Auditorium - Entrance on Texas

1 November 1911: Other than at outdoor or tented spaces, public crowds in early Houston assembled mostly at church auditoriums, but as the population grew these began to have capacity issues. In 1890 the Sweeney Coomb’s Opera house opened opposite the Court House at 3006-3016 Fannin, but it was primarily a private performance space. In 1895 on the southern outskirts of town developers constructed Houston’s first public auditorium at the northeast corner of Main and McGowen. Later christened The Winnie Davis Auditorium for the daughter of Jefferson Davis, it doubled as a skating rink.

As Houston began to draw big-name entertainers to town, the need for a larger municipal space for multiple cultural events was keenly felt by those in the arts community. Jesse Holman Jones, Houston’s greatest developer in the decades between 1900 and 1940, was named the building chairman for the construction of a new downtown auditorium at the corner of Louisiana and Texas. It opened November 1st 1910 with a seating capacity of 7,000. For many years it served as the civic center of Houston, host to the annual No-Tsu-Oh festival headquarters until that celebration was abandoned at the onset of World War I. The Municipal Band held free Sunday concerts drawing thousands, and Friday night wrestling became a weekly ritual for many. Enrico Caruso filled the auditorium to capacity and windows were opened to expand the audience to those on the street. When the Houston Symphony formed, this was its home, and ballet troupes, opera companies, and Vaudeville shows performed there with large audiences. Babe Ruth spoke there, Judy Garland sang there, and Elvis Presley gyrated in front of thousands in the last years there.

Jesse Jones died in 1956, and his estate, the Houston Endowment Fund, provided for a new hall to replace the aging Auditorium, which was demolished in 1963. Filling the entire block rather than the western 3/5ths occupied by the old building, it was named the Jesse H. Jones Performance Hall in honor of the visionary man who brought it into existence. It was open for performances on October 2nd 1966.

14 May 2019: The view south from the corner of Texas and Louisiana is the heart of the Arts District, and skyscrapers tower over performance venues at Jones Hall, the Wortham Center, and Alley Theatre, all within a block or two. 1. 600 Travis: JP Morgan Tower (Texas Commerce), 75 floors, 1982; 2. 808 Capitol: Bank of America Tower (Capitol Tower), 35 floors, 2015/2019; 3. 615 Louisiana: Jesse H. Jones Hall for the Performing Arts, 1966; 4. 711 Louisiana: Pennzoil Place II, 36 floors, 1975; 700 Milam: Pennzoil Tower, 36 Floors, 1975; 5. 717 Texas: Reflection of the Calpine Center, 34 floors, 2003;
6. 811 Louisiana: Two Shell Plaza, 26 floors, 1972; 7. 1001 Louisiana: Kinder-Morgan Building (Tenneco, Tennessee Gas, El Paso Energy), 33 floors, 1963; 8. 1201 Louisiana, Total Plaza (Entex, United Gas Building), 35 floors, 1971; 9. 801 Louisiana: Welltech Building (700 Rusk), 8 floors, 1979. [See also: Auditorium from Capitol Ave.]

Auditorium: Photo by Schlueter

One of the earliest commercial photographers in Houston was Frank Joseph Schlueter (1874-1972). His parents, Joseph Schopman and Pauline Droste were married 16 September 1873 in Nottulin-Appelhulsen, Wesfalen, Prussia, about 50 km east of the Dutch border. On 19 September 1884 when Frank was 10 and his sister Josephine Frances was 8, Joseph and his children immigrated to Galveston and settled in Austin County west of Houston. Apparently Pauline had died in Germany, or perhaps stayed behind, and once in Texas the family changed their name to Schlueter.

In 1892 in Austin County Josephine met and married Henry Bernard Heiman, son of German immigrant Johann Bernhard Heiman (1819-1891). They moved to Granger, Williamson County, TX where Henry worked as a photographer and they began a family: Pauline (1893), Benjamin (1894), Alfred (1904). Back in Austin County Frank Schlueter had joined his father in the business of bicycles and tent photography about 1891 at the age of 17. Caroline Kellner of New Ulm became his step-mother in 1893 when she married Joseph Schlueter.

Before 1900 Frank struck out on his own, and started a photography business in Temple, Bell County, TX in partnership with Claud Mahler, a recent immigrant from Germany. This was not to last and soon after he was exploring other commercial possibilities. He may have traveled to the Chicago area, but instead of finding a job, he found a wife. In 1905 he married Lois Gertrude Clifford, daughter of farmers Francis Marion Clifford and Martha Jane Hicks, in Porter County, IN near Valparaiso not far from the southern shore of Lake Michigan. In the marriage record he indicates that he was from Jackson, MS, although no record of his working there can be found.

​Returning to Texas, Frank went into business in Houston as Heiman & Schlueter with his brother-in-law Henry Heiman at 303 Polk [in a neighborhood that no longer exists south of Kellum-Noble House in the shadow of Allen Center]. Within a year they would take the business to the 6th Ward at 1807 Decatur near its intersection with Sabine Street. Henry and Josephine Heiman lived in the same block at 1816 Decatur, and in the neighborhood was Henry’s brother, Benjamin Heimann at 1503 Lubbock. Frank and Lois Schlueter took in Lois’s younger brother Charles Clifford (b. 1896) after her father died in 1906.

Henry Heiman left the photography business for a career as a builder, and Frank joined forces with Joseph D. Litterest in the firm of Schlueter & Litterest. The photography business tended to promote changing alliances and the few firms in Houston found themselves part of shifting alliances. Litterest would later pair with another Houston photographer, George Beach. Frank soon found better business opportunities downtown and occupied a series of locations in the central district. His brother-in-law’s business thrived and he and Josephine moved into a nice house at 3907 LaBranch next door to the Heimann Apartments at 1503 Isabella, which may have been a family business of Henry Heimann or his brother Benjamin Heimann. By the year 1923 Shlueter’s studio had settled into quarters at 3617 Main near Winburn a block north of Alabama, an easy commute since his apartment was upstairs.

Frank Schleuter’s business was stable for many years as he photographed for private portrait studio clients, newspapers (apparently free-lance), oil companies to document their oil well operations, and even Rice University for their annuals (1923, perhaps other years). Texas. Frank’s father, Joseph Schlueter, died in 1926 of Malaria Fever at his home in the suburban community of South Houston [the informant on the death certificate was his daughter Josephine Heiman]. The following year his brother-in-law Henry Heiman died, and his divorced nephew, Benjamin John Heiman kept his mother company in their house on LaBranch. Frank’s stepmother Carolina Schlueter had died in 1937 of diabetes [Frank Schlueter was the informant], and she was buried in New Ulm Cemetery in Austin County among her Kellner relatives.

Josephine Schlueter Heiman was killed in a car accident in Phoenix, AZ in 1958, and perhaps at this time Frank and Lois Schlueter joined their nephew Benjamin Heiman at 3907 LaBranch. They had no children of their own, and their nephew may have become a stand-in for their parental attentions. Frank retired from photography in 1964, and set about looking for an archive for his many negatives and images. Most became a part of the publicly accessible collection at the Frank J. Schlueter, Bank of the Southwest Collection, Houston Metropolitan Research Center, Houston.

Lois Schlueter died in 1971 at 83 years of age and Frank died at their home at 3907 LaBranch a little more than a year later at the age of 98. They are buried at Forest Park Cemetery in Houston not far from Henry Heiman. In a sad epilogue, Frank’s nephew, Benjamin John Heiman, who had been so close [and served as informant on the death certificates of both Lois and Frank], was found beaten to death 24 January 1973 in the street in front of Heimann Apartments at 1503 Isabella, adjacent to his home at 3907 LaBranch.