Hollyfield Laundry and Cleaners Other Name/Site Number: Hollyfield Laundry; Hollyfield Laundry & Dry Cleaning Name of Related Multiple Property Listing: N/A
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: Hollyfield Laundry and Cleaners Other name/site number: Hollyfield Laundry; Hollyfield Laundry & Dry Cleaning Name of related multiple property listing: N/A
2. Location
Street & number: 1731 Westheimer Road City or town: Houston State: Texas County: Harris Not for publication: Vicinity: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 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places REGISTRATION FORM NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018
Hollyfield Laundry and Cleaners, Houston, Harris County, Texas SBR Draft 5. Classification
Ownership of Property
X Private Public - Local Public - State Public - Federal
Category of Property
X building(s) district site structure object
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
Current Functions: VACANT/NOT IN USE
7. Description
Architectural Classification: LATE 19TH AND 20TH CENTURY REVIVALS: Mission Revival; LATE 19TH CENTURY & 20TH CENTURY AMERICAN MOVEMENTS: One-Part Commercial Block
Principal Exterior Materials: CONCRETE, STONE, BRICK, GLASS, METAL: Steel, Aluminum, OTHER: Clay Tile, Synthetic Roofing
Narrative Description (see continuation sheets XX through XX)
Page 2 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places REGISTRATION FORM NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018
Hollyfield Laundry and Cleaners, Houston, Harris County, Texas SBR Draft 8. Statement of Significance
Applicable National Register Criteria
X A Property is associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history. B Property is associated with the lives of persons significant in our past. C Property embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction or represents the work of a master, or possesses high artistic values, or represents a significant and distinguishable entity whose components lack individual distinction. D Property has yielded, or is likely to yield information important in prehistory or history.
Criteria Considerations: N/A
Areas of Significance: Commerce (local)
Period of Significance: 1930-1971
Significant Dates: 1930, 1939 (primary construction dates)
Significant Person (only if Criterion B is marked): N/A
Cultural Affiliation (only if Criterion D is marked): N/A
Architect/Builder: Northrop, Jr., Joseph Walter (architect)
Narrative Statement of Significance (see continuation sheets XX through XX)
9. Major Bibliographic References
Bibliography (see continuation sheets XX)
Previous documentation on file (NPS): __preliminary determination of individual listing (36 CFR 67) has been requested. Part 1 Approved March 2, 2021. _ 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: x State historic preservation office (Texas Historical Commission, Austin) _ Other state agency _ Federal agency _ Local government _ University _ Other -- Specify Repository:
Historic Resources Survey Number (if assigned): N/A
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
Hollyfield Laundry and Cleaners, Houston, Harris County, Texas SBR Draft
10. Geographical Data
Acreage of Property: less than one acre (approximately 0.34 acres)
Coordinates (either UTM system or latitude/longitude coordinates)
Latitude/Longitude Coordinates
Datum if other than WGS84: N/A
1. Latitude: 29.742520°N Longitude: -95.403561°W
Verbal Boundary Description: The nominated boundary includes two legal parcels equaling approximately 0.34 acres: TR 1 BLK 1 WINLOW PLACE, 0.1342975 acres (Account # 0542170000001) and LTS 10 & 11 BLK A WINLOW PLACE, 0.2068182 acres (Account # 0542300000010) as recorded in the Harris County Appraisal District, accessed December 15, 2020 (Map 4).
Boundary Justification: This includes all the property historically associated with the nominated resource.
11. Form Prepared By
Name/title: Gabrielle Begue, Senior Associate Organization: MacRostie Historic Advisors Street & number: 614 Gravier Street City or Town: New Orleans State: Louisiana Zip Code: 70130 Email: [email protected] Telephone: (504) 655-9707 Date: November 2020
Additional Documentation
Maps (see continuation sheet Map-# through Map-#)
Additional items (see continuation sheets Figure-# through Figure-#)
Photographs (see continuation sheet Photo-# through Photo-#)
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Hollyfield Laundry and Cleaners, Houston, Harris County, Texas SBR Draft Photo Log
Name of Property: Hollyfield Laundry and Cleaners City or Vicinity: Houston County, State: Harris County, TX Photographer: Anna Mod and Adam Rajper for MacRostie Historic Advisors, LLC Date Photographed: October-November 2020 Description of Photograph(s):
Photo 01 (TX_HarrisCounty_HollyfieldLaundryCleaners_0001.jpg) Exterior, north (front) facade, camera facing southwest (November 2020)
Photo 02 (TX_HarrisCounty_HollyfieldLaundryCleaners_0002.jpg) Exterior, parapet over 1733/west entrance at north facade, camera facing southwest (October 2020)
Photo 03 (TX_HarrisCounty_HollyfieldLaundryCleaners_0003.jpg) Exterior, 1733/west entrance at north facade, camera facing southeast (October 2020)
Photo 04 (TX_HarrisCounty_HollyfieldLaundryCleaners_0004.jpg) Exterior, west elevation, camera facing southeast (October 2020)
Photo 05 (TX_HarrisCounty_HollyfieldLaundryCleaners_0005.jpg) Exterior, west elevation, camera facing southeast (October 2020)
Photo 06 (TX_HarrisCounty_HollyfieldLaundryCleaners_0006.jpg) Exterior, west elevation, camera facing northeast (October 2020)
Photo 07 (TX_HarrisCounty_HollyfieldLaundryCleaners_0007.jpg) Exterior, east elevation showing 1939 addition and a portion of the 1930 building (right), camera facing west (October 2020)
Photo 08 (TX_HarrisCounty_HollyfieldLaundryCleaners_0008.jpg) Exterior, east elevation of 1930 building, camera facing southwest (October 2020)
Photo 09 (TX_HarrisCounty_HollyfieldLaundryCleaners_0009.jpg) Exterior, east elevation of 1930 building and view of Westheimer Rd., camera facing west (October 2020)
Photo 10 (TX_HarrisCounty_HollyfieldLaundryCleaners_0010.jpg) Laundry interior (1930 building), camera facing southeast (October 2020)
Photo 11 (TX_HarrisCounty_HollyfieldLaundryCleaners_0011.jpg) Laundry interior (1930 building), camera facing southwest (October 2020)
Photo 12 (TX_HarrisCounty_HollyfieldLaundryCleaners_0012.jpg) Ceiling and roof monitor, 1930 building, camera facing west (October 2020)
Photo 13 (TX_HarrisCounty_HollyfieldLaundryCleaners_0013.jpg) Interior, office, 1930 building, camera facing northwest (October 2020)
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Hollyfield Laundry and Cleaners, Houston, Harris County, Texas SBR Draft Photo 14 (TX_HarrisCounty_HollyfieldLaundryCleaners_0014.jpg) Interior, office, 1930 building, camera facing south (October 2020)
Photo 15 (TX_HarrisCounty_HollyfieldLaundryCleaners_0015.jpg) Bathroom, 1930 building, camera facing south (October 2020)
Photo 16 (TX_HarrisCounty_HollyfieldLaundryCleaners_0016.jpg) Interior, rear laundry wing (1930 building), camera facing north (October 2020)
Photo 17 (TX_HarrisCounty_HollyfieldLaundryCleaners_0017.jpg) Laundry interior, 1930 building (right) and 1939 addition (left), camera facing west (October 2020)
Photo 18 (TX_HarrisCounty_HollyfieldLaundryCleaners_0018.jpg) Interior, 1939 addition, camera facing northeast (October 2020)
Photo 19 (TX_HarrisCounty_HollyfieldLaundryCleaners_0019.jpg) Interior, 1939 addition, camera facing southwest (October 2020)
Photo 20 (TX_HarrisCounty_HollyfieldLaundryCleaners_0020.jpg) Interior, 1939 addition, camera facing southeast (October 2020)
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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Narrative Description
Hollyfield Laundry and Cleaners, located at 1731 Westheimer Road in Houston, Harris County, is a one-part commercial block constructed in 1930 as a purpose-built “power” laundry serving residents of the surrounding early twentieth-century suburbs that make up the greater Montrose neighborhood west of downtown Houston. Westheimer Road, the primary east- west commercial corridor in Montrose, was originally lined with early twentieth-century single-family homes before it was gradually redeveloped with commercial properties. Hollyfield Laundry and Cleaners consists of the original 1930 L-shaped building and a 1939 rear addition which filled in the L. The 1930 laundry building is constructed of concrete block and brick with a concrete-slab floor, steel bowstring trusses, wood ceiling joists, and a shallow barrel-vaulted roof with wood-frame skylights and roof monitors surrounded by a masonry parapet. The primary (north) façade has six storefront openings, sand- colored Perma-stone exterior cladding, and displays Mission Revival style elements, e.g., Mission-shaped parapets and an overhang clad in red clay tiles. The front section in the northeast corner contains an office area, where customers picked up and dropped off their laundry, with a large, open-plan work area beyond. The rear wing contains the laundry washing area and a boiler room. When the company began offering dry cleaning services in the late 1930s, the large one-story steel-frame rear addition was erected. Houston architect Joseph W. Northrop, Jr. designed the 1930 building and the 1939 addition. The building housed Hollyfield Cleaners and Laundry until 1973, when it was converted by the Hollyfield family into an antiques market that closed in 2017. The building is currently vacant.
Extant historic exterior features include the façade’s Mission Revival style features, storefront fenestration pattern, multi- light steel windows, wood garage doors, roof monitors, metal wall cladding on the side and rear elevations, and simple rectangular form and massing. The Perma-stone façade cladding added in the 1940s replaced the original ceramic tile and is considered a historic modification. Extant historic interior features include the clear division of private vs. public spaces, open floor plans, and industrial character, i.e., exposed interior CMU walls, open-web steel bowstring and flat arched trusses, skylights, exposed concrete-slab floors, and exposed piping and conduit. Exterior alterations include the removal of some storefronts and the demolition of a small garage and storage building at the rear of the property. Minor interior modifications include the installation of removable wood flooring panels over the concrete slab, the installation of contemporary wall and ceiling paneling in some areas, and the erection of a limited number of partition walls. These modifications do not significantly detract from the historic integrity of the building, which retains all of the essential characteristics that define it as an early twentieth-century laundry facility.
Property Overview:
Hollyfield Laundry and Cleaners is a 9,000 SF, one-part commercial block laundry facility that was completed in February 1930 at 1731 Westheimer Road, a primary east-west commercial corridor approximately 2.5 miles southwest of downtown Houston. The property is located in Winlow Place, a 1925 middle-class subdivision with commercial activity limited to Westheimer, the neighborhood’s northern boundary. The building faces north onto Westheimer and is situated in the middle of the block, which is bounded by Woodhead to the west, Hawthorne to the south, and Dunlavy to the east. (Maps 1-3)
In the early twentieth century, Westheimer Road (formerly Westheimer Avenue and Hathaway) was a predominantly residential two-lane street; in the 1920s and 1930s, some sections gained small-scale commercial uses tailored to the needs of surrounding residents, such as laundries, bakeries, grocery stores, and physician’s offices. Commercial encroachment increased in the 1940s and 1950s, as some of the residences on the thoroughfare were converted for commercial use and larger purpose-built commercial structures such as strip centers were erected. In the late twentieth century, the street gained several large-scale multi-family residential complexes, particularly at its eastern and western ends, and commercial infill continued to occur throughout.1 Despite these changes, some good representative examples of the original residential
1 SWCA Environmental Consultants, “Report of Findings for Westheimer Road between S. Shepherd and Bagby,” November 8, 2016. Page 7
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buildings remain, although these too are disappearing at an accelerated rate. The smaller buildings, mostly single- family bungalows, have been converted into commercial uses; a few remaining quadruplexes are still in residential use.
The business’s original name was Hollyfield Laundry, named for owner and proprietor Joseph H. Hollyfield. In the late 1930s, when the company added dry cleaning services, it briefly advertised as “Hollyfield Laundry & Dry Cleaning,” which was shortened to “Hollyfield Laundry and Cleaners” by 1940. This name, which is reflected in the Perma-stone parapet signage, remained until the business was closed in 1973 and is therefore being used as the historic name herein. The business’s original street address was 1731-33 Westheimer Avenue. The name of the street was changed to Westheimer Road by 1950, according to Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, and the building’s address was shortened to 1731 Westheimer Road in the late twentieth century following the removal of the western storefront entrance.
Setting and Site
Due to the distinctive development pattern of Westheimer Road over the course of the twentieth century, the setting surrounding Hollyfield Laundry and Cleaners consists of a mix of early and mid-twentieth century small-scale commercial buildings, converted early twentieth-century residential buildings, and contemporary commercial and residential infill. Buildings are low-rise and are typically situated at or near their front property lines to create a semi-dense and walkable streetscape that is unified by paved sidewalks and shade trees. Some commercial properties include paved parking lots in front of or adjacent to their front facades. Half a block to the north and south of the building, the setting transitions to residential, where the single-lane streets are lined with shade trees and early twentieth-century single-family homes that exhibit a variety of architectural styles, including Craftsman, Tudor Revival, and Colonial Revival. Five blocks to the south is W. Alabama Street, another east-west corridor that retains more of its original residential character than Westheimer, with larger-scale American Four Squares, duplexes and quadruplexes still extant and in a mix of residential and commercial uses. Eight blocks to the north is W. Gray Street, which contains several pockets of historic and non-historic commercial development including the 1937 River Oaks Shopping Center, a widely published, semicircular plan, car oriented shopping center designed by Houston architects Nunn & McGinty and opened in 1937. Other commercial concentrations occur along Shepherd Drive to the west, a north-south thoroughfare that serves as the western boundary of the greater Montrose neighborhood, and along Richmond Avenue, the neighborhood’s southern boundary. (Map 2)
Hollyfield Laundry and Cleaners occupies two legal parcels in the Winlow Place subdivision equaling approximately 0.34 acres: Tract 1 of Block 1 (0.1342975 acres) and Lots 10 & 11 of Block A (0.2068182 acres), measuring in total 127 feet in width by 117 feet in depth. (Map 4) The building occupies the entirety of both parcels except for a 26x117-foot concrete- paved parking lot on the eastern portion. At the rear of the parking lot were a small shed-roof garage and storage building attached to the east elevation of the laundry; both structures were demolished by a previous owner and the concrete pads are extant. The building’s north façade sits at the front property line and is bordered by a concrete sidewalk. There are no notable landscape features besides a large shade tree at the building’s northeast corner. The adjacent lot to the east was recently cleared of an early twentieth-century residence that had been converted for commercial use. To the west is an early twentieth-century one-story brick-clad building that is separated from the laundry by a concrete-paved driveway associated with the neighboring building. The two buildings’ facades are linked by a contemporary iron security gate. The rear elevation of the laundry abuts the rear property line and is not visible due to vegetation and fencing associated with residential properties to the south facing Hawthorne Street.
Physical Description:
Hollyfield Laundry and Cleaners is a 9,000 SF, one-part commercial block with a rectangular footprint consisting of the original L-shaped structure, which was completed in 1930, and a 1939 addition filling in the L. (Map 5) The primary north façade of the building exhibits elements of the Mission Revival style, namely in its pair of Mission-shaped parapets marking the east and west entrances and a wood-frame overhang covered in red clay tiles. Otherwise, the building’s exterior has a Page 8
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utilitarian appearance, and the majority of the interior is industrial in character. Houston architect Joseph W. Northrop Jr. designed the 1930 building and the 1939 addition.
The 1930 building measures 50x100 feet with the stem of the L parallel to Westheimer; the rear wing in the southwest corner forming the arm of the L measures 21x56 feet. The two sections are constructed of concrete-slab floors, CMU and brick exterior walls, wood-frame partitions, and long-span open-web steel bowstring trusses supporting wood ceiling joists and wood-frame skylights. The primary north façade was originally clad in white and black ceramic tile that owner and proprietor Joseph H. Hollyfield replaced with a simulated stone product, “Perma-stone,” in the 1940s. On the interior, the original spatial arrangement remains intact. The rectangular front section was designed to include a partitioned office and customer drop-off/pick-up area, which was accessed at the eastern storefront entrance at 1731 Westheimer, and an open- plan work area where the laundry drying and finishing (e.g., starching, ironing, packaging) processes took place. The rear wing contained the washing area and a boiler room.
The one-story 1939 addition, which filled in the L to the southeast, is constructed of a steel frame with concrete-slab floors and long-span open-web steel bowstring and flat arched trusses supporting wood ceiling joists, wood-frame skylights, and a wood-frame roof monitor. Exterior walls are clad in corrugated metal panels. This addition occurred when the laundry expanded its business to include dry-cleaning services in addition to laundering.
The majority of the building’s roof is covered with thermoplastic polyolefin (TPO). The shallow barrel vault roof of the 1930 building is supported by wooden cross-braced rafters and decking atop steel bowstring trusses. It retains its roof monitor, situated parallel to the north façade and centered over the open-plan work area to provide daylight to the laundry interior. The 1930 rear wing has a shed roof covered in corrugated metal; the majority of this addition is wood framed with multiple reinforcing and repair efforts. The 1939 addition, like the 1930 building, has a shallow wood-frame vault supported by steel bowstring and flat arched trusses. It contains three original skylights and a roof monitor that served as a primary source of daylight for the dry-cleaning processes in the work area below. The three skylights are located near the center, and the roof monitor runs parallel and adjacent to the addition’s east elevation, a largely windowless expanse.
Exterior
The primary north façade is clad in sand-colored Perma-stone, a simulated stone-veneer product that was popular for residential and commercial applications in the 1940s and 1950s. The Perma-stone replaced the original applied black and white ceramic tile in the 1940s and covers the north façade’s surface, storefront bulkheads, parapets, and structural columns. The façade’s regular fenestration pattern consists of six equally spaced and dimensioned bays separated by Perma-stone- clad brick columns. Two storefront openings are located at either end of the façade. There is one storefront window in the second bay, and bays three through five have industrial-type overhead doors. The two storefront openings are accentuated by Mission Revival-style parapets with central signage panels reading “Hollyfield Laundry – Cleaners.” The parapets are trimmed in cast stone and create breaks within the otherwise continuous wood-frame overhang, which is clad in red clay tile with a stucco-finished ceiling. The wood-frame storefront opening on the eastern end of the building (bay 1), which corresponds to the laundry’s office and customer pick-up/drop-off area, retains its original configuration of a central door opening flanked by two plate-glass storefront windows with a row of wood transom windows above. The replacement wood door and sidelights are fitted into the original opening which, according to a photograph published in the Houston Post- Dispatch in February 1930, originally consisted of a pair of single-light wood doors. (Figure 2) The multi-light wood-frame transom windows above are concealed by wood boards and signage. Moving westward, the mullions of the storefront window next to the office entrance have been modified, but the transoms above remain partially intact. In the next three openings, the storefront windows and framing have been replaced with industrial-type overhead garage doors. This modification occurred during the building’s use as an antiques market, which opened onto the street during business hours. The storefront entrance at the western end of the building (bay 6), which provided access to the work area of the laundry, has been replaced with a contemporary aluminum-frame storefront system. (Photos 01-03) Page 9
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The east and west elevations of the 1930 building are partially clad in Perma-stone where the material wraps the corners from the primary façade. Otherwise, the CMU and brick wall structure is exposed. (Photos 04, 08, 09) Windows are the original multi-light steel with cast-stone sills. The short parapet walls are capped with terra cotta coping tiles. The west elevation of the rear wing of the 1930 building is a windowless wall surface clad in metal panels. The east elevation of the 1939 addition is clad in metal panels and contains three sets of paired multi-light sliding wood garage doors. The roof monitor on this addition, which is visible from street level, has wood-clad walls, exposed rafter tails, and steel-frame skylights. (Photos 05-07)
The rear elevation, which is not visible from the exterior, consists of metal-panel cladding and grouped steel-frame windows. Deteriorated metal panels have been replaced with wood panels.
Interior
The interior contains four distinct sections that are differentiated by their historic use, finishes, and structural framing (Figure 6). While there is some non-historic fabric dating to the building’s use as an antiques market (1974-2017), the laundry’s historically industrial character and the distinction between public and private spaces are intact. A 1930 newspaper description of the interior demonstrates that its integrity has been retained:
Its interior, white walls, and concrete floor, is sanitary, cool and scrupulously neat and clean….In its arrangement on the floor the machinery is so installed as to expedite the work with the least effort and loss of time on the part of employees. As garments are received from the delivery wagons they are routed through the plant in the most expeditious manner to the shipping and delivery departments…The handsome main personal receiving and delivery office is large, well lighted and arranged with ample bins by which a customer’s “bundle” can be found and delivered instantly, at call. This office was specially designed for the “cash and carry” trade in which the laundry will specialize, Mr. Hollyfield said. Patrons can bring their ‘bundles’ to the office with the certainty that they will be ready for them at the hour specified, sweet, cool, and clean, neatly wrapped, to keep the contents from dust and handling.2
The front section of the 1930 building, with the exception of the northeast portion, is predominantly an open-plan work area where the laundry drying and finishing processes (e.g., starching, ironing, packaging) were performed. (Photos 10-12) The ceiling structure, piping, and electrical conduit remain exposed. Walls are painted brick and CMU. The concrete-slab floor is partially covered by removable wood flooring panels. There is no heating and cooling system in the space. Ample daylight was provided to laundry workers via skylights and the large steel windows and storefront display windows along the western and northern walls, respectively. Along the western perimeter wall is an unfinished wood-frame partition wall providing storage for the antiques market. (Photo 11)
In the northeast corner is the customer drop-off area and private office, which is separated from the work area by an intact L-shaped partition wall clad in non-historic paneling; the presence of underlying historic fabric is unknown. Inside the office, some walls retain their historic plastered finish and ceilings are covered in painted-wood panels installed at an unknown date. Floors are concrete slab covered in removable wood flooring panels. A small employee bathroom with beadboard wall cladding is intact behind the office area. To the south of the office, at the rear wall of the 1930 building, is a non-historic partitioned area constructed of various salvaged materials. (Photos 13-15)
2 “Houston’s Newest Industry, Hollyfield Laundry, Opens Monday,” Houston Post-Dispatch, February 9, 1930.
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The 21x56-foot rear wing at the southwest corner contained the washing area and a boiler room, which provided the hot water necessary for the commercial laundering process. The wing is similar in construction and character to the building’s larger work area. The concrete-slab floor contains an open trough that directed gray water into the municipal drainage system. The walls are covered in non-historic pegboard or the wood framing is exposed. Ceilings are exposed wood structure with multiple visible repairs. (Photo 16)
The interior of the 1939 addition has a similar industrial character to the front section of the building. (Photos 18-20) Floors are concrete slab and the steel structure is expressed throughout. Daylight was provided via skylights and a large roof monitor as well as the expansive steel windows along the addition’s rear elevation. The garage doors opening onto the parking lot on the building’s east side provided delivery truck access and connected the building’s interior to the small garage and storage area at the southeast corner (demolished). Where the addition meets the former rear wall of the 1930 building, openings were cut into the CMU to connect the two spaces. (Photo 17) Two original steel windows are extant in this wall at the western end. (e.g., Photo 14)
Alterations
The most obvious alterations to the building are the construction of the 1939 rear addition and the installation of Perma- stone on the façade, which occurred in the 1940s. While not original, this updated finish was chosen by the laundry’s long- time proprietor during the property’s period of significance and was in place for most of its history. Four of the six wood- frame storefronts were removed in the 1970s or later when the building became an antiques market. A small garage and storage building at the rear of the property were demolished by a previous owner. Minor interior modifications consist of the installation of contemporary wall and ceiling paneling in some areas (likely over historic fabric) and the erection of a limited number of partition walls.
Assessment of Integrity:
Location and Setting: Hollyfield Laundry and Cleaners possesses integrity of location and setting. The building is in its original location. The immediate setting of Westheimer Road has changed somewhat since the building’s original construction largely due to commercial encroachment in the 1940s and 1950s which either replaced residences or converted them to commercial use and through the addition of multi-family complexes and other commercial infill in the late 20th century. The corridor’s commercial use is still intact with small-scale businesses in the surrounding area. Additionally, the surrounding early twentieth-century residential neighborhoods, which the laundry was strategically located to serve, are intact.
Design, Materials, and Workmanship: The building possesses integrity of design, materials, and workmanship on both the exterior and interior. Extant exterior features include the façade’s Mission Revival-style features, namely the Mission- shaped parapets and red clay tile overhang; brick, storefront fenestration pattern; steel windows; wood garage doors; exposed CMU walls and metal wall cladding on the side and rear elevations; simple rectangular form and massing; and shallow barrow-vaulted roofs with monitors and skylights. The installation of Perma-stone in the 1940s replaced the façade’s original black and white ceramic tile. This occurred during the period of significance, is considered a historic modification, and remains intact. The loss of some storefronts is mitigated by the fact that two remain intact to convey a sense of the façade’s historic appearance. On the interior, there is a clear division of private vs. public spaces as originally designed. The industrial character of the laundry’s work areas is unchanged, including open floor plans, expressed steel trusses and wood roof structure, exposed concrete-slab floors with gray-water trough, and exposed piping and conduit. Minor modifications include the installation of wood flooring panels that are not permanently attached to the concrete-slab subsurface; the installation of contemporary wall and ceiling paneling in some areas (likely over historic fabric); and the erection of a limited number of partition walls that clearly read as later additions and do not significantly impact the laundry’s historically open plan. Page 11
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Feeling: The building’s combined integrity of location, setting, design, materials, and workmanship provide integrity of feeling. While no longer associated with its original use, the building provides the feeling of an early twentieth-century commercial building scaled to fit within the surrounding residential developments. While the utilitarian interior was designed for efficiency and high-intensity use, the building’s modest size and its Mission Revival-style façade provided a warm and welcoming front that respected the middle-class refinement of its predominantly residential context.
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Statement of Significance
Hollyfield Laundry and Cleaners at 1731 Westheimer Road in Houston, Texas, is nominated to the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion A in the area of Commerce at the local level of significance as an intact example of the purpose-built “power” laundries that were prevalent in Houston in the early twentieth century. The 1930 building and 1939 rear addition were designed by Houston architect Joseph W. Northrop, Jr. The power laundry, in Houston and nationwide, gradually replaced the difficult work of at-home hand laundering and grew out of several important historical trends, including the technological innovations of the Industrial Revolution, the growth of cities and the rise of the middle class, and evolving social and cultural practices such as new expectations of cleanliness and the introduction of modern fabrics and fashions that required specialized laundering methods. Hollyfield Laundry and Cleaners opened at the height of Houston’s power laundry industry, when the highest concentration of laundries existed throughout the city. As their numbers declined locally and nationally after World War II due to the introduction of residential-scale washers and dryers and the proliferation of coin-operated “washeterias,” Hollyfield Laundry and Cleaners was one of the city’s few early twentieth- century laundries to survive into the 1970s. The building is also significant as the only surviving example of a purpose-built laundry in the greater Montrose neighborhood, a hub of early twentieth-century suburban residential development that had gained nearly two dozen laundries by 1940. The period of significance begins in 1930, when the laundry opened, and ends in 1971 which adheres to the NPS 50-year cutoff.
Early Twentieth-Century Suburban Planning in Houston
Houston grew steadily in the second half of the nineteenth century due to ongoing enhancements to the Port of Houston and the addition and expansion of railroads. City leaders invested in the city’s future and established infrastructure including electric service, streetcars, paved streets, and public transportation. The Port of Houston was established in 1841 and steamships plied Buffalo Bayou and unloaded at the foot of Main Street. The railroad arrived by 1860 and by 1922 there were seventeen lines operating in Houston.3 Buffalo Bayou, straightened and deepened, received its first ocean-going vessel in 1876 and this enhancement (coupled with the railroad) propelled the city into a major transportation and shipping center.4 When oil was discovered at Spindletop near Beaumont in 1901, Houston experienced explosive growth due to its established infrastructure and social and cultural amenities; the city absorbed many newcomers over the following two decades as newly chartered oil companies moved their headquarters there.5
In the late nineteenth century, wealthy Houstonians built large mansions along the main avenues south of downtown in the Victorian-era styles that were popular at the time. Sited on large parcels, it was not uncommon for the house, outbuildings, and gardens to occupy an entire city block.6 The city’s population doubled in the first decade of the twentieth century and the residential avenues south of downtown began to experience commercial encroachment.7 Homeowners realized the value of a planned community within a city adamantly opposed to zoning, and true to Houston’s entrepreneurial spirit, developers responded and provided new residential subdivisions west of downtown that were regulated by deed restrictions: Westmoreland (1902), Hyde Park (1905), Courtlandt Place (1906), Avondale (1907) and Montrose (1911).8 These neighborhoods, as well as those that followed in the 1910s and 1920s, adhered to the design principles of the City Beautiful movement, with neat, regular street grids, gracious boulevards, cohesive landscaping, intentional open spaces, and unified
3 “W.T. Carter, Sr. House,” Recorded Texas Historic Landmark (RTHL) nomination prepared by Roger Ciuffo and Anna Mod (2007), 1-2; Douglas L. Weiskopf, Rails Around Houston (Charleston, et al: Arcadia Publishing, 2009), 2. 4 Marilyn M. Sibley, “Houston Ship Channel,” Handbook of Texas Online, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/HH/rhh11.html. 5 Marguerite Johnston, Houston: The Unknown City: 1836-1946 (College Station: Texas A&M Press, 1991), 129-131. 6 W.T. Carter, Sr. House,” Recorded Texas Historic Landmark (RTHL) nomination prepared by Roger Ciuffo and Anna Mod (2007), 1; Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, Houston, Texas, 1885-1951. 7 Morris & Fourmy’s General Directory of the City of Houston, 1910-11. 8 Dorothy Knox Howe Houghton, et al., Houston’s Forgotten Heritage: Landscape, Houses, Interiors 1824-1914 (College Station: Texas A & M University Press, 1991), preface and introduction.
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building designs. Two of the earliest developments, Westmoreland (NRHP, 1994) and Courtlandt Place (NRHP, 1980) were elite “private place” enclaves with formal entrances and limited street access to enhance their exclusivity.9 Others, including Montrose, were more integrated into the city’s street grid but were nevertheless designed to read as harmonious planned residential developments that were separated and protected from commercial activity. (Map 2)
Houston’s early twentieth-century subdivisions were in walking distance of downtown or located on streetcar lines, providing easy access to the business and shopping district but sufficiently distant from its congestion and noise. In the 1910s and 1920s, they evolved into automobile suburbs with unobtrusive detached rear garages for off-street parking. All had their own versions of deed restrictions that acted as a hyper-local zoning code by regulating elements such as setbacks, fencing, and building heights, and by limiting, or forbidding, non-residential uses and the subdivision of lots. Most had built-in expiration dates, such as Montrose and Westmoreland; Courtlandt Place is one of the few with restrictions that applied in perpetuity. While such restrictions protected residents from Houston’s lack of municipal oversight, most included language that excluded non-whites from renting or purchasing property in the neighborhood, a widespread practice in Houston and throughout the South in the Jim Crow era until the practice was abolished by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.10
Development of the Montrose Neighborhood
Montrose, Houston’s first large-scale restricted planned subdivision, was founded in 1911 by John Wiley (“J. W.”) Link (1866-1933).11 Link was a native of Tennessee who moved to West Texas at age 12. A former lawyer and successful lumberman, he arrived in Houston in 1909 after serving as mayor of Orange, Texas. In October 1910, Link formed the Houston Land Corporation with an initial investment of $500,000. The officers, many of whom were notable Houston citizens, were as follows: J.W. Link, president; Jonas Shearn Rice, John Henry Kirby, Richard E. Brooks, William Malone, vice-presidents; H.B. Jackson, Secretary and Treasurer; Clarence M. Malone, assistant secretary; Jack Douglas Staples, assistant sales manager; D.A. Ford, auditor.12 The purpose of the company was to buy, sell, and develop real estate in and around the city of Houston, and their first undertaking was to develop 250 acres of dairy farmland that Link had acquired west of downtown, adjoining the already established Avondale, Courtland, Westmoreland, Bute Addition, and Hyde Park neighborhoods.
The Houston Land Corporation hired the engineering and construction firm of Stone & Webster to design its new neighborhood, which it named the “Montrose Addition” after the Royal Borough of Montrose in Scotland. Street names were inspired by the Scottish Highlands.13 The original development was roughly bounded by Graustark Street to the west, Westheimer Avenue and Pacific Street to the north, Taft to the east, and Richmond Avenue to the south.14 The principal boulevards—Yoakum, Audubon, Lovett, and Montrose—were paved with asphalt macadam with central landscaped medians. The other streets were paved with shell, which was made dustless by the application of a state-of-the-art disintegrated granite gravel surface. All of the streets were finished with uniform curbing and sidewalks. In all, the Houston Land Corporation installed about seven miles of the “finest driveway in the state of Texas” in Montrose.15 The streets were wide and several of the principal streets featured parking lots in anticipation of Houston’s development as an automobile- centric city. Montrose was adorned with about four thousand shade trees, including seven train-car loads of young palm trees. Edward Teas, Sr., who later founded Teas Nursery, helped to plan and landscape the neighborhood. The Houston
9 “Westmoreland Historic District, Houston, Harris County, Texas,” National Register of Historic Places, July 11, 1994, Section 8, pp. 37-38; and “Courtlandt Place Historic District, Houston, Harris County, Texas,” National Register of Historic Places, December 3, 1980, Section 8, pp. 1-2. 10 Barry J. Kaplan, “Race, Income, and Ethnicity: Residential Change in a Houston Community, 1920-1970,” Houston History (Winter 1981): 184- 186. 11 City of Houston Archaeological & Historical Commission, “Audubon Place Historic District,” 2008, http://www.audubonplace.net/hd_audubon_place_12-2-08.pdf. 12 “J.W. Link and Montrose,” Progressive Houston, Vol. III, No. 3 July 1911: 2. 13 Bruce C. Webb, “Evolving Boulevard: A Walk Down Montrose,” Cite (Fall 2000): 29. 14 Houston Land Corporation, “Amended Map of Montrose Addition,” February 1915, https://houstorian.org/maps. 15 “J.W. Link and Montrose,” Progressive Houston, Vol. III, No. 3 July 1911: 2. Page 14
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Land Corporation also laid approximately five miles of sanitary sewers, four miles of water mains and about four miles of gas mains to access the entire neighborhood. The total investment in these infrastructure improvements by July 1911 was $200,000, with an estimated $150,000 remaining expenditure prior to the project’s completion. Montrose was notable in its time for being the “most elaborate undertaking in the way of a residence subdivision ever advanced so rapidly on its own money in the South.”16 In September 1911, Montrose was platted, and the fully outfitted lots were up for sale within a month. In 1912, the Montrose line of the Houston Electric Railway Company began providing streetcar service between Montrose and downtown.17 Thus, Montrose originated as a streetcar suburb but soon evolved into an automobile suburb, as more Houstonians acquired automobiles and detached rear garages became a commonplace feature in the neighborhood.
Montrose’s deed restrictions were similar to those implemented in similar subdivisions, regulating land use, property values, setbacks, and similar features. However, as Bruce Webb points out in his article in Ephemeral Houston, Montrose was not planned exclusively for the wealthy.18 Link provided a hierarchy of lot sizes and locations so that people of more modest means could afford one. Lots on the more modest parcels measured 50x100 feet and sold for $1,700 or 34 cents per square foot.19 Deed restrictions required that lots be for residential use only and that houses cost a minimum of $3,000. However, to encourage others to think in grander terms, Link built a mansion (now known as the Link-Lee House, the administration building for the University of St. Thomas) for himself at the corner of Montrose Boulevard and West Alabama Street at a cost of $60,000 in 1912.20 His plan succeeded: larger mansions were constructed along the primary boulevards of Montrose, Lovett, and Yoakum, while smaller, two-story houses in a variety of early twentieth-century styles and one-story Craftsman bungalows comprised the majority of the subdivision. A few of the early mansions survive and have been converted to commercial use as restaurants or law offices. Some are NRHP listed, including the Link-Lee House (NRHP, 2000; RTHL, 2001), the Roy and Margaret Farrar House (NRHP, 2006), and the Sterling-Berry House (NRHP, 1983).
In the late 1910s, the Houston Land Corporation incorporated the Montrose Annex to the west, which added another nine blocks to the neighborhood and extended a portion of its western boundary to Mulberry Street, two-and-one-half blocks east of the Hollyfield Laundry property. By 1925, the subdivision was largely built out. Expiration of Montrose’s deed restrictions in 1936 paved the way for commercial development, particularly along Westheimer, where the neighborhood soon gained a movie theater (Tower Theatre, 1936; extant), filling stations (e.g., 926 Westheimer, 1936; demolished), and several small businesses such as laundries, bakeries, and groceries.21
By the post-World War II period, the character of the neighborhood had changed, as many of its wealthier residents fled the inner city for newer suburbs and their large homes were subdivided into apartments. The majority of middle-class homes, however, especially those on secondary streets, remained single-family residential. In the last quarter of the twentieth century, most houses on the major boulevards were replaced with commercial strip malls and dense multi-family complexes.22
Winlow Place
Hollyfield Laundry and Cleaners was constructed two-and-a-half blocks west of the Montrose Annex in the Winlow Place addition, a 60-acre section developed in 1924 by the Winlow Place Company as a middle-income subdivision.23 Boundaries
16 Ibid. 17 City of Houston Planning & Development Department, “Historic Preservation Manual: Audubon Place,” https://www.houstontx.gov/planning/HistoricPres/HistoricPreservationManual/historic_districts/audubon_place.html. 18 Webb, “Evolving Boulevard, 29. 19 William F. Stern, “The Lure of the Bungalow,” Cite (Winter 1986): 8. 20 Webb, 29. 21 Ibid. 22 Ibid. 23 “Thanksgiving Home Will Be Opened to Public Here Today,” Houston Post-Dispatch, November 27, 1924; “Corporations Chartered,” Houston Post-Dispatch, August 1, 1923; and “Land Development,” Manufacturers Record, August 9, 1923: 99. Page 15
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of the addition were defined as Westheimer Avenue to the north, Dunlavy Street to the east, W. Alabama Street to the south, and McDuffie Street to the west. In 1925, the Houston Post-Dispatch reported that Winlow Place had “become one of the best developed residential subdivisions in the city, chiefly because of its strategic location and the modern manner in which it has been improved…Every modern convenience has been provided…the improvements include concrete and asphalt paved streets, water, storm and sanitary sewers, electricity and gas.”24 “[B]eautiful, yet inexpensive” houses were attractively designed but modest in scale and features, typically one to two stories in height and designed in the popular architectural revival styles of the period.25 Notable exterior amenities included spacious front yards, tree-lined streets, and paved driveways with detached rear garages. While residential development extended to Westheimer Avenue, as shown on the 1925 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, several small-scale businesses had been established on the thoroughfare by 1930, when Hollyfield Laundry opened. (Maps 8-9) Next door to Hollyfield Laundry was the Jumonville Furniture Company and, to the northeast, at 1627 Westheimer, a Piggly Wiggly grocery store opened in 1931. This pattern of land use continued into the post-World War II period, when the residences on Westheimer were converted for commercial use and more low-rise commercial buildings were erected to cater to the everyday needs of the surrounding residential population. The Winlow Place deed restrictions first expired in 1975 and were immediately reinstated by the Civic Club to continue the requirement of single-family use only and retain the existing setback, height, scale, and massing requirements.26 This has prevented the influx of townhouses in neighborhood, a development pattern observed in neighboring Montrose and in many other inner city Houston neighborhoods where deed restrictions were allowed to lapse.
Greater Montrose Neighborhood
Today, the greater Montrose neighborhood encompasses not only the Montrose subdivision and annex but several other early twentieth-century suburban developments totaling about four square miles, with general boundaries at US Route 59 to the south, Allen Parkway to the north, Bagby Street to the east, and Shepherd Drive to the west. (Map 2) Other neighborhoods included within these boundaries are Westmoreland (1902); the Lockhart, Connor & Barziza Addition (1873); the Bute Addition (1907); Courtlandt Place (1906); Hyde Park (1905); Avondale (1907); Lancaster Place (1918- 23); and Winlow Place (1924), among others. Westmoreland and Courtlandt Place are listed in the National Register of Historic Places as districts, and several homes in both developments are individually listed. Westmoreland, Audubon Place, First Montrose Commons, Courtlandt Place, and Avondale East and West are also City of Houston historic districts.
Following the post-World War II decline of Montrose and adjacent suburban developments in the 1940s and 1950s, the area was transformed by an influx of artists and gay couples into the center of Houston counterculture. By the late 1960s, “Montrose” became the name for the greater area associated with the alternative businesses and residents that had moved in, and Westheimer was its commercial backbone.27 Montrose gained several music venues, grassroots radio stations and papers, thrift stores, antique stores, smoke shops, and gay bars. The bi-annual Westheimer Arts Festival was founded in 1971, and in 1979 the Houston Pride Parade began its annual procession down Westheimer between Bagby Street and Shepherd Drive.28 Montrose gradually lost some of its funkiness following the turn of the twenty-first century, when the festival ended and the pride parade moved downtown. As of 2017, following years of gentrification and redevelopment, the neighborhood’s residential rental rates were the sixth highest in the state.29
24 “Winlow Place Lots to Raise,” Houston Post-Dispatch, January 25, 1925. 25 “Thanksgiving Home Will Be Opened To Public Here Today,” Houston Post-Dispatch, November 27, 1924. 26 Winlow Place Civic Club, “Deed restrictions,” http://www.winlowplace.org/deed-restrictions. 27 John Nova Lomax, “Montrose Is Dead. Long Live Montrose?” Texas Monthly, August 4, 2017. https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-daily- post/montrose-is-dead-long-live-montrose/. 28 Rice Digital Scholarship Archive, “Westheimer Street Festival,” https://scholarship.rice.edu/handle/1911/36519; and Hannah DeRouselle, “Marching for Pride: The History of the Houston Pride Parade,” Houston History Vol 12 No. 3 (Summer 2015): 20. 29 John Nova Lomax, “Montrose Is Dead. Long Live Montrose?” Texas Monthly, August 4, 2017. https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-daily- post/montrose-is-dead-long-live-montrose/. Page 16
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Historical Overview of the Commercial Laundry Industry in the United States
Prior to the Industrial Revolution, laundry was a time-consuming and physically demanding weekly task performed at home by the women of the family or, for those could afford it, by servants. Water was hauled by bucket from wells, rivers, or standpipes, then boiled before it could be used in the washing process. Clothing and linens were soaked in large tubs or cauldrons of scalding water, agitated with poles, and washed using abrasive homemade detergents, then wrung out by hand and hung to dry. Finally, pieces were ironed and starched using heavy, stove-heated flatirons that singed fabrics or burned handlers if not properly used. Generations of inventors sought ways to reduce the time commitment and alleviate the physical burdens of the laundering process by creating new tools for domestic use (the washboard, for instance, was the first washing “machine” invented in 1797) and by patenting labor-saving devices, such as heated drying closets and steam- powered washing machines, that could be adapted to an industrial scale. These technological advances, along with changing views on hygiene and the rise of the middle class, led to a transformation of the laundering process by the turn of the twentieth century.
The concept of sending out one’s laundry to be done outside of the home began in urban areas in the mid-nineteenth century. Laundresses, or washerwomen, who had previously been hired as household servants, began providing remote services, often in their own homes. This arrangement had the benefit of removing the disruption and heat of the weekly chore from one’s home, but new standards of cleanliness and sanitation caused many to question just how clean laundry could be when handled in the presumed-to-be unclean homes of the lower classes.30 Competing with laundresses, who were limited to manual methods and less controlled environments, were early commercial laundries, known as “steam” or “power” laundries for their reliance on steam power and heat.31 Power laundries incorporated the latest technology to expedite and streamline the process, and this industrialization offered an economy of scale that made the service affordable to a large sector of the population, including the average family. Additionally, the commercial laundries billed themselves as the “modern” and “hygienic” option, ensuring the highest level of cleanliness at their premises due to fresh, piped-in water, industrial-type windows that were sealed against the pollution of city streets, and the use of new technologies that relied on the sterility of the machine rather than the vagaries of human workers.32 According to historian Arwen P. Mohun:
the nascent laundry industry benefitted directly from the cultural and physical changes that accompanied industrialization and urbanization….They offered the convenience of assistance in a household process without the difficulties of managing servants; foul mountains of household linen disappeared behind factory doors to emerge fresh, clean, and ironed.33
The inception of the commercial laundry industry coincided with important demographic shifts and new urban lifestyles, which produced a wide variety of customer types. In addition to average families, single men in white-collar jobs, such as clerks, relied on commercial laundry services, which commonly offered “bachelor bundles.”34 The increasing number of apartment dwellers used laundries because they had no room to perform the chore at home. And as leisure travel increased among a widening sector of the population and the expectation of spotless accommodations increased with it, commercial laundries took in the daily mounds of soiled linens and towels from steamships, Pullman cars, and hotels (although some hotels had in-house laundries).35
30 Arwen Mohun, Steam Laundries: Gender, Technology, and Work in the United States and Great Britain, 1880-1940 (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999), 26-29, 42. 31 Mohun, 39 32 Mohun, Steam Laundries, 26-29. 33 Mohun, 41. 34 Ibid. 35 Ibid. Page 17
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Between 1880 and 1910, the number of power laundries grew significantly as technologies improved, urban areas swelled in population, and the concept itself was increasingly normalized. The machinery available for commercial and industrial use was not yet affordable or practical for the average home, and laundries had proven themselves to be a trustworthy, convenient, and affordable alternative to hiring a washerwoman or doing the back-breaking work oneself. The majority of business for commercial laundries during this period consisted of menswear and linens from the hospitality trade. Victorian- era fashions required time-consuming finish work such as heavily starched collars and cuffs, which many wives preferred to send out to professionals. Easy-to-wash fabrics such as cotton were becoming more common and held up well against regular commercial-grade laundering.36 Many laundries during this period also doubled as dyeworks (men’s wool suits, for instance, were redyed rather than washed to revive their appearance) and/or tailors and repairers to provide a one-stop shop for garment care.
Turn-of-the-century power laundries ranged from small, storefront establishments with a few employees to large-scale industrial operations employing hundreds.37 Many offered pick-up and drop-off services via wagon and, later, truck. Most small power laundries were located in leased units on the first floors of commercial buildings in downtown business districts or along suburban commercial strips, either in a multi-unit storefront or in a purpose-built facility. Large-scale operations were located on the outskirts of downtowns or in industrial districts. Some smaller laundries, especially those with limited space, farmed out their washing to industrial laundries and completed the finish work in house. Most laundries, especially the larger ones, were owned and operated by white male entrepreneurs, but this period also saw an increase in the number of Chinese-owned laundries in cities throughout the United States.38 The number of laundries outside of city centers increased due to the advent of electric streetcars, followed by the increased affordability of personal automobiles, and the widespread appeal of quiet suburban living. Neighborhood-based commercial strips gained one if not more small laundries targeting a specific geographic area. In the 1920s, power laundries began to actively pursue the “family laundry” business, i.e., the weekly household laundry, by offering tiered services at different price points (e.g, “wet wash,” in which clothing was washed but not dried) and advertising directly to housewives within their suburban service areas. The number of Chinese-owned laundries declined, and by 1930 the majority of power laundries in the United States were owned by white men with predominantly female employees (both white and African American).
Between 1900 and 1940, dry cleaning as a sub-specialty of the laundry industry evolved from a rare and highly specialized service to an essential one. The use of petrochemical solvents for stain removal had been discovered in France in the mid- nineteenth century, the process was harsh and labor intensive, and most launderers chose other methods.39 In the 1920s and 1930s, however, as fashions changed and women gained access to delicate fabrics such as acetate, rayon, and silk in an array of colors, the demand for dry cleaning skyrocketed. With inventor William Stoddard’s 1924 discovery of mineral spirits as a nonflammable alternative to gasoline (the main dry-cleaning ingredient through the early 1900s), many laundries added dry cleaning to their list of services.40
The operations of a typical early twentieth-century power laundry remained more or less consistent between 1900 and 1950, although machinery and cleaning agents improved and services evolved based on customer demand. A deliveryman picked up dirty laundry from a customer’s home or the customer dropped it off at the laundry’s office. Once a ticket was created for the bundle, an employee known as a “marker” undid the bundles, marked and sorted the items, and sent them to the washroom. “Washers” placed the items into cylindrical washing machines, after which clothing was sent to the dryers and linens to the flatwork ironing department, where employees fed the pieces through heated moving rollers that pressed the
36 Mohun, 42. 37 “Yale Union Laundry Building, Portland, Multnomah County, Oregon,” National Register of Historic Places, 2006, Section 8, pp. 6-9. 38 Joan S. Wang, “Race, Gender, and Laundry Work: The Roles of Chinese Laundrymen and American Women in the United States, 1850-1950,” Journal of American Ethnic History Vol. 24 No.1 (Fall 2004): 58. 39 Mohun, 81; and Mary Ellen Snodgrass, World Clothing and Fashion: An Encyclopedia of History, Culture, and Social Influence (New York: Taylor & Francis, 2014), 201-02. 40 Snodgrass, 201-02. Page 18
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linens, which were then folded. Items that could not go through the flatwork machines, such as shirts, were finished by “pressers,” who ironed them with pressing machines. “Starchers” starched individual pieces when required, and then “checkers” organized the fresh items for packaging and pick-up or delivery.41
The design of purpose-built early twentieth-century commercial laundry buildings (both power laundries and large industrial laundries) was determined by a series of aesthetic and operational factors. Exteriors, particularly in suburban areas, were designed to complement their surroundings and reflected popular stylistic tastes of the period, from eclectic revivals to Art Deco and Moderne. In terms of interior arrangement, single-story facilities were preferable for optimum efficiency, although multi-level laundries with elevators did exist. More critical was the physical separation of the washing process from the drying and finish work and the consecutive movement of goods through each department (from drop-off to packaging and delivery) to avoid cross-contamination.42 Ample daylight and ventilation were provided by large windows and roof skylights or monitors.43 Other essential elements included proper drainage; a reliable water supply; floors sound enough to support machinery and withstand continuous exposure to moisture; fireproof materials; and sanitary, durable interior finishes such as concrete and tile.44
The post-World War II decline of the power laundry was triggered by the widespread availability and affordability of residential electric washing machines and dryers. Manufactured by appliance companies such as Whirlpool and Maytag, these machines became accessible to the average family at retail outlets such as Sears, Roebuck & Company, which also serviced the machines. Thus, as many families gained the space within their suburban homes and the financial means to purchase their own machines, the laundering process finally reentered the domestic sphere. For those who could not afford their own, the coin-operated self-service laundries that proliferated in the 1950s provided an affordable alternative to power laundries.45 In response to these market changes, power laundries were forced to shift into specialty services such as diaper laundering, linens for hotels and restaurants, rug and carpet cleaning, alterations, and dry cleaning, and many others closed.
Commercial Laundries in Houston
The establishment and growth of the commercial laundry industry in Houston reflected the city’s expansion from a nineteenth-century town into a twentieth-century industrial metropolis with a large and geographically widespread residential population. As its population grew and new suburbs were established, Houston gained power laundries of every size, from small shopfronts to factory-scale operations.
In the early 1880s, Houston had two “dyer and scourer” businesses and three Chinese-owned “laundries.”46 All five were located in the downtown business district to serve hotels, restaurants, and the clerks and other white-collar professionals working in the vicinity. By 1900, these numbers had increased to fifteen “dyers, scourers and repairers” and eighteen “laundries,” all located downtown.47 Among the most prominent was the Pantitorium Club at 212 San Jacinto Street (demolished), which advertised as doing “Cleaning, Repairing, Pressing & Dyeing…we will call at your residence every week, Get Your Clothes, Clean, Press, Repair and Return Them.”48
Houston’s population doubled between 1900 and 1910, and several suburban developments were established to address the housing shortage, primarily to the west and southwest of downtown. Several power laundries opened during this decade,
41 Eric Arneson, Encyclopedia of U.S. Labor and Working-Class History – Volume 1 (New York: Routledge, 2007), 779-780. 42 F. J. Rowan, “Laundry Engineering,” Feilden’s Magazine Vol. 7 No. 2 (August 1902): 113. 43 Rowan, “Laundry Engineering”: 107-115. 44 Yale Laundry Building, Section 8, pp. 6. 45 Arneson, Encyclopedia of U.S. Labor and Working-Class History, 11. 46 Morrison & Fourmy’s General Directory of the City of Houston, 1882-83. 47 Morrison & Fourmy’s General Directory of the City of Houston, 1900. 48 Ibid. Page 19
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most of them downtown in leased storefronts or in purpose-built facilities, particularly the larger companies. In 1910, forty- eight businesses were listed in the city directory under “Clothes Cleaners and Pressers,” twenty-four under “Dyers & Scourers” and twelve “Laundries” (with some overlap in the listings).49 Perhaps the largest listed business was Model Laundry, which opened its three-story facility downtown at Prairie and Smith Streets (demolished) in 1900 and had a branch office at 602-06 Prairie Avenue by 1910 (demolished).50 Claiming to be “the largest and finest laundry in the entire South,” Model Laundry had a fleet of twenty-two delivery wagons that provided citywide services in cleaning, dyeing, and pressing described as “Laundering of the Immaculate Kind.”51 In addition to the downtown laundries, a handful of businesses had opened in the residential outskirts, including Armbruster’s Laundry, which moved north to 1402 Houston Avenue from its downtown location on Preston Street (both demolished).52 This outward-moving trend accelerated significantly in the 1910s and 1920s, as the city limits continued to spread. By 1925, Houston had 174 commercial laundries servicing all corners of the city, including Houston Heights to the north, the East End and Harrisburg to the east, Montrose and similar neighborhoods to the west, and the Third Ward to the south.53
In 1930, when Hollyfield Laundry opened for business, Houston was the largest city in Texas with a population of 292,000, and its commercial laundries reached their apex at 268 total businesses per the 1930 city directory, not counting “cash and carry” branch locations for drop-off/pick-up only.54 The laundry business was booming in Houston. Many laundries were still located downtown in leased storefronts or in hotels, but a large percentage had also opened along commercial strips in residential neighborhoods, either in purpose-built laundry facilities or in leased multi-unit storefronts. The Eureka Laundry and Dye Works, for instance, with downtown locations at 610 Travis Street and 611 Milam Street (both demolished), was a large power laundry founded in 1902 and, in those early years, handled about 250 bundles per week. In 1930, the company was averaging 2,000 bundles per day.55 Fannin Cleaners, founded in a “little shop” on Rusk Street in 1923, had expanded into a large modern plant at 3208 Louisiana Street (demolished) plus eleven cash and carry branches throughout the city by 1930.56 The Houston Plant Owners’ Association, a local professional organization for cleaners and dyers, was created in 1925 to help standardize local laundry practices, manage pricing, provide continuing education, and foster cooperation among laundry business owners.57
Although the majority of historic laundry buildings in Houston have been demolished or altered beyond recognition, as discussed in more depth below, a sampling of extant examples illustrates the wide range of architecture associated with the height of the city’s laundry business between 1920 and 1940. There are no extant downtown examples due to the intensive demolition and redevelopment that occurred in the area in the mid- and late twentieth century. Just south of the Pierce elevated (I-45) from downtown, in an area now known as Midtown, is a compromised yet extant one-story multi-unit storefront at 2020 Travis Street, where Fairview Dry Cleaning Company operated in the corner unit in the early 1930s. North of downtown in Houston Heights, the c. 1920s commercial building at 215-23 E. 11th Street is an extant example of a multi-unit storefront, where Economy Cleaners & Hatters occupied one unit between 1930 and 1940 next to a shoe repair, a candy store, and a drug store.58
49 Morrison & Fourmy’s General Directory of the City of Houston, 1910. 50 Model Laundry opened a facility in downtown Galveston in 1913 (NRHP, 1984). 51 “We’ve Done Houston’s Laundering for Nearly a Generation!” Houston Chronicle, April 6, 1916. 52 Morrison & Fourmy’s General Directory of the City of Houston, 1910. 53 Morrison & Fourmy’s General Directory of the City of Houston, 1925. 54 Grace Cynkar, Kristen Brown, Anna Mod, and James Steely, “Draft Multiple Property Documentation Form, Modernist Commercial, Governmental, and Institutional Buildings in Houston, Texas, 1945-1976,” January 2015, 6; Morrison & Fourmy’s Houston City Directory, 1930-31. 55 “They Rush the Duds to the Eureka Suds,” Houston Post-Dispatch, April 21, 1930. 56 “Fannin Cleaners,” Houston Post-Dispatch, November 28, 1930; and “Cleaning Firm Growth Rapid,” Houston Post-Dispatch, July 11, 1930. 57 “Advertising Drive Opened in City By Plant Owners Unit,” Houston Chronicle, July 28, 1930.
58 Morrison & Fourmy’s Houston City Directory, 1930-31. Page 20
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The former Public Laundry building at 1601-21 W. Webster Street is an altered but extant example of a large-scale power laundry constructed in 1928 for $100,000 (Joseph Finger, architect).59 The company moved to this new location on the western edge of downtown from a more centrally located but smaller two-story facility at 1318-20 Congress Street (demolished), and remained in operation on W. Webster until c. 1970s. The building has been converted for multi-family residential use. Hollyfield Laundry and Cleaners, the subject property, is another extant example of a small purpose-built laundry constructed in 1930 in an early twentieth-century suburban neighborhood.
The number of Houston laundries gradually decreased in the 1930s due to the economic fallout of the Great Depression. In 1935, 231 laundries were listed, and businesses regularly advertised lowered prices, special deals, and new services to entice customers. A 1936 advertisement listing twenty laundries, including Hollyfield Laundry, offered a new low-cost “damp wash” service.60 (Figure 4) In 1939, the plant owners’ association, in partnership with thirty laundries (including Hollyfield Laundry), published a full-page advertisement in the Houston Chronicle emphasizing the superior cleaning ability and the economy of using a commercial laundry rather than washing at home. (Figure 5) Indeed, as the nation was emerging from the Depression in the late 1930s, residential electric washing machines and dryers were becoming commercially available for the first time, and many families who could not afford their own machines were opting to save money by doing laundry manually at home. The laundry business continued to worsen after World War II, as more families could afford their own appliances, and price-competitive coin-operated laundries entered the market. In 1949, there were only 89 commercial laundries in Houston, while 78 “self-service” laundries had opened.61 In 1959, when Houston’s population had reached nearly one million, there were 84 laundries and 271 coin-operated laundries listed under “washaterias.”62 The heyday of the power laundry in Houston had come to an end. Those that remained open, such as Hollyfield Laundry, survived by adding dry cleaning and other specialty services such as rug cleaning and climate-controlled storage services for luxury items such as fur coats.
Hollyfield Laundry and Cleaners
In February 1930, local businessman and Texas native Joseph H. Hollyfield (1896-1973) opened Hollyfield Laundry at 1731-33 Westheimer Road in the Winlow Place subdivision. Hollyfield, who lived nearby in his own newly erected middle- class home at 1625 W. Alabama Street, had been in the laundry business for ten years as proprietor of Pearl Laundry (4705 Main Street; demolished) before setting his sights on the expanding suburbs west of downtown. The largely residential east- west thoroughfare of Westheimer Road was slowly gaining pockets of commercial activity, as deed restrictions expired or provided allowances for commercial uses in limited areas. Hollyfield Laundry was one of the street’s handful of businesses, which were clustered in the 1600 and 1700 blocks of Westheimer and included a drug store, A&P grocery, a bakery, a filling station, and a barber shop.63 There were also two other recently opened laundries in the area: Courtesy Cleaners at 1627 Westheimer Road (c. 1929; extant but altered) and Kewpie Cleaners and Dyers at 1634 Westheimer Road (c. 1929; demolished). Fannin Cleaners opened its eleventh “cash and carry” branch at 1435 Westheimer Road in 1930.64
Hollyfield shrewdly placed his new laundry at the heart of a fast-growing and respectable middle-class residential area that comprised his target customer base. The new, one-story building presented a welcoming, pedestrian-friendly façade on Westheimer with its residentially scaled Mission Revival-style features and large plate-glass display windows. The Houston Post-Dispatch praised the design as being “in complete accord with the structural beauty of the community in which it is
59 “New $100,000 Plant for Public Laundry,” Houston Post-Dispatch, May 8, 1927. 60 “One Minute at the Phone…”Houston Chronicle, January 5, 1936. 61 Morrison & Fourmy’s Greater Houston City Directory, 1949. 62 Polk’s Greater Houston City Directory, 1959; and Grace Cynkar, Kristen Brown, Anna Mod, and James Steely, “Draft Multiple Property Documentation Form, Modernist Commercial, Governmental, and Institutional Buildings in Houston, Texas, 1945-1976,” January 2015, 7. 63 Morrison & Fourmy’s Houston City Directory, 1930-31. 64 “Fannin Cleaners,” Houston Post-Dispatch, November 28, 1930. Page 21
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situated, removing all objections to such industrial plants, which have heretofore been well founded.”65 It also noted the laundry’s “strategic location in a densely populated residential section,” up-to-date labor-saving machinery, fleet of nine delivery trucks providing citywide service, and Hollyfield’s dedication to providing the “highest quality of work at a minimum cost to patrons.”66 The building was designed by Houston architect Joseph W. Northrop Jr. and built by local contractor W. J. Goggan. (Figures 1-2)
Although the company offered home delivery and pick-up service, Hollyfield’s primary focus was the lower-priced “cash and carry” service, giving patrons the option to drop off and pick up their “sweet, cool, and clean” bundles in its large and well-lit office area.67 Every aspect of the laundry—its pleasant exterior design and architectural style, approachable scale, interior arrangement, and modern equipment—was intended to appeal to the middle-class residents of the surrounding neighborhoods. Days before the laundry opened, Hollyfield ran a large newspaper advertisement addressed to “Mrs. Housewife,” whose life would be more leisurely and her expenses reduced by taking advantage of Hollyfield Laundry’s family laundry service. (Figure 3)
By 1932, Hollyfield had opened two “cash and carry” branches at 1115 Clay Street and 2625 Main Street, although both were short-lived.68 In the late 1930s, dry cleaning services were added and the building was expanded with a one-story steel- frame rear addition.69 The business advertised briefly as Hollyfield Laundry & Dry Cleaning, then became Hollyfield Laundry and Cleaners by 1940. In the 1940s, the façade was updated with Perma-stone cladding, a popular simulated stone product that complemented the building’s Mission Revival style. The remodel was likely due to maintenance issues related to the original ceramic tile storefront, which was removed.
Hollyfield ran the business until his death on December 25, 1973.70 Soon thereafter, his son, Joseph H. Hollyfield Jr., converted the building into an antiques flea market, which operated for more than forty years before closing in 2017.
Joseph W. Northrop, Jr.
Architect Joseph W. Northrop Jr. (1886-1968) was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, to architect Joseph W. Northrop Sr. and Mary Ogden Northrop. After receiving his architecture degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1910, he was hired at the Boston architectural firm of Cram, Goodhue, and Ferguson, which sent him to Houston in 1911 to supervise construction of the firm’s designs for the Rice Institute (now Rice University). Northrop decided to remain in Houston, beginning an independent architectural practice in 1914 that he maintained through the 1950s. Best known for his suburban residential work, Northrop also designed several notable commercial and institutional buildings in Houston, including First Evangelical Church (1927; NRHP 2006), First Congregational Church (1927; now St. Matthew Lutheran Church), the San Jacinto Trust Company Building (1927–28; demolished), and the Houston Title Guaranty Building (1950). Hollyfield Laundry and Cleaners (1930; 1939) diverged from his typical commissions in scale and building type; no similar projects were found in the firm’s available records. In the early 1940s, Northrop served as chief architect for the Federal Housing Administration in Houston, and in 1942, his son Page Harris Northrop joined the practice, which was renamed Northrop and Northrop.71
65 “Latest Plant Most Modern in Equipment,” Houston Post-Dispatch, February 9, 1930. 66 “New Building Is Attractive City Addition,” Houston Post-Dispatch, February 9, 1930. 67 Ibid. 68 Morrison & Fourmy’s Greater Houston City Directory, 1932-33. 69 “Hollyfield Laundry, steel building, 1733 Westheimer, Winlow Place Addition, $2500,” Houston Chronicle, April 30, 1939. 70 “Local Deaths – Hollyfield,” Houston Chronicle, December 26, 1973.
71 Stephen Fox, “Northrop, Joseph Walter, Jr. (1886–1968),” Handbook of Texas Online, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/northrop- joseph-walter-jr; “Service Scheduled for Rice Architect,” Houston Chronicle, September 28, 1968; and “Father-Son Team Designed New Houston Title Building,” Houston Chronicle, December 3, 1950. Page 22
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Criterion A – Commerce:
Early twentieth-century power laundries represent a unique period in Houston’s commercial history. Between 1900 and 1940, they became an essential everyday service for all but the wealthiest and poorest Houston residents, as well as for businesses such as restaurants and hotels. As the city’s middle-class population increased, so did the number of power laundries: by the early 1930s, there were more than two hundred of them operating in every corner of the city, from downtown to the farthest suburban outskirts. Laundries manifested in a variety of sizes and property types, from short-term leased storefronts to suburban purpose-built laundries to large industrial buildings. After World War II, the local power laundry business declined significantly following the introduction of residential washers and dryers to the mass market and the proliferation of self-service coin-operated laundries.
Today, only a fraction of buildings associated with this history survive or are recognizable as laundries. This loss is attributed to several factors, including the closure of many laundries after World War II, the extensive redevelopment that occurred downtown in the last half of the twentieth century, rising land prices in the inner city, and a cultural disinterest in historic preservation until recent decades. In addition, the modest design of laundry buildings themselves makes them easy to overlook and undervalue.
There is only one known extant building associated with the early days of Houston’s laundry industry, i.e., 1880-1920, when power laundries were on the rise and most were located downtown.72 The two-story commercial building at 912 Prairie Street, known as the Scholibo Building, was constructed in 1880 as an income-producing property for prominent local baker C. F. Scholibo. Troy Laundry, a commercial laundry specializing in hotel linens, leased the building between 1892 and 1906. In 1908, Scholibo subdivided it into two leasable units. The upper floor was rented to Ineeda Laundry as an office and the ground floor to the Theatro Theatre. From 1918 to 1971, it housed the Shoe Market. While the building is notable for its association with the early laundry industry in Houston, it was not purpose-built as a laundry nor does it retain its appearance from that period.73
Houston’s power laundry industry peaked in 1930, when 268 laundries were operating in the city.74 In 1935, there were 231 laundries, and 235 in 1939.75 These totals do not include cash-and-carry branches (drop-off/pick-up locations) that were listed under one business, as these locations were typically small generic storefronts where no laundering activities took place. The businesses listed include all types of laundries operating at the time: 1) small laundries in leased storefronts, 2) small purpose-built laundries, and 3) industrial-scale laundries. To quantify and analyze the number of remaining early twentieth-century laundries, the author surveyed every location listed in the 1925, 1930, and 1935 city directories using Google Street View and cross-referencing the listings with the 1924-50 and 1924-51 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map series to determine how many were extant. The results of this survey informed the following comparative analysis. Today, only thirteen buildings survive with sufficient historic integrity, and all are either multi-unit storefronts or small purpose-built suburban laundries.76 The only extant industrial-scale laundry, Public Laundry at 1601-21 W. Webster Street (1928), has lost historic integrity due to alterations associated with its c. 2000 conversion to multi-family residential. Nine of the thirteen surviving laundries are small spaces in multi-unit storefronts that were not purpose-built as laundries and housed a variety of small businesses over time. Leasing these spaces required a lower financial commitment and greater flexibility than building a facility. There was high tenant turnover, and as a result none of the units previously serving as laundries retain evidence of that historic use. Therefore, these buildings are not directly comparable to purpose-built
72 This conclusion is based on surveys of city directories (1880-1910) and Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps compared to present-day Google Streetview. 73 City of Houston Archaeological & Historical Commission, “Protected Landmark Designation Report: The Scholibo Building,” July 28, 2016, https://www.houstontx.gov/planning/HistoricPres/landmarks/16PL134_912_Prairie_ACTION.pdf. 74 This total is based on listings by business name in the 1930-31 city directory under “Clothes Pressers and Cleaners.” 75 Morrison & Fourmy’s Houston City Directory, 1935. 76 Morrison & Fourmy’s Houston City Directory, 1930-31; Morrison & Fourmy’s Houston City Directory, 1935; Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, 1924-25 and 1924-51 series. Page 23
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laundries. The nine surviving locations are: Avondale Cleaners, 2005 Grant Street; De Laune Cleaners & Dyers, 4430 Canal Street; Delicate Cleaners, 406 Telephone Road; Fashion Cleaners, 1913 Milam Street; Gate Cleaners, 3116 Houston Avenue; Herbert Dry Cleaners, 2803 Polk Avenue; Mandell Cleaners, 3219 Milam Street; Samuel Moore, 2719 Leeland Avenue; and West Gray Cleaners, 1014 W Gray Avenue.
The other four surviving examples, including Hollyfield Laundry and Cleaners, were constructed as laundries between 1925 and 1935:
1) Main Cleaners, 1123 E. 11th Street. This long and narrow one-story commercial building was constructed c. 1927 as a small suburban laundry in the Norhill neighborhood. The laundry closed c. 1953, when the property was advertised for commercial lease. Today, the building serves as a bicycle shop. It is hollow-clay tile construction with an Art Deco-style stucco and tile façade and a flat roof. The two façade openings have been modified. Historic interior features include a concrete-slab floor, exposed wood-frame ceiling structure, and one CMU partition wall. Most of the original plaster has been removed from the perimeter walls to expose the structural tile, and some partition walls have been removed. This building differs from the subject property in its location; small size; lack of roof monitors or skylights; and Art Deco style.
2) Jennings Cleaning and Dyeing Shoppe, 3000 Caroline Street. Proprietor Al Jennings purchased this newly built one-story Spanish Colonial Revival-style commercial building in Midtown for $12,500 in 1928.77 Jennings presumably built out the interior as a laundry following the purchase. The building is hollow-clay tile construction covered in textured stucco. A clay-tile overhang marks the front façade, which is also punctuated by decorative urns along the parapet. The company offered steam laundering and dyeing services, maintained a fleet of delivery trucks, and added dry cleaning services by the mid-1940s. Historic images show that the central flat-headed facade opening was originally arched.78 The interior was renovated as a bar in 2007, and the dry cleaning and dyeing area, where the ceiling had collapsed, was converted into an open-air courtyard.79 Two historic rear one-story sections have been demolished.80 Extant historic interior features include a concrete-slab floor, expressed wood framing, a portion of an original partition wall, and tin ceiling tiles. This building differs from the subject property in its Midtown location; Spanish Colonial Revival style; loss of all original storefronts and windows, including the arched opening at the center of the façade; and loss of the skylight and rear sections.
3) Rossonian Cleaners, 3921 Almeda Road. Owner and proprietor J. H. Wade completed this one-story commercial building in 1928 to accommodate his growing business, which began in the basement of the Rossonian Building in downtown Houston in 1920.81 It is located south of downtown on Almeda Road, a major commercial thoroughfare, with San Antonio and Arkansas Pass (SA & AP) railroad tracks running across the rear of the property. The building was constructed by W. J. Goggan, the same contractor as Hollyfield Laundry and Cleaners, for $21,500, including equipment.82 It is concrete and brick construction with brown face brick and cast-stone trim at the Almeda Road facade. The parapet is adorned with four pointed cast-stone finials, and the three original cast-stone signage plates (“Cleaners-Rossonian-Tailors”) are intact above the façade openings. The original wire-glass skylights on the flat roof are not extant. In 1932, an irregularly shaped one-story stucco-clad addition was erected on the south end of the building.83 The Moderne style of this addition has been compromised due to the removal of a chrome-clad
77 “Jennings Cleaning and Dyeing Plant,” Houston Post-Dispatch, May 27, 1928. 78 “Jennings Cleaning and Dyeing Plant,” Houston Post-Dispatch, May 27, 1928; and “Jennings Cleaners” postcard, c.1930s, houstoricproject.org. 79 “Reconnecting with the Past,” Houston Chronicle, January 26, 2008. 80 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, Houston, Texas, 1924-51 series, Volume 1 Sheet 85; and Jennings Cleaners,” postcard, c. 1930s, flickr.com. 81 “Cleaning Plant for Rossonian Costs $21,500,” Houston Post-Dispatch, March 11, 1928. 82 “Announcing the Opening of Rossonian Cleaners & Tailors,” Houston Post-Dispatch, June 3, 1928; and “Cleaning Plant for Rossonian Costs $21,500,” Houston Post-Dispatch, March 11, 1928. 83 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, Houston, Texas, 1924-51 series, Volume 5 Sheet 577; and “Cleaning Firm on Almeda Road Is Sold for $53,000,” Houston Chronicle, May 7, 1944. Page 24
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canopy, the replacement of the storefront windows, and the installation of incompatible trim at the roofline.84 The glass blocks and black tile at the centered entrance of the 1928 building likely dates to the 1930s as well; a chrome- clad canopy matching the one at the addition was recently removed. The laundry was under new ownership by 1945, and the building continues to serve as a laundry today.85 Rossonian’s original services included steam laundering, dry cleaning, pressing, tailoring, and delivery services, and expanded into climate-controlled fur coat storage in the 1930s. Alterations include the replacement of most storefront windows, the removal of the skylights, the loss of the Moderne-style canopies, and exterior modifications to the 1932 addition. Extant interior features include some plastered partition walls, an arched opening between the 1928 and 1932 buildings, and some wood doors and casings. Non-historic interior features include tile flooring and suspended acoustical-tile ceilings. The building differs from the subject property in its Midtown location; loss of skylights, all windows, and some stylistic features; and blend of historicist and Moderne styles.
4) Hollyfield Laundry and Cleaners, 1731 Westheimer Road. Hollyfield Laundry and Cleaners, the subject property, is the only intact example of an early twentieth-century purpose-built laundry remaining in the greater Montrose neighborhood. As the area’s suburbs were platted and populated between 1900 and 1930, the area gained more laundry businesses to service the growing number of residents. By 1940, there were twenty-one laundries operating in the area, either in leased storefronts or in purpose-built facilities (one outlier, Waugh Dry Cleaners at 2116 Waugh Drive [demolished], was located at the rear of a private residence).86 The majority (fourteen) have been demolished. Of those that are extant, four have been substantially altered and do not retain integrity (Courtesy Cleaners, 1627 Westheimer Road; Richmond Cleaners & Dyers, 905 Richmond Avenue; Monarch Laundry, 2819 Shepherd Drive; and Avondale Cleaners, 309 Fairview Avenue).
In addition to the subject property, the other two extant examples in Montrose are West Gray Cleaners at 1014 W. Gray Avenue and Fannin Laundry/Peerless Laundry at 1435 Westheimer Road. However, these other examples differ from Hollyfield Laundry and Cleaners in their property types and use:
a) West Gray Cleaners, 1014 W. Gray Avenue, was located in a leased space in an eleven-unit storefront that was constructed c. 1932. The laundry was established on this block in the mid-1920s in a building that was destroyed by fire in 1931.87 In 1932, the current building was erected and the laundry leased one of the storefronts until the late 1930s, when it was replaced by a liquor store.88 Thus, West Gray Cleaners was not a purpose-built laundry.
b) Fannin Laundry, 1435 Westheimer Road, opened its eleventh “cash and carry” branch in this c. 1930 commercial building. Fannin’s laundry plant was located at 3208 Louisiana Street (demolished) and its many branches were pick-up/drop-off locations only. In the mid-1930s, it was expanded into a laundry facility by Peerless Laundry, who constructed the rear wing. Peerless remained in business at this location until c. 1960. In the 1960s or early 1970s, the building received a modern “slipcover,” which was removed c. 2010 to restore its c. 1930 appearance.89 The accuracy of the restoration is unknown. Non-historic alterations include painted exterior brick and several resized or infilled openings. Fannin Laundry differs from the subject
84 “Rossonian Cleaners and Laundry,” postcard, c. 1930s, flickr.com. 85 “Rossonian Cleaners Sold for $75,000,” Houston Chronicle, October 26, 1945. 86 Morrison & Fourmy’s Houston City Directory, 1930-31; Morrison & Fourmy’s Houston City Directory, 1935; Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, 1924-25 and 1924-51 series. 87 “Blast and Flames Raze Businesses on West Gray Avenue,” Houston Chronicle, May 8, 1931. 88 Morrison & Fourmy’s Greater Houston City Directory, 1940. 89 “Houston Arts & Crafts Moved to 1435 Westheimer,” Houston Chronicle, March 8, 1976.
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property because it was built as a pick-up/drop-off location only and thus no laundering activities to place in the building originally.
Conclusion
The power laundry industry in the United States is associated with several important historical trends, including industrialization, the rise of the middle class, changing social and cultural norms such as clothing fashions and personal hygiene, and the growth of cities. Hollyfield Laundry and Cleaners represents the power laundry industry as it manifested in Houston in the early twentieth century, when the city’s residential population grew rapidly and laundry became an essential service for all but the poorest and wealthiest residents. Houston’s laundries were initially limited to the downtown business district but were soon ubiquitous, extending into neighborhoods in all corners of the city to provide efficient and convenient service to nearby residents and businesses. The industry changed after World War II, as home washers and dryers became more affordable for the average family, and laundries either closed or pivoted into new specialty services such as dry cleaning, rug cleaning, or coin-operated “washaterias.” The majority of purpose-built laundries associated with this period in Houston’s history have been demolished or altered beyond recognition. Thus, Hollyfield Laundry and Cleaners is historically significant as a rare surviving example within the city, and as the only surviving example in the greater Montrose neighborhood, which was the epicenter of suburban residential development between 1900 and 1930. The property is nominated to the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion A in the area of Commerce at the local level of significance. The period of significance begins in 1930, when the laundry opened, and ends in 1971.
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Rice Digital Scholarship Archive. “Westheimer Street Festival.” https://scholarship.rice.edu/handle/1911/36519.
“Rossonian Cleaners Sold for $75,000.” Houston Chronicle, October 26, 1945. Page 28
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Rowan, F. J. “Laundry Engineering.” Feilden’s Magazine Vol. 7 No. 2 (August 1902): 107-116.
Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, Houston, Texas, 1890, 1896, 1907, 1924-50, and 1924-51 series.
“Service Scheduled for Rice Architect.” Houston Chronicle, September 28, 1968.
Sibley, Marilyn M. “Houston Ship Channel.” Handbook of Texas Online, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/HH/rhh11.html.
Stern, William F. “The Lure of the Bungalow.” Cite (Winter 1986): 8-11.
Snodgrass, Mary Ellen. World Clothing and Fashion: An Encyclopedia of History, Culture, and Social Influence. New York: Taylor & Francis, 2014.
“Supply Laundry Building, Seattle, King County, Washington.” National Register of Historic Places, April 2013.
SWCA Environmental Consultants. “Report of Findings for Westheimer Road between S. Shepherd and Bagby.” Prepared for Gunda Corporation, November 8, 2016.
“Thanksgiving Home Will Be Opened to Public Here Today.” Houston Post-Dispatch, November 27, 1924.
“They Rush the Duds to the Eureka Suds.” Houston Post-Dispatch, April 21, 1930.
Wang, Joan S. “Race, Gender, and Laundry Work: The Roles of Chinese Laundrymen and American Women in the United States, 1850-1950.” Journal of American Ethnic History Vol. 24 No.1 (Fall 2004): 58-99.
“We’ve Done Houston’s Laundering for Nearly a Generation!” Houston Chronicle, April 6, 1916.
Webb, Bruce C. “Evolving Boulevard: A Walk Down Montrose” in Ephemeral City: Cite Looks at Houston. Barrie Scardino, William F. Stern, and Bruce C. Webb, ed. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2003.
Weiskopf, Douglas L. Rails Around Houston. Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 2009.
“Westmoreland Historic District, Houston, Harris County, Texas,” National Register of Historic Places, July 11, 1994.
“Winlow Place Lots to Raise.” Houston Post-Dispatch, January 25, 1925.
“Yale Union Laundry Building, Portland, Multnomah County, Oregon.” National Register of Historic Places, 2006.
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Map 1. Location of nominated property in Houston, Harris County, Texas. Source: Google Earth, accessed November 2020.
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Map 2. This 1920 street map of Houston shows the westward-moving suburban development in the city’s Fourth Ward located west and southwest of downtown. Some of the larger subdivisions are labeled, including Hyde Park and Montrose. The western city limits are marked at far left. Note the starred location of Hollyfield Laundry and Cleaners in the future Winlow Place subdivision, which was developed five years after this map was published. Source: houstorian.files.wordpress.com, accessed January 5, 2021.
Downtown Westheimer Road Houston
S. Shepherd Drive
Richmond Avenue
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Map 3. Hollyfield Laundry and Cleaners, 1731 Westheimer Road. Source: Google Earth, accessed December 15, 2020.
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Map 4. The nominated boundary (shown in red) includes two legal parcels equaling approximately 0.34 acres: TR 1 BLK 1 WINLOW PLACE, 0.1342975 acres (Account # 0542170000001) and LTS 10 & 11 BLK A WINLOW PLACE, 0.2068182 acres (Account # 0542300000010) as recorded in the Harris County Appraisal District, accessed December 15, 2020.
N
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Map 5. Hollyfield Laundry and Cleaners, 1731 Westheimer Road, showing the 1930 building (in green) and the 1939 addition (in pink). Source: Google Earth, accessed November 23, 2020.
1930
1939
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Map 6. Map showing north and west elevations. Source: Google Earth, accessed November 18, 2020.
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Map 7. Map showing south and east elevations. Source: Google Earth, accessed November 18, 2020.
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Map 8. Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, 1925 (Vol. 5, Sheet 536). The red square shows the future location of Hollyfield Laundry and Cleaners (unbuilt). Source: ProQuest
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Map 9. Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, Houston 1924-Feb. 1951 vol. 5, 1924-Feb. 1951, Sheet 536 This map shows the c. 1950 appearance of the laundry, including the 1939 rear addition. Source: ProQuest Digital Sanborn Maps
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Figure 1. A full-page feature about the opening of Hollyfield Laundry, Houston Post-Dispatch, February 9, 1930.
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Figure 2. A photograph of the new Hollyfield Laundry published in the Houston Post-Dispatch, February 9, 1930. The original black and white tile façade was replaced by Perma-stone in the 1940s.
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Figure 3. An advertisement for the newly opened Hollyfield Laundry addresses “Mrs. Housewife.” Houston Post-Dispatch, February 9, 1930.
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Figure 4. A newspaper advertisement for new low-cost “damp wash” services sponsored by several Houston power laundries during the Great Depression. Hollyfield Laundry is among the laundries listed at the bottom of the ad. Houston Chronicle, January 5, 1936.
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Figure 5. This full-page newspaper advertisement published on the last day of the 1930s thanks Houstonians for their business and emphasizes the efficiency and cost-savings of patronizing commercial laundries. Hollyfield Laundry is among the laundries that participated in the ad. Houston Chronicle, December 31, 1939.
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Figure 6: First-floor plan, December 2020. Source: Cisneros Design Studio
WESTHEIMER ROAD
EXIST. FLOOR PLAN 1/16" = 1'- 0"
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Photo 01 (TX_HarrisCounty_HollyfieldLaundryCleaners_0001.jpg) Exterior, north (front) facade, camera facing southwest (November 2020)
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Photo 02 (TX_HarrisCounty_HollyfieldLaundryCleaners_0002.jpg) Exterior, parapet over 1733/west entrance at north facade, camera facing southwest (October 2020)
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Photo 03 (TX_HarrisCounty_HollyfieldLaundryCleaners_0003.jpg) Exterior, 1733/west entrance at north facade, camera facing southeast (October 2020)
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Photo 04 (TX_HarrisCounty_HollyfieldLaundryCleaners_0004.jpg) Exterior, west elevation, camera facing southeast (October 2020)
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Photo 05 (TX_HarrisCounty_HollyfieldLaundryCleaners_0005.jpg) Exterior, west elevation, camera facing southeast (October 2020)
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Photo 06 (TX_HarrisCounty_HollyfieldLaundryCleaners_0006.jpg) Exterior, west elevation, camera facing northeast (October 2020)
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Photo 07 (TX_HarrisCounty_HollyfieldLaundryCleaners_0007.jpg) Exterior, east elevation showing 1939 addition and a portion of the 1930 building (right), camera facing west (October 2020)
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Photo 08 (TX_HarrisCounty_HollyfieldLaundryCleaners_0008.jpg) Exterior, east elevation of 1930 building, camera facing southwest (October 2020)
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Photo 09 (TX_HarrisCounty_HollyfieldLaundryCleaners_0009.jpg) Exterior, east elevation of 1930 building and view of Westheimer Rd., camera facing west (October 2020)
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Photo 10 (TX_HarrisCounty_HollyfieldLaundryCleaners_0010.jpg) Laundry interior (1930 building), camera facing southeast (October 2020)
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Photo 11 (TX_HarrisCounty_HollyfieldLaundryCleaners_0011.jpg) Laundry interior (1930 building), camera facing southwest (October 2020)
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Photo 12 (TX_HarrisCounty_HollyfieldLaundryCleaners_0012.jpg) Ceiling and roof monitor, 1930 building, camera facing west (October 2020)
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Photo 13 (TX_HarrisCounty_HollyfieldLaundryCleaners_0013.jpg) Interior, office, 1930 building, camera facing northwest (October 2020)
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Photo 14 (TX_HarrisCounty_HollyfieldLaundryCleaners_0014.jpg) Interior, office, 1930 building, camera facing south (October 2020)
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Photo 15 (TX_HarrisCounty_HollyfieldLaundryCleaners_0015.jpg) Bathroom, 1930 building, camera facing south (October 2020)
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Photo 16 (TX_HarrisCounty_HollyfieldLaundryCleaners_0016.jpg) Interior, rear laundry wing (1930 building), camera facing north (October 2020)
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Photo 17 (TX_HarrisCounty_HollyfieldLaundryCleaners_0017.jpg) Laundry interior, 1930 building (right) and 1939 addition (left), camera facing west (October 2020)
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Photo 18 (TX_HarrisCounty_HollyfieldLaundryCleaners_0018.jpg) Interior, 1939 addition, camera facing northeast (October 2020)
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Photo 19 (TX_HarrisCounty_HollyfieldLaundryCleaners_0019.jpg) Interior, 1939 addition, camera facing southwest (October 2020)
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Photo 20 (TX_HarrisCounty_HollyfieldLaundryCleaners_0020.jpg) Interior, 1939 addition, camera facing southeast (October 2020)
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