Main at Capitol - S

22 Jan 1919: Although posted in 1919, the image dates from before a catastrophic fire on 19 May 1912 destroyed the Temple Building [1.] and the Stowers Building [2.]. 1. 615-621 Main: Temple Building, 4 stories (various offices including Homer Jackson, photographer; Knights of Columbus; dentists and physicians including Peter Scardino; Houston Typographical Union No. 87; Bennett’s Drugs, Charles E. Bennett, proprietor), destroyed 1912; 2. 701-703 Main: Stowers Furniture Store, 7 floors, destroyed 1912 (relocated to a 10 story building at 820 Fannin at Walker in 1913); 705-7 Arthur Lipper, millinery and ladies' suits; 3. 709-711 Main: Mason Building with various stores and offices including Thomas Goggan & Bros. pianos; 713 Main: Charles Pavlovich confectionery; 715 Main Japanese Art Store; and upper floor professional offices of realtors, including (Southern Orchards & Farms) voice coaches, hairdressers, music teachers, physicians, architects; 4. 1320 Main: First Methodist Church, 1910; 5. 820 Main: Bender Hotel, 12 floors, 1909; 6. 806 Main: Carter Building, 17 floors with 6 more added in the 1920's; 7. 708 Main: The Texas Company Building, 10 floors (including offices of Sharp & Hughes, well drilling tool manufacturers and Howard Hughes, oil producer), 1908; 8. 702-704 Main: Adoue Blaine Hardware Co.; upper floors, the Levy Building (professional offices, dentists, architects, lawyers, real estate agents, some offices of the Texas Company from the adjacent building); 9. 614 Main: Capitol Hotel, Richard Rodgers (1867-1922), proprietor (also proprietor of Woods Hotel 410-412 Travis, Standard Hotel 412-420 Milam, Travis Rooming House 211.5 Milam, Windsor rooming house 314.5 Louisiana); a sign for Penny Laundry, Anthony Armbruster, proprietor.

29 May 2015: 1. 705 Main: St. Germain (S. H. Kress Five and Dime department store), 8 floors, 1913 (renovated 1999 to apartments); 2. 711 Main: Capitol Lofts (M. E. Foster Building, Southern Standard Building), 10 floors, 1908 (1980's original facade covered with a glass; curtain wall, renovated 2000); 3. 811 Main: BG Group Place (Main Place), 46 floors, 2008-2011; 4. 917 Main: Kirby Building (Palais Royal), 11 floors, 1926, renov 2004; 5. 1001 McKinney: City National Bank building, 22 floors, 1947-9; 6. 1021 Main: One City Centre (First National Bank), 32 floors, 1961; 7. 914 Main: Commerce Tower, 24 floors, 1929 (converted into condominiums 2003); 8. 806 Main: JW Mariott Houston(Carter Building), 23 floors with the last 6 more added in the 1920's; 9. 712 Main: Gulf Building, 36 floors, 1929; 10. 708 Main: The Great Jones Building (Bankers Mortgage), 10 floors, 1908; 11. 600 Main: JPMorgan Chase Center, 20 floors, 1982.

Postmarked: Jan 22, 1919; Houston, Tex.
Stamp: 2c Carmine George Washington #406

​To: Mrs.Nellie Tripp
448 Harriet St.
Ypsilanti,Mich.

Message: Dear Friend:-
Many thanks for your very nice card received. We have been having very nice weather the past few days but it is raining tonight, we have had a great deal more than our share of rain this winter. Christmas was a lonely day for me as I had nobody with me to liven things up.
Sincerely,
Oscr Heavin
Box 857

With a tidy script in clean black ink, Oscar divulges such intimate feelings about a lonely Christmas nearly a month ago, it might seem Nellie was an old friend. Like many Americans in the early years of the 20th century, they had in common the hobby of exchanging picture postcards with strangers to collect images of America and have brief conversations with pen-pals. Nellie may have visited Houston after they met through postcards, but there seems to be very little else to link the wife of a house painter in Michigan to a typesetter and printer in Houston.

Oscar was at the time living alone in Hotel Houston near courthouse square while his family remained behind in Corpus Christi. He had been moving around a lot in the past few years, from Corpus to Bryan to Houston in search of work. Oscar’s occupation was a family business, his father and brother all were in the trade. They had come from Indiana to Texas and worked in Dallas, San Antonio, Corpus Christi, Bryan, Beeville, Lake Charles, LA, and Houston.

​Oscar had married a Mexican-American with deep connections to Corpus, and through all his various moves she may have been reluctant to move away. After the death of her mother in 1913 and her father by grieving suicide in 1917 it may have been harder still, but the year following the postcard she came to Houston to join her husband. Oscar did not live much longer, dying in 1926 and is buried in Hollywood Cemetery.