1.
National Register of Historic Places
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The National Register of Historic Places is the United States federal governments official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation. The passage of the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966 established the National Register, of the more than one million properties on the National Register,80,000 are listed individually. The remainder are contributing resources within historic districts, each year approximately 30,000 properties are added to the National Register as part of districts or by individual listings. For most of its history the National Register has been administered by the National Park Service and its goals are to help property owners and interest groups, such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation, coordinate, identify, and protect historic sites in the United States. While National Register listings are mostly symbolic, their recognition of significance provides some financial incentive to owners of listed properties, protection of the property is not guaranteed. During the nomination process, the property is evaluated in terms of the four criteria for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, the application of those criteria has been the subject of criticism by academics of history and preservation, as well as the public and politicians. Occasionally, historic sites outside the proper, but associated with the United States are also listed. Properties can be nominated in a variety of forms, including individual properties, historic districts, the Register categorizes general listings into one of five types of properties, district, site, structure, building, or object. National Register Historic Districts are defined geographical areas consisting of contributing and non-contributing properties, some properties are added automatically to the National Register when they become administered by the National Park Service. These include National Historic Landmarks, National Historic Sites, National Historical Parks, National Military Parks/Battlefields, National Memorials, on October 15,1966, the Historic Preservation Act created the National Register of Historic Places and the corresponding State Historic Preservation Offices. Initially, the National Register consisted of the National Historic Landmarks designated before the Registers creation, approval of the act, which was amended in 1980 and 1992, represented the first time the United States had a broad-based historic preservation policy. To administer the newly created National Register of Historic Places, the National Park Service of the U. S. Department of the Interior, hartzog, Jr. established an administrative division named the Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation. Hartzog charged OAHP with creating the National Register program mandated by the 1966 law, ernest Connally was the Offices first director. Within OAHP new divisions were created to deal with the National Register, the first official Keeper of the Register was William J. Murtagh, an architectural historian. During the Registers earliest years in the late 1960s and early 1970s, organization was lax and SHPOs were small, understaffed, and underfunded. A few years later in 1979, the NPS history programs affiliated with both the U. S. National Parks system and the National Register were categorized formally into two Assistant Directorates. Established were the Assistant Directorate for Archeology and Historic Preservation and the Assistant Directorate for Park Historic Preservation, from 1978 until 1981, the main agency for the National Register was the Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service of the United States Department of the Interior. In February 1983, the two assistant directorates were merged to promote efficiency and recognize the interdependency of their programs, jerry L. Rogers was selected to direct this newly merged associate directorate
2.
Houston
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Houston is the most populous city in the state of Texas and the fourth-most populous city in the United States. With a census-estimated 2014 population of 2.239 million within an area of 667 square miles, it also is the largest city in the southern United States and the seat of Harris County. Located in Southeast Texas near the Gulf of Mexico, it is the city of Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land. Houston was founded on August 28,1836, near the banks of Buffalo Bayou and incorporated as a city on June 5,1837. The city was named after former General Sam Houston, who was president of the Republic of Texas and had commanded, the burgeoning port and railroad industry, combined with oil discovery in 1901, has induced continual surges in the citys population. Houstons economy has an industrial base in energy, manufacturing, aeronautics. Leading in health care sectors and building equipment, Houston has more Fortune 500 headquarters within its city limits than any city except for New York City. The Port of Houston ranks first in the United States in international waterborne tonnage handled, the city has a population from various ethnic and religious backgrounds and a large and growing international community. Houston is the most diverse city in Texas and has described as the most diverse in the United States. It is home to cultural institutions and exhibits, which attract more than 7 million visitors a year to the Museum District. Houston has a visual and performing arts scene in the Theater District. In August 1836, two real estate entrepreneurs from New York, Augustus Chapman Allen and John Kirby Allen, purchased 6,642 acres of land along Buffalo Bayou with the intent of founding a city. The Allen brothers decided to name the city after Sam Houston, the general at the Battle of San Jacinto. The great majority of slaves in Texas came with their owners from the slave states. Sizable numbers, however, came through the slave trade. New Orleans was the center of trade in the Deep South. Thousands of enslaved African Americans lived near the city before the Civil War, many of them near the city worked on sugar and cotton plantations, while most of those in the city limits had domestic and artisan jobs. Houston was granted incorporation on June 5,1837, with James S. Holman becoming its first mayor, in the same year, Houston became the county seat of Harrisburg County and the temporary capital of the Republic of Texas
3.
Downtown Houston
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Downtown Houston is Houstons central business district, containing the headquarters of many prominent companies. There is a network of pedestrian tunnels and skywalks connecting the buildings of the district. The tunnel system is home to restaurants, shops and services. What is now Downtown made up almost all of the City of Houston until expansions of the city limits in the early 20th century, Downtown Houston was the original founding point of the city. After the Texas Revolution, two New York real estate promoters, John Kirby Allen and Augustus Chapman Allen, purchased 6,642 acres of land from Thomas F. L, parrot and his wife, Elizabeth, for $9,428. The Allen brothers first landed in the area where the White Oak Bayou and Buffalo Bayou meet, gail Borden, Jr. a city planner, laid out wide streets for the town. The city was granted incorporation by the Texas legislature on June 5,1837, Houston was the temporary capital of Texas. In 1840, the town was divided into four wards, each with different functions in the community, by 1906 what is now Downtown was divided among six wards. The wards are no longer political divisions, but their names are used to refer to certain areas. Houston became a choice, as only the most powerful storms were able to reach the city. The second came a year later with the 1901 discovery of oil at spindletop, shipping and oil industries began flocking to east Texas, many settling in Houston. From that point forward the area grew substantially, as many skyscrapers were constructed, in the 1980s, however, economic recession canceled some projects and caused others to be scaled back, such as the Bank of the Southwest Tower. Ralph Bivins of the Houston Chronicle wrote that Fox said that area was a neighborhood of Victorian-era homes. Bivins said that the construction of Union Station, which occurred around 1910, hotels opened in the area to service travelers. Afterwards, according to Bivins, the area began a downward slide toward the skid row of the 1990s. Passenger trains stopped going to Union Station in 1974, the construction of Interstate 45 in the 1950s separated portions of the historic Third Ward from the rest of the Third Ward and brought those portions into Downtown. Beginning in the 1960s the development of the 610 Loop caused the focus of the Houston area to move away from Downtown Houston, in the mid-1980s, the bank savings and loan crisis forced many tenants in Downtown Houston buildings to retrench, and some tenants went out of business. Barna said that this development further caused Downtown Houston to decline, the Gulf Hotel fire occurred in 1943
4.
Fourth Ward, Houston
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Fourth Ward is one of the historic six wards of Houston, Texas, United States. The Fourth Ward is located inside the 610 Loop directly west of, the Fourth Ward is the site of Freedmens Town, which was a post-U. S. The Fourth Ward was established as one of four wards by the City of Houston in 1839, by 1906 it included much of what is, as of 2008, Downtown and Neartown, at that point the city stopped using the ward system. The area was the site of Freedmans Town, composed of recently freed slaves, the first freed slaves departed the Brazos River cotton plantations in 1866 and entered Houston via San Felipe Road. The slaves settled on the Buffalo Bayous southern edge, constructing small shanties as houses, brush arbors along the bayou and borrowed churches were used as houses of worship. Several more ex-slaves leaving plantations arrived in Freedmens Town, one brush arbor ultimately became the Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, the church where Jack Yates served as pastor. Yates and his son, Rutherford Yates, became major community leaders in the days of the Fourth Ward. The neighborhood became the center of Houstons African-American community in the late 19th century, the settlers of Freedmens Town paved the streets with bricks that they hand-made themselves. Yates, Smith, and Ned P. Pullum were three of the major Fourth Ward area ministers, the residents provided their own services and utilities. Residents included blacksmiths, brickmakers, doctors, haberdashers, lawyers, from 1905 through the 1940s, the Freedmans Town area included what was Houstons largest baseball venue through 1927, West End Park. It was home to the citys Minor League baseball team, the Houston Buffaloes, at the turn of the century, black ministers established businesses and churches and remained as community leaders. Italian Americans moved into the Fourth Ward, including Freedmens Town, the Italian Americans opened small businesses and, over a period of time, acquired more and more Fourth Ward property. Many had extended credit to customers, and seized property from the customers after they failed to pay off their debts. Their descendants, as of the year 2000, continued to be the owners of many residences in the Fourth Ward, as more and more families moved in, the neighborhood increasingly became crowded. By the 1920s and 1930s the population density of Freedmens Town was almost six times that of the average of the entire City of Houston, in the 1920s the Third Ward surpassed the Fourth Ward as the center of Houstons African-American community. The Fourth Ward lost prominence due to its inability to expand geographically, the Allen Parkway Village public housing complex opened in the 1940s. Located on the side of the Fourth Ward, it originally was an all-White development. The freeway also severed the connection with Downtown itself
5.
Christianity in Houston
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Christianity is the most prevalently practiced religion in Houston. In 2012 Kate Shellnutt of the Houston Chronicle described Houston as a heavily Christian city, multiple Christian denominations originating from various countries are practiced in the city. Lakewood Church in Houston is the largest church in the United States, in 2010 it had 44,800 weekly attendees, while in 2000 it had 11,000 weekly attendees. According to the list, Houston and Dallas were tied as the second most popular city for megachurches, the citys Roman Catholic diocese is the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston. The chancery of the archdiocese is located in Downtown Houston, the archdioceses original cathedral church is St. Mary Cathedral Basilica in Galveston with a co-cathedral, the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, located in Downtown Houston. The first Catholic church in Houston, St. Vincents Church, the citys first black Catholic church was St. Nicholas, located in the Third Ward. In 1910 there were no Mexican Catholic churches in Houston, some Mexicans were excluded from attending Anglo Catholic churches. Mexicans who did attend found themselves discriminated against, in 1911 the Roman Catholic Diocese of Galveston brought the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, a series of priests intended to minister to the Mexican population of Houston. In 1912 Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church, the first Mexican Catholic church, due to an increase in demand in Catholic services, oblates established missions in various Mexican-American neighborhoods. The Roman Catholic church established Our Lady of Guadalupe so that people accustomed to segregation of races would not be offended by the presence of Mexican people in their churches. The second Mexican Catholic church, Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church and it originated as an oblate mission in Magnolia Park, on the second floor of the residence of Emilio Aranda. A permanent two-story building, funded by the community, opened in 1926, in the 1920s a group of Louisiana Creole people attended the Hispanic Our Lady of Guadalupe Church because OLG was the closest church to the Frenchtown area of the Fifth Ward. The Our Mother of Mercy Catholic Church in the Fifth Ward, the number of African-American Catholics in Houston increased after the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 affected rural areas in the Southern United States. Most of them moved to the Fifth Ward, in 1972 the Catholic church leaders and lay Hispanics in Houston participated in the Encuentro Hispano de Pastoral. The first wave of Vietnamese immigrants to Houston, occurring after the end of the Vietnam War, was mostly Catholic. Vietnamese Catholic churches in the Houston area today include Christ Incarnate Word Parish, Holy Rosary Parish, Our Lady of Lavang, Our Lady of Lourdes, and Vietnamese Martyr. On August 8,2008, a bus with Vietnamese Catholics from the Houston area was traveling to a Missouri festival to honor the Virgin Mary, as of 2008 Our Lady of the Cedars Maronite Catholic Church is Houstons only Maronite Church. That year, Christine Dow, a spokesperson for the church, stated there were about 500 families who were members
6.
National Park Service
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It was created on August 25,1916, by Congress through the National Park Service Organic Act and is an agency of the United States Department of the Interior. As of 2014, the NPS employs 21,651 employees who oversee 417 units, the National Park Service celebrated its centennial in 2016. National parks and national monuments in the United States were originally individually managed under the auspices of the Department of the Interior, the movement for an independent agency to oversee these federal lands was spearheaded by business magnate and conservationist Stephen Mather, as well as J. Horace McFarland. With the help of journalist Robert Sterling Yard, Mather ran a publicity campaign for the Department of the Interior and they wrote numerous articles that praised the scenic and historic qualities of the parks and their possibilities for educational, inspirational, and recreational benefits. This campaign resulted in the creation of a National Park Service, Mather became the first director of the newly formed NPS. On March 3,1933, President Herbert Hoover signed the Reorganization Act of 1933, the act would allow the President to reorganize the executive branch of the United States government. It wasnt until later that summer when the new President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President Roosevelt agreed and issued two Executive orders to make it happen. In 1951, Conrad Wirth became director of the National Park Service, the demand for parks after the end of the World War II had left the parks overburdened with demands that could not be met. In 1952, with the support of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, he began Mission 66, New parks were added to preserve unique resources and existing park facilities were upgraded and expanded. In 1966, as the Park Service turned 50 years old, emphasis began to turn from just saving great and wonderful scenery, Director George Hartzog began the process with the creation of the National Lakeshores and then National Recreation Areas. Since its inception in 1916, the National Park Service has managed each of the United States national parks, Yellowstone National Park was the first national park in the United States. In 1872, there was no government to manage it. Yosemite National Park began as a park, the land for the park was donated by the federal government to the state of California in 1864 for perpetual conservation. Yosemite was later returned to federal ownership, at first, each national park was managed independently, with varying degrees of success. In Yellowstone, the staff was replaced by the U. S. Army in 1886. Due to the irregularities in managing these national treasures, Stephen Mather petitioned the government to improve the situation. In response, Secretary of the Interior Franklin K. Lane challenged him to lobby for creating a new agency, Mather was successful with the ratification of the National Park Service Organic Act in 1916. Later, the agency was given authority over other protected areas, the National Park System includes all properties managed by the National Park Service
7.
Houston Theater District
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More than two million people visit the Houston Theater District annually. Houston is recognized as an important city for contemporary visual arts, the Houston Grand Opera is the only opera company in the U. S. to win a Grammy, a Tony, and an Emmy. In 2007, Da Camera of Houston was awarded the CMAcclaim Award from Chamber Music America, the Alley Theatre, founded in 1947, is Houstons oldest professional theatre company. The Alley is the theatre in Texas to win the Tony Award for best Regional Theatre. The Alley is the third oldest continually operating theatre in the United States, Alley Theatre Hubbard Stage Neuhaus Stage Hobby Center for the Performing Arts Sarofim Hall Zilkha Hall Jesse H. Early venues in the district were the Sam Houston Coliseum and the Houston Music Hall, the district is served by METRORail light rail service at Theater District Station. Houston Theater District Alley Theatre Da Camera of Houston Theatre Port
8.
Main Street Market Square Historic District
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Main Street Market Square Historic District is a historic district in Houston that includes the Market Square Park. It includes buildings nearby, as well as the square itself and it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. The Main Street Market Square District has irregular boundaries, the district includes all of the blocks between Travis and Main from Texas Street to the northern boundary of University of Houstown-Downtown. From the southern edge of Market Square at Preston Street, it all of the blocks northward until Buffalo Bayou. It includes three and a half blocks between Main and Fannin Streets, running south from Franklin Street, a wedge-shaped, partial block at Milam falls within the district, as well as a partial block east of Main Street at the base of the viaduct. The University of Houston–Downtown is a state university, located within the Main Street Market Square Historic District. Founded in 1974, it is one of four separate and distinct institutions in the University of Houston System, UHD has an enrollment of 12,900 students—making it the 13th largest public university in Texas and the second-largest university in the Houston area. One of the anchors of the district is Market Square Park, so-named because this site previously hosted four Houston City Halls and City Markets. Adjacent to the park are three structures, the Fox-Kuhlman Building at 305-307 Travis, the Baker-Meyer Building at 315 Travis. Like the Kennedy Bakery Building, the property at 214 Travis had been owned by Irish-born baker and he started a building there in 1860. WL Foley Dry Goods commissioned Eugene Heiner to enlarge the structure in 1889, across the street at 201 Travis is the Houston National Bank, once owned by Ross S. Sterling. Houston Ice and Brewing Company built the Magnolia Brewery Building at 110 Milam, Eugene Heiner designed two other buildings in the district, the 1882 Henry Brashear Building at 910 Prairie, and the Sweeney and Coombs Building at 310 Main. National Register of Historic Places listings in Harris County, Texas
9.
Houston Independent School District
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The Houston Independent School District is the largest public school system in Texas, and the seventh-largest in the United States. Houston ISD serves as a community school district for most of the city of Houston and several nearby, like most districts in Texas it is independent of the city of Houston and all other municipal and county jurisdictions. The district has its headquarters in the Hattie Mae White Educational Support Center in Houston, in 2016, the school district was rated met standards by the Texas Education Agency. The Brunner Independent School District merged into Houston schools in 1913-1914, Houston ISD was established in the 1920s, after the Texas Legislature voted to separate school and municipal governments. Houston ISD replaced the Harrisburg School District, in the 1920s, at the time Edison Oberholtzer was superintendent, Hubert L. Mills, the business manager of the district, had immense political power in HISD. He had been in the employment of the district over one decade before Oberholtzer started, by the 1930s the two men were in a power struggle. The number of students in schools in Houston increased from 5,500 in 1888 to over 8,850 in 1927. There were 8,293 students in Houstons schools for students in the 1924-1925 school year. The original secondary school for blacks, was Colored High School, at the time all three secondary schools had junior high and senior high levels. There were 12,217 students in the schools in the 1929-1930 school year. William Henry Kellar, author of Make Haste Slowly, Moderates, Conservatives, Houston ISD absorbed portions of the White Oak Independent School District in 1937 and portions of the Addicks Independent School District after its dissolution. In the fall of 196012 black students were admitted to HISD schools previously reserved for whites, the racial integration efforts in HISD, beginning in 1960, were characterized by a lack of violence and turmoil as business leaders sought not to cause disruption. Prior to 1960 HISD was the largest racially segregated system in the United States. During the 1960s, HISDs school board instituted a phase-in with each subsequent grade being integrated, local African-American leaders believed the pace was too slow, and William Lawson, a youth minister, asked Wheatley students to boycott school. Five days afterwards 10% of Wheatley students attended classes, in 1970 a federal judge asked the district to speed the integration process. Simultaneously Mexican Americans were being discriminated against when they were being labeled as whites and this kept both Mexican Americans and African Americans away from Anglos while satisfying integration requirements set forth by the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education court case decision. Many Mexican Americans took their children out of the schools and put them in huelga. On August 31,1970 and organized by the Mexican-American Education Council and this action lasted approximately three weeks, during which up to 75% of the student bodies of some high schools participated in the boycotts
10.
Houston Community College
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Houston Community College, also known as Houston Community College System is a community college system that operates community colleges in Houston, Missouri City, Katy, and Stafford in Texas. It is notable for actively recruiting internationally and for the number of international students enrolled. Its open enrollment policies, which do not require proficiency in English, are backed by a full-time 18-month English proficiency program, in 1971, the district founded HCCS after HJCs and HCNs evolutions into the University of Houston and Texas Southern University respectively. In its early days, HCCS once used HISD school campuses for teaching facilities with classes during evenings, around 1997, HCCS began to transfer operations to community college district-operated campuses throughout the HCCS service area. Jim Murphy, a member of the Texas House of Representatives from District 133 in Houston, was a HCCD trustee for two terms from 1997 until 2006, HCC operates its own police department. They may make an arrest pursuant to a warrant anywhere in Texas, the HCC Police Department is divided into six divisions, Administrative, Criminal Investigations, Patrol, Bike Patrol, Training, Communications. HCCS operates Houston Community College Television, aired on Comcast Channel 19, TV Max Channel 97, Phonoscope Channel 77 and Cebridge Channel 20. Content is also streamed over the internet, the studio complex, which has one large studio unit, five editing suites, and a digital master control system, is located at the HCC District Campus. Houston Academy for International Studies of Houston ISD opened on HCCs Central Campus in Fall 2006, willie Lee Gay Hall Coleman College of Health Sciences Codwell Hall Campus Northline Campus The HCC Northline Campus is the site of HISDs North Houston Early College High School. Pinemont Campus Alief Campus The Alief Campus is the site of Alief ISDs Alief Early College High School, Alief Continuing Education Center Katy Campus Spring Branch Campus Southeast College is home to two separate campuses in different parts of the HCC Southeast service area. The Felix Fraga Academic Campus is located a mile and a quarter east of Downtown Houston at 301 N. Drennan St. Fraga served as an HISD trustee, today he is the Vice President of External Affairs for the Neighborhood Centers, Inc. The Felix Fraga Campus hosts classes to over 1,500 students every semester and its flagship offerings include Maritime Logistics, Pre-Engineering, and other STEM classes. Most core courses are also available, in partnership with HISD, the Felix Fraga Campus is also the host location of HISDs East Early College High School. The country of Qatar operates an area called Education City and its purpose is to bring U. S. universities to the Middle East. Houston Community College ran a satellite campus in Education City, however, as of March 2016, HCC “is massively scaling back operations, ” according to Gulf News Journal. Over a five-year period, Qatar’s government paid HCC approximately $30.5 million to subsidize the Education City campus, in a news interview, the HCC Board of Trustees Treasurer said he did not support continuing the campus. “We’re a community college to educate kids in our district, ” he said, when HCC first sent teachers to its Qatar campus, the Qatari government made some of them return back to the United States because they were Jewish. Kim Su Tran La, founder of the restaurant chain Kim Sơn, HCCS Homepage HCCS Libraries TSPR Houston Community College System - Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts
11.
Midtown, Houston
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Midtown is a district southwest of Downtown Houston, bordered by Neartown, Interstate 69/U. S. Around 1906 what is now Midtown was divided between the Third Ward and Fourth Ward, before the 1950s what is now Midtown was a popular residential district. Increasingly, commercial development lead homeowners to leave for neighborhoods they considered less busy, the area became a group of small apartment complexes, low-rise commercial buildings, and older houses. According to a City of Houston report, the remaining churches, in the 1970s, Midtown became home to Little Saigon, a neighborhood of Vietnamese and Vietnamese Americans, who pioneered the redevelopment of Midtown Houston. During the 1980s, Travis and Milam Streets were viewed as an image of 1970s era Saigon. The Vietnamese areas were established around Milam Street, Webster Street, Fannin Street, by 1991 this Little Saigon had Vietnamese restaurants, hair salons, car shops, and travel agencies. Mimi Swartz of Texas Monthly stated in 1991 that Little Saigon is a place to begin easing into a new country, on June 24,1994 Isabella Court at 3909-3917 South Main Street received listing in the National Register of Historic Places. The City of Houston established the Midtown Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone in 1995, the establishment of the TIRZ lead to the opening of upper income townhomes and apartment complexes in western Midtown and the area along Elizabeth Baldwin Park. Between 1990 and 2000 the area within the Midtown Superneighborhood saw the increase from 3,070 to 5,311. The increase by 2,241 people was 73% of the 1990 population, during that period about 2,200 multi-family units opened, particularly along Louisiana Street and West Gray Street. Since the total multi-family acreage remained at a number, the population increase also increased the density of the area. During the 1990s commercial uses increased, particularly along Main Street, in 1999 the 76th Texas Legislature created the Midtown Management District. In 2009 Houston City Council approved the expansion of the Midtown TIRZ by 8 acres, the new territory includes the Asia House, the Buffalo Soldiers Museum and the Museum of African-American culture. In 2014 the ranking website Niche stated that Midtown was the neighborhood for millennial people. In 2010 Denny Lee of The New York Times said that Midtown, by 2012 many new bars, retail operations, and restaurants had opened in Midtown. Ed Page, a broker, said in 2012 that Midtown has not yet seen any significant new retail. As of 2010 five flower shops are located along Fannin in a section of Midtown, one decade before 2010 there were over one dozen flower shops in that area. In 2003 the flower shop owners were mostly Asian, the shops, along four city blocks, were centered on Rosedale Street
12.
Houston Public Library
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Houston Public Library is the public library system serving Houston, Texas, United States. The Houston Public Library system traces its founding to the creation of the Houston Lyceum in 1854, the lyceum was preceded by a debating society, a special-interest mechanics lyceum, and a circulating library. The lyceums library eventually split into an institution at the end of the 19th century. In 1892, William Marsh Rice, a Houston businessman and philanthropist who later chartered Rice University, the facility opened in 1895 and obtained its own building in 1904 with financial assistance from Andrew Carnegie. Julia Ideson was named its first librarian, the building constructed as Houstons Central Library in 1926 was later named in her honor, the name was changed to Houston Public Library in 1921. The Colored Carnegie Library opened in 1913 and became a part of HPL in 1921, the library system racially desegregated in 1953. In June 1953, Mayor of Houston Roy Hofheinz told the HPL board that library facilities should no longer be segregated, on August 21,1953, library facilities for high school students and adults were desegregated – without public announcement to the black community. On July 31,1961, the Carnegie colored branch closed, the library facility required extensive repairs and it was in the path of the Clay Avenue extension project. The branch, auctioned in February 1962 and shortly afterward demolished except for the cornerstone, was replaced by the W. L. D. Johnson Library in Sunnyside, Central Library consists of the Julia Ideson Building and the Jesse H. Jones Building, constructed in 1976. The HPL administrative offices were moved out of the Jones Building, freeing 12,600 square feet of space. Lisa Gray, of the Houston Chronicle, said the renovation made the Jones Building less of a public space devoted to reading, the offices moved to the Marston Building. Additions in the 2000s include McGovern-Stella Link Neighborhood Library, HPL Express Southwest, a new building for Looscan Neighborhood Library opened in 2007, replacing a 1956 structure. The Jones Building closed for renovations in 2006 and reopened in 2008 and that same year, the Houston Press heralded the project as Houstons best renovation in its annual awards. In 2010, due to a shortfall, the library system reduced its hours. During the same year the system put its decades-old city directories online, during the Jones Building remodeling the HPL administrative offices moved to the 22, 000-square-foot Marston Building in Neartown Houston. The City of Houston spent $1.3 million to renovate the Marston Building to accommodate HPL staff, prior to the remodeling, the HPL administrative offices were located in the Jones Building. This addition houses the Houston Metropolitan Research Center which is the center of the Houston Public Library System. The Marston Building was sold in 2012 by the City of Houston, in addition to the Central Library and Clayton Library, there are 35 neighborhood libraries, including four regional libraries, all located within the city of Houston
