. Diverse art objects from ANICO’s extensive collection added color and texture. The overall visual effect was one of corporate unity and efficiency.
Neuhaus & Taylor of Houston
The architectural partnership of Neuhaus & Taylor was established in 1955, between J. Victor Neuhaus III (1926- 2018)41 and Harwood Taylor (1927-1988).42 Both men were graduates of Houston’s Lamar High School and received their Bachelor of Architecture degrees from University of Texas at Austin in 1951.43 It was Taylor who concentrated on design leaving Neuhaus to the firm management and marketing.44 The Houston-based practice successfully rode the city’s post-World War II economic and development boom and both their firm and projects grew in size. In 1972, following strategic acquisitions of several architecture and engineers, the firm became Diversified Design Disciplines (3D) in 1972.45 3D was one of the large Houston-based firms to successfully secure international work in the Middle East in the early 1970s thanks in part to their in-house, turn key diversified service offerings. In 1975, the firm incorporated as 3D/International (3D/I) and continued to work on larger downtown Houston skyscrapers, often with out-of-town, internationally known architects such as Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) on the 1100 Louisiana building from 1980 and, I.M. Pei on the Texas Commerce Tower (1981) and the Texas Commerce Motor Bank (1983). The firm continued is influence on Houston’s built environment well into the 1980s often as a partner in architectural
39 Alice Chambers Wygant, Yours for Life: The Story of American National Insurance Company’s First 100 Years, 1905-2005 (American National Insurance Company, 2004), 76. 40 Sandia Sullivan and Philip Boydston, Handbook of Texas Online, "American National Insurance Company," accessed August 23, 2020, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/dja03. 41 Legacy, “Julius Victor III,” obituary, accessed August 27, 2020, https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/houstonchronicle/obituary.aspx?n=julius- neuhaus&pid=189725416 : accessed 27 August 2020), Julius Victor Neuhaus, III, 1926-2018. 42 Find a Grave, “Harwood Taylor,” obituary, accessed August 27, 2020, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/119281262/harwood-taylor : accessed 27 august 2020. 43 Moorhead, Gerald. “Neuhaus + Taylor,” Texas Architect, Nov-Dec. 1989, p. 65. And Legacy, “Julius Victor III,” obituary, accessed August 27, 2020, https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/houstonchronicle/obituary.aspx?n=julius-neuhaus&pid=189725416 : accessed 27 August 2020), Julius Victor Neuhaus, III, 1926-2018. 44 Gerald Moorhead, “Neuhaus + Taylor,” Texas Architect, November and December 1989, p. 65. 45 Legacy, “Julius Victor III,” obituary, accessed August 27, 2020, https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/houstonchronicle/obituary.aspx?n=julius- neuhaus&pid=189725416 : accessed 27 August 2020), Julius Victor Neuhaus, III, 1926-2018.
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consortiums for the Houston Center and George R. Brown Convention Center as well as international commissions. 3D/I was acquired by Parsons, a large architecture and engineering firm, in 2006.
The firm’s early practice included both residential and commercial designs with the latter tied to young postwar Houston developers. In the late 1950s and 1960s they made a substantial architectural mark along a stretch of newly available land on Houston’s Richmond Avenue. A 2002 architectural survey of the Richmond Corridor, published in City: Houston | Style: Modern: The Richmond Corridor demonstrates the impact the firm had along this street designing nine buildings out of the 29 buildings studied.46 The firm was in good company with contemporary Houston architectural offices such as Caudill, Rowlett & Scott (CRS), Lloyd, Morgan & Jones, Goleman & Rolfe, and Wilson Morris, Crain & Anderson. This area of new development is an architectural time capsule of Houston’s postwar architectural design fueled by a booming economy and the vision of young real estate investors such as Gerald D. Hines (1925-2020) and Kenneth Schnitzer (1929-1999),47 both of whom went on to have a significant impact on the skyline of Houston and, in the case of Hines, on cities worldwide.
Neuhaus & Taylor’s buildings along Richmond Avenue were part of the suburban flight of small office equipment, insurance, chemical, and independent oil companies to one of the city’s first unofficial ‘office parks’ away from the congestion and high rents downtown.48 Richmond Avenue is believed to be where commercial adaptation of the raised glass-walled box on piloti shielding parking below was created.49 In 2002, most of the original buildings were extant and unaltered demonstrating a clear architectural statement of Houston at mid-century and its associated development history. The Richmond Avenue study also provides a chronological development of Neuhaus and Taylor’s stylistic design evolution. Their earliest buildings on the street are small scale, clean Miesian designed compositions from the early 1960s.
• The 1960 Frieden Inc. building (2903 Richmond Avenue, demolished), a poetic two-story glass and marble low-rise building that seemed to hover above the ground. • The 1961 Pontiac Motor Division (3121 Richmond Avenue, extant) is a two-story glass box with a dramatic cantilever over its 360-degree window wall set on piloti covered parking below. This building was published in Architectural Forum and Texas Architect in 1962 and was the first on the street to raise the building on piloti to provide covered parking beneath. • The 1961 Phoenix of Hartford Insurance (3323 Richmond Avenue, extant) has large parabolic shading treatments on the full height window wall and is Houston’s most expressive Googie-style building of the decade. It is two-stories on piloti with parking beneath and was published in Houston magazine in July 1961.
The second generation of buildings along Richmond Avenue demonstrate a design shift to the combined use of glass window walls and aggregate panels, a reduction in the floor to ceiling window wall.
• Pacific Mutual Life Insurance (2626 Richmond Avenue, extant) from 1962 is the same raised box on piloti with a dramatic cantilever only with the addition of the aggregate panels to the cornice and fascia. Visually, this creates a heavier feeling from the three buildings of the previous year. • The 3100 Richmond building from 1962 (extant) is a five-story office building with an alternating stone and glass front and rear elevations. There is a clerestory topped with a dramatic cantilevered roof and the corner are exposed, mitered windows giving the appearance of a glass box cloaked with stone and capped with a dramatic lid. The alternating materials give a vertical emphasis to the otherwise heavy facades. The end walls are solid save for a small, central vertical strip of glass.
46 Barry Moore and Anna Mod, City: Houston Style: Modern – The Richmond Corridor (Houston: Houston Intown Publications, 2002). 47 Robert D. Hershey, Jr., “Kenneth L. Schnitzer, 70, Dies; Innovative Houston Developer,” New York Times, November 3, 1999. 48 Barry Moore and Anna Mod, City: Houston Style: Modern – The Richmond Corridor (Houston: Houston Intown Publications, 2002), p. ii. 49 Gerald Moorhead, “Neuhaus + Taylor,” Texas Architect, November and December 1989, p. 65.
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• The design elements of the 3100 Richmond building are repeated at 3101 Richmond (extant) completed in 1964. This two-story building has similar mitered window corners, larger vertical window openings within the stone cladding and a much reduced cantilever.
One of the New Formalist masterpieces along Richmond Avenue is the firm’s 1965 design for Jefferson Chemical (3336 Richmond Avenue, extant). This is a four-story building on a raised platform with floor-to-ceiling curtain wall with spindly perimeter metal columns with webbed capitals. There is a rooftop clerestory with a cantilevered flat roof. This building was published in Texas Architect in February 1966 and was the first to break the $4.20 per square foot rent barrier.50
The last two Neuhaus & Taylor designed buildings included in City: Houston | Style: Modern are 2990 Richmond Avenue, a six-story brick and glass composition with a flat roof, and the Brutalist masterpiece from 1969, the Hattie Mae White Central Administrative Building for the Houston Independent School district at 3830 Richmond Avenue, demolished in 2006. The first building is similar to its two neighbors at 3100 and 3101 Richmond Avenue, with a shift to a brick exterior instead of stone. It has concave U-shaped brick bays punctuated by narrow vertical tinted glass window walls. The Hattie Mae White building was an asymmetrical cast concrete composition on a raised foundation and a dramatic, skylit interior air-conditioned courtyard. It was published in Texas Architect (September 1970), and Cite magazines (Cite 40, Winter 1997-1998).
In the late 1950s and 1960s, and Neuhaus & Taylor began increasing their firm size through acquisitions and the firm moved on to larger commissions. Contemporary with Galveston’s ANICO building were three tube-in-tube corporate towers in Texas: Cullen Center Bank & Trust Co. (600 Jefferson Street, Houston, 1971), Dresser Tower (601 Jefferson Street, Houston, 1973), and Bryan Tower (2001 Bryan Street, Dallas, 1973). The first two were projects for Cullen Center in the southern end of downtown Houston. Welton Becket & Associates of Los Angeles developed a Master Plan for the business center, the city’s first multi-block development cluster, and designed its first building, 500 Jefferson (NRHP, 2019).51 Cullen Center Bank & Trust Co. was a near replica of Becket’s 500 Jefferson building and was significantly altered in the early 2000s when a new and heavier cast stone cladding was attached to the entire exterior including a new window system affixed into the original window openings. Meanwhile, Dresser Tower resembles Electric Tower (611 Walker Street, Houston) completed five years earlier in 1968 and designed by Wilson, Morris, Crain & Anderson with Robert O. Biering. Dresser Tower is a dramatic tower with full-height concrete pilasters vertically interspersed with tinted glass curtain wall bands that together augment the building’s already established verticality. Unlike the ANICO building, Dresser Tower’s exterior has been reduced to a vertical purity void of any three-part Classical composition. Finally, the 40-story Bryan Tower, described by Neuhaus & Taylor as “a vertical expression of strength,” features a glass curtain wall and a distinctive base with monumental square columns and a shaft and cornice defined by contrasting colors of glass.52 The ANICO building further stands apart from these other Neuhaus & Taylor-designed buildings due to its square (not rectangular) plan, 45-degree rotation, elevated base, repeated square windows, and open plaza on all four sides. These characteristics, in turn, are a result of the design’s response to unique site and environmental conditions in Galveston.
Neuhaus & Taylor and New Formalism
The architectural practice of Neuhaus & Taylor follows national business and design trends within the post war period of the profession. Their successful relationships with young developers, notably Gerald D. Hines, led to larger corporate work. Their strategic purchase of small architectural and engineering firms increased their size and
50 Barry Moore and Anna Mod, City: Houston Style: Modern – The Richmond Corridor (Houston: Houston Intown Publications, 2002), p. 12. 51 Amanda Barry, Hannah Curry-Shearouse, and Anna Mod. National Register of Historic Places, nomination for 500 Jefferson Building, Houston, Harris County, Texas, National Register # 100003492. 52 “40-Story Building Slated,” Dallas Morning News, August 9, 1970.
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diversified their services and positioned them for international work.53 Similarly, their designs evolved as the 1960s wore on. Their earliest work demonstrated the influence of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe as well as an acuity of New Formalism, both propelled by Houston’s post war yearning to compete as a major American city. Houston architect and architectural historian Ben Koush notes this evolution in Houston architectural design from the 1950s to the early 1970s was not unique to Taylor and many designers remained dedicated to Miesian “principles, such as the discreet indication of structure, ordered relationships between individual parts, and a tendency towards pure abstraction” as modernism progressed and changed.54 New Formalism, an evolution along the modernism continuum, saw designers and clients move beyond Miesian tendencies of revealed structure, rectilinear forms of glass and steel, and exteriors stripped of all ornamentation. New Formalist designs reintroduced abstracted Classical elements such as arches and/or colonnades and lavish exterior cladding in concrete, marble, and stone that had been eschewed. Often New Formalist buildings were set on podiums or plazas, and many display a jump in scale and monumentality from earlier modern style buildings. The ANICO building falls within this evolution of design, with its display of structural composition albeit clad in precast concrete, its ordered overall repetitive grid, and seamless cohesion between each disparate part. After ANICO, Neuhaus & Taylor went on to design the 1969 Hattie Mae White Central Administration Building for the Houston Independent School District (HISD, demolished 2006), demonstrating once again their fluency with then Brutalist design trends; ordinary materials such as concrete were employed to be expressed as part of the design, rather than as part of a hidden structural system.
Three widely publicized 1950s corporate high-rise office buildings, two in New York City and one in Boston, are important early precedents for ANICO:
• Lever House, New York, designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill partner Gordon Bunshaft and completed in 1952 features a glass curtain wall that “effectively conceal[s] the internal arrangement of the building, maintaining visual and, implicitly, ‘corporate’ unity while allowing a high degree of flexibility in the subdivision of the floors.”55 Many corporations copied this widely published design and interior organization of space. • Segram Building, New York, designed by Mies van der Rohe and completed in 1958 introduced the concept of situating a corporate tower in an open plaza.56 Again, many multinational corporations emulated this, and ANICO was no exception. Neuhaus & Taylor pushed the business plaza concept to a new level, rotating ANICO at the center 45 degrees against Galveston’s established street grid. The results were dramatic; four open wedge-shaped plazas surrounding a large covered square plaza. • Blue Cross and Blue Shield Building (BC-BS), Boston, designed by Paul Rudolph in association with Anderson, Beckwith, and Haible in 1956-1960 is a direct influence on the design of ANICO. Although the BC-BS building is only 12-stories, the similarities to ANICO include the exterior material, chosen to better fit in downtown Boston, the treatment of the building’s corners, and the distinct precast spandrels. More routine New Formalist elements include the building’s sole siting on a plaza, the monumental columns, and its repetitive grid executed in concrete and glass.57
53 Flora Chou, “The '70s Turn 50: Building the Context,” prepared Docomomo US, accessed August 27, 2020, https://docomomo-us.org/news/the-70s-turn-50-building-the-context?mc_cid=9e6c2a89a6&mc_eid=5cdda31cf0. 54 Koush, Ben. “Light Touch: The Work of Harwood Taylor,” Cite 64, Summer 2005. https://offcite.rice.edu/2010/03/LightTouch_Koush_Cite64.pdf 55 Richard Weston, Key Buildings of the Twentieth Century: Plans, Sections and Elevations (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2004), p. 102. 56 Richard Weston, Key Buildings of the Twentieth Century: Plans, Sections and Elevations (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2004), p. 118. 57 Rohan, Timothy M. “Challenging the Curtain Wall: Paul Rudolph's Blue Cross and Blue Shield Building,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians , Vol. 66, No. 1 (March 2007), pp. 84-109, accessed 4 November 2020, https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/jsah.2007.66.1.84
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Ellisor Engineers, Inc. of Houston
Ellisor Engineers, Inc. of Houston, designed the structural system which required the ANICO building to withstand hurricane force winds and support a 358-foot tall tower and one level of subgrade parking on a barrier sand bar island.58 The structural piles are driven 120-feet into the ground and the basement required additional tension pile anchors so that the high water table would not pop it out of the ground.59 Engineers at the firm who worked on ANICO included Dr. Joseph Colaco, among others.
Dr. Colaco came to the United States from Bombay, now Mumbai, where he completed his undergraduate work in engineering. He immigrated to the United States in the fall of 1961 and studied at the University of Illinois Urbana- Champaign where he completed his Master of Science and PhD in structural engineering in 1965. He went to work at the Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) on the 100-story John Hancock Center. This experience laid the groundwork for Colaco’s career-long passion and expertise in solving complex skyscraper structural engineering challenges. At SOM he worked with Fazlur Rahman Kahn, an internationally recognized skyscraper structural engineer who conceived of the diagonal bracing for the John Hancock Center and developed the tube-in-tube system, also call the framed tube. This skyscraper structural system is a concrete clad internal core, or tube, where the stairs and elevators are typically located, and an outer tube of closely spaced perimeter columns and deep beams to create an exoskeletal frame. This is the structural system employed at the ANICO building.60 While he was in Chicago, Gerald D. Hines visited the SOM offices with plans for a 50-story building in downtown Houston for the U.S. headquarters of the Shell Oil Company. 61 Colaco relocated to Houston and joined Ellisor Engineers in 1969. He served as the project engineer for One Shell Plaza, another tube-in-tube skyscraper completed in 1971. He is a noted for engineering solutions to challenging skyscraper design such as the twin trapezoidal towers of Pennzoil Place, and the five-sided Texas Commerce Bank Tower, both in downtown Houston. His international projects include the Burj Khalifa Tower in Dubai and other supertall skyscrapers in the United States, India, and the Middle East.
Distinctive Characteristics of ANICO
American National Insurance Company’s desire to convey its newfound international corporate identity during the late 1960s and early 1970s and bring its local employees into one corporate headquarters is manifest in the monumental, twenty-story New Formalist style ANICO building. The reinforced concrete tube-in-tube structure is also a result of programmatic requirements, especially the need for uninterrupted workspace, and a response to environmental conditions, specifically Galveston’s sandy soil and proneness to hurricanes.
The ANICO building exhibits many characteristics associated with the New Formalist style which derived from early twentieth-century modernism but also incorporated abstracted Classical elements. New formalist characteristics include the building’s separation from its surrounding context due to its situation in a plaza, freestanding composition, 45-degree rotation, and monumentality, as well as its Classical axiality, symmetry, and three-part composition of base, shaft, and cornice. Furthermore, the smooth concrete surface is painted white to unify the building’s elements, including massive chamfered pilotis at plaza level that transition into pilasters of the same shape extending to the roofline, recessed window openings, and spandrels.
58 Ellisor Engineers, Inc. is identified as ANICO’s engineer on the 1969 drawings for the building prepared by Neuhaus and Taylor. 59 Ellen Beasley and Stephen Fox, Galveston Architecture Guidebook. Galveston, Galveston Historical Foundation, 1998, p. 36. 60 Joseph P. Calaco, Interview by Jason Cantu, 2014-11-07. William R. Jenkins Architecture, Design, and Art Library, Building Houston Collection, accessed August 27, 2020, https://av.lib.uh.edu/media_objects/qj72p717w. 61 Joseph P. Calaco, Interview by Jason Cantu, 2014-11-07. William R. Jenkins Architecture, Design, and Art Library, Building Houston Collection, accessed August 27, 2020, https://av.lib.uh.edu/media_objects/qj72p717w.
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Henry C. Beck Company of Dallas
American National Insurance Company retained Henry C. Beck Company of Dallas to serve as the general contractor. The project manager assigned to the building was M. L. Sandlin who had previously overseen the construction of the fifty-story First National Bank tower in Dallas designed by architects George Dahl and Thomas E. Stanley and completed in 1965. With offices throughout the United States, the Henry C. Beck Company had built high-rise buildings worth in excess of $230 million during the 1960s.62
Conclusion
ANICO, built between 1968 and 1971, is nominated for listing in the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion C, at the local level of significance, under Architecture. The twenty-story reinforced concrete corporate office high-rise is situated within Galveston’s business district, which developed in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and came to be known as the “Wallstreet of the Southwest.” The building is a New Formalist example of the work of Neuhaus & Taylor, a significant engineering feat by Ellisor Engineers, Inc., and an excellent example of corporate architecture of the early 1970s. ANICO is the single beacon of the city’s skyline and testimony to the importance of the Moody family and this Galveston-based, multi-national corporation. Since ANICO’s design development was firmly established between 1968 and 1969 and construction began in 1968, Criteria Consideration G is not necessary.
62 American National Insurance Company, Personnel Office, The Sidewalk Superintendent, no. 1, 1968.
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Bibliography
American National Insurance Company, Personnel Office. The Sidewalk Superintendent, nos. 1-12, 1968- 1971.
Baker, Robert E. “Moody Foundation,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed August 23, 2020, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/moody-foundation.
Barry, Amanda, Hannah Curry-Shearouse, and Anna Mod. National Register of Historic Places, nomination for 500 Jefferson Building, Houston, Harris County, Texas, National Register # 100003492.
Baughman, James P. “The Evolution of Rail-Water Systems of Transportation in the Gulf Southwest, 1836-1890,” The Journal of Southern History, vol. 34, no. 3, August 1968.
Beasley, Ellen and Stephen Fox. Galveston Architecture Guidebook, Galveston, Galveston Historical Foundation, 1996.
Boydston, Philip and Sandia Sullivan. "American National Insurance Company," Handbook of Texas Online, accessed August 23, 2020, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/dja03.
Calaco, Joseph P. Interview by Jason Cantu, 2014-11-07. William R. Jenkins Architecture, Design, and Art Library, Building Houston Collection, accessed August 27, 2020, https://av.lib.uh.edu/media_objects/qj72p717w.
Chou, Flora. “The '70s Turn 50: Building the Context,” prepared Docomomo US, accessed August 27, 2020, https://docomomo-us.org/news/the-70s-turn-50-building-the- context?mc_cid=9e6c2a89a6&mc_eid=5cdda31cf0.
Find a Grave, “Harwood Taylor,” obituary, accessed August 27, 2020, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/119281262/harwood-taylor : accessed 27 August 2020.
Fox, Stephen, “New Brutalism: The Houston Interpretation,” Cite 40, Winter 1997-1998.
Galveston, City of. “City History,” accessed August 23, 2020, https://galvestontx.gov/248/City-History.
Hartman, Betty. “Strand,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed August 23, 2020, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/strand.
Koush Ben. “Light Touch: The Work of Harwood Taylor,” Cite 64, Summer 2005.
Koush, Ben. “Formal Again,” Texas Architect, May/June 2016. Accessed November 4, 2020, https://magazine.texasarchitects.org/2016/05/25/formal-again/.
Legacy, “Julius Victor III,” obituary, accessed August 27, 2020, https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/houstonchronicle/obituary.aspx?n=julius-neuhaus&pid=189725416 : accessed 27 August 2020), Julius Victor Neuhaus, III, 1926-2018.
McComb, David G. “Galveston, TX,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed August 23, 2020, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/galveston-tx.
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Moore, Barry and Anna Mod. City: Houston Style: Modern – The Richmond Corridor. Houston: Houston Intown Publications, 2002.
Moorhead, Gerald. “ Neuhaus + Taylor,” Texas Architect, November and December 1989.
National Register of Historic Places, nomination for Strand Historic District, Galveston, Galveston County, Texas, National Register # 70000748.
Rohan, Timothy M. “Challenging the Curtain Wall: Paul Rudolph's Blue Cross and Blue Shield Building,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians , Vol. 66, No. 1 (March 2007), pp. 84-109, accessed 4 November 2020, https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/jsah.2007.66.1.84
Sabatino, Michelangelo. “Heat and Light Thematised in the Modern Architecture of Houston,” The Journal of Architecture, Vol. 16, No. 5.
Schilstone, James M. “Ways with Architectural Concrete,” AIA Journal, November 1972.
Strimple, Joe. “Big Building” (poem), 1971.
Weems, John Edward. “Galveston Hurricane of 1900,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed August 23, 2020, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/galveston-hurricane-of-1900.
Wygant, Alice Chambers. Yours for Life: The Story of American National Insurance Company’s First 100 Years, 1905-2005, American National Insurance Company, 2004.
Architectural Drawings
American National Insurance Company. Neuhaus & Taylor (architect), Ellisor Engineers, Inc. (structural engineers), and Lockwood, Andrews and Newman, Inc. (consulting engineers), American National Insurance Company, 1969.
Newspapers
“To Be Highest,” Houston Chronicle, September 15, 1968.
“40-Story Building Slated,” Dallas Morning News, August 9, 1970.
“The Making of an Architect Firm: Team Up, Be Creative, Stay ‘In,’” Houston Chronicle, March 7, 1971.
“Galveston’s Skyline Will Never Be the Same Again,” Galveston Daily News, April 10, 1971.
“Problems Encountered in Building the Tower” and “ANICO Move Completed Ahead of Schedule,” Galveston Daily News, March 2, 1972.
“American National to Dedicate New 20 Story Tower March 23,” The Insurance Record, March 2, 1972.
“A Skyscraper on Sand: A New Galveston Building is an Architectural Gem with a Foundation that ‘Floats,” The Texas Star, March 19, 1972.
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Kirk, Preston F. “ANICO’s Building Features Art, Chapel and View,” Houston Business Journal, March 20, 1972.
“American National ‘Gem’ Dedicated on the ‘Jewel of The Coast,” Galveston Daily News, March 24, 1972.
“ANICO Tower Praised,” Galveston Daily News, March 24, 1972.
“New Building in Galveston Towers Over Old Skyline,” Galveston Daily News, March 24, 1972.
Hershey, Robert D., Jr. “Kenneth L. Schnitzer, 70, Dies; Innovative Houston Developer,” New York Times, November 3, 1999.
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Maps
Map 1: Galveston County, Texas
Map 2: Galveston, Galveston County, Texas
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Map 3: ANICO, 1 Moody Avenue, Galveston, Galveston County, Texas. Source: Google Earth.
Map 4: The nominated boundary is the current legal parcel (ID#104208). Source: galvastoncad.org.
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Figures
Figure 1: Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, Galveston, Galveston County, Texas, vol. 1, sheet 8, 1947 (before construction of ANICO). Courtesy Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas.
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Figure 2: William Lewis Moody, Jr., shortly before his death in 1954. Courtesy American National Insurance Company.
Figure 3: The company was previously headquartered in the (left) William Lewis Moody & Company Building (2202- 2206 Strand) and (right) American National Insurance Company Building (northeast corner of 21st and Market Streets) Courtesy American National Insurance Company.
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Figure 4: American National Insurance Company Building (front right, northeast corner of 21st and Market Streets), Medical Art Building (front left, 302 21st Street), and ANICO, c. 1971. Courtesy American National Insurance Company.
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Figure 5: ANICO, core and perimeter columns under construction, c. 1968-1970. Courtesy American National Insurance Company.
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Figure 6: ANICO, tube-in-tube construction, c. 1968-1970. Courtesy American National Insurance Company.
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Figure 7: ANICO under construction, c. 1970-1971. Courtesy American National Insurance Company.
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Figure 8: ANICO, second floor, chapel, c. 1975. Courtesy American National Insurance Company.
Figure 9: ANICO, second floor, Mary Elizabeth Mary Moody Northen Auditorium, c. 1975. Courtesy American National Insurance Company.
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Figure 10: ANICO, third floor, medical office, c. 1975. Courtesy American National Insurance Company.
Figure 11: ANICO, third floor, Personnel Office, c. 1975. Courtesy American National Insurance Company.
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Figure 12: North and south elevations, Neuhaus & Taylor, 1969. Courtesy American National Insurance Company.
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Figure 13: Section, Neuhaus & Taylor, 1969. Courtesy American National Insurance Company.
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Figure 14: Ground floor (plaza level) mechanical plan, Neuhaus & Taylor, 1969. Courtesy American National Insurance Company.
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Figure 15: Basement parking plan, Neuhaus & Taylor, 1969. Courtesy American National Insurance Company.
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Figure 16: Second floor plan, Neuhaus & Taylor, 1969. Courtesy American National Insurance Company.
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Figure 17: Third floor plan, Neuhaus & Taylor, 1969. Courtesy American National Insurance Company.
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Figure 18: Fifth floor plan, Neuhaus & Taylor, 1969. Courtesy American National Insurance Company.
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Figure 19: Tenth floor plan, Neuhaus & Taylor, 1969. Courtesy American National Insurance Company.
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Figure 20: Eighteenth floor plan, Neuhaus & Taylor, 1969. Courtesy American National Insurance Company.
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Figure 21: Nineteenth floor plan, Neuhaus & Taylor, 1969. Courtesy American National Insurance Company.
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Figure 22: Twentieth floor plan, Neuhaus & Taylor, 1969. Courtesy American National Insurance Company.
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Figure 23: Twentieth floor mezzanine plan, Neuhaus & Taylor, 1969. Courtesy American National Insurance Company.
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Figure 24: Roof plan, Neuhaus & Taylor, 1969. Courtesy American National Insurance Company.
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Photographs
American National Insurance Company Galveston, Galveston County, Texas Photographed by Adam Rajper, June 2020
Photo 1 (TX_GalvestonCounty_ANICO_photo_0001) North elevation (Mechanic and 19th Streets), view South
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Photo 2 (TX_GalvestonCounty_ANICO_photo_0002) East Elevation (Market and 19th Streets), view West
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Photo 3 (TX_GalvestonCounty_ANICO_photo_0003) South elevation (Market and 20th Streets), view North
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Photo 4 (TX_GalvestonCounty_ANICO_photo_0004) West elevation (Mechanic and 20th Streets), view East
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Photo 5 (TX_GalvestonCounty_ANICO_photo_0005) North and east elevations, view Southwest
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Photo 6 (TX_GalvestonCounty_ANICO_photo_0006) East and south elevations, view Northwest
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Photo 7 (TX_GalvestonCounty_ANICO_photo_0007) Plaza, corner of Mechanic and 19th Streets, view South
Photo 8 (TX_GalvestonCounty_ANICO_photo_0008) Plaza, corner of Market and 19th Streets, view West
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Photo 9 (TX_GalvestonCounty_ANICO_photo_0009) Plaza, corner of Market and 20th Streets, view North
Photo 10 (TX_GalvestonCounty_ANICO_photo_0010) Plaza, corner of Mechanic and 20th Streets, view East
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Photo 11 (TX_GalvestonCounty_ANICO_photo_0011) Plaza, flag poles and ANICO sign fronting 20th Street, view Northeast
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American National InsuranceSBR Company, Galveston, Galveston Draft County, Texas
Photo 12 (TX_GalvestonCounty_ANICO_photo_0012) Covered plaza, view Northeast
Photo 13 (TX_GalvestonCounty_ANICO_photo_0013) Covered plaza colonnade, view South
Section PHOTO, Page 59 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018
American National InsuranceSBR Company, Galveston, Galveston Draft County, Texas
Photo 14 (TX_GalvestonCounty_ANICO_photo_0014) Ramp from Mechanic and Market Streets to basement, view Southeast
Section PHOTO, Page 60 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018
American National InsuranceSBR Company, Galveston, Galveston Draft County, Texas
Photo 15 (TX_GalvestonCounty_ANICO_photo_0015) Ground floor, main lobby, view West
Section PHOTO, Page 61 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018
American National InsuranceSBR Company, Galveston, Galveston Draft County, Texas
Photo 16 (TX_GalvestonCounty_ANICO_photo_0016) Basement parking garage, view East
Photo 17 (TX_GalvestonCounty_ANICO_photo_0017) Second floor, elevator lobby, view East
Section PHOTO, Page 62 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018
American National InsuranceSBR Company, Galveston, Galveston Draft County, Texas
Photo 18 (TX_GalvestonCounty_ANICO_photo_0018) Second floor, Mary Elizabeth Moody Northen Auditorium, view East
Photo 19 (TX_GalvestonCounty_ANICO_photo_0019) Third floor, typical offices, view North
Section PHOTO, Page 63 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018
American National InsuranceSBR Company, Galveston, Galveston Draft County, Texas
Photo 20 (TX_GalvestonCounty_ANICO_photo_0020) Eighteenth floor, board room entrance, view Northwest
Photo 21 (TX_GalvestonCounty_ANICO_photo_0021) Eighteenth floor, board room, view South
Section PHOTO, Page 64 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018
American National InsuranceSBR Company, Galveston, Galveston Draft County, Texas
Photo 22 (TX_GalvestonCounty_ANICO_photo_0022) Eighteenth floor, president’s office, view South
Photo 23 (TX_GalvestonCounty_ANICO_photo_0023) Nineteenth floor, dining room, view South
Section PHOTO, Page 65 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018
American National InsuranceSBR Company, Galveston, Galveston Draft County, Texas
Photo 24 (TX_GalvestonCounty_ANICO_photo_0024) Nineteenth floor, cafeteria, view South
Photo 25 (TX_GalvestonCounty_ANICO_photo_0025) Nineteenth floor, cafeteria, view North
Section PHOTO, Page 66 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018
American National InsuranceSBR Company, Galveston, Galveston Draft County, Texas
Photo 26 (TX_GalvestonCounty_ANICO_photo_0026) Nineteenth floor, lounge, view Southwest
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