Congress at Travis
27 May 1914: The image precedes the erection of the New Rice Hotel in 1912. 1. 902 Congress: First Floor - Royal Bar, John Callaghan (1872-1943) proprietor, a second generation Irish immigrant / Upper Floors - Hotel Congress; 2. 305-307 Travis: Fox Kuhlman Building, 2 floors, 1862-1866 / Hess A. H. & Co., harnesses, saddles and saddlery hardware [Adolph Henry Hess (1862-1937) and his son Bertram Chestley Hess (1892-1921)] / Morris Rosenthal, clothing / (upper floor) Houston Barber College / 309 Travis: Fox, I. S. & Co., dry goods, Isaac S Fox (1866-1945), proprietor; 3. 311 Travis: Charles Mendelsohn pawn shop, 2 floors, 1892 / 315 Travis: Baker-Meyer Building [Long-time home of Treebeard's Restaurant, permanently closed June 2020] / 317-319 Cafe Sauter, a favorite restaurant of the time [now the site of a popular street mural by Gonzo]; 317 / 319 Travis at corner now parking lot; 4. Travis 710: Bristol Hotel Annex, 9 floors, 1909; 5. Travis 602: Post Building, 4 floors, 1904; 6. Travis 518-20: The Chronicle Building, 10 floors, 1910; 7. Travis at Preston, bounded by Milam and Prairie: The covered arcade included bars, pool rooms, a saddlery, Stude Bakery [president Louise Bertallot Stude (1860-1938) was the daughter-in-law of Henry Stude (1824-1895), whose 223 acre tract along White Oak Bayou was the basis of the Stude Addition and who was the namesake of Studemont and Studewood Streets and Stude Park] and behind the arcade, Woods Hotel at 410-412 Travis, Richard Rodgers, proprietor. The south side (back) of this block housed the offices of many black professionals and businesses, as well as lodgings; 8. 302-318 Travis: Dick Dowling (Richard William Dowling, 1837-1867) Statue, designed by Frank Teich, 1905 (the first publicly financed monument in Houston, moved to Hermann Park in 1958, removed in June 2020 in response to protests of Confederate Monuments; 9. 302-318 Travis: City Market and City Hall, with first-floor market stalls selling poultry, meat, fruits, fish, bread, sewing machines, and on the second floor the city offices of Horace Baldwin Rice, councilmen and other city officers. H. Rice Baldwin, the 33rd mayor of Houston, was the grandson of Horace Baldwin (brother of Charlotte Baldwin Allen, wife of Houston's founder, Augustus Chapman Allen), Houston's 7th mayor. He was also the nephew of William Marsh Rice, as well as the nephew of Elizabeth Baldwin Rice when William Marsh Rice married his brother's sister-in-law.
|
10 March 2005: Photographed from the middle of Travis at Congress toward the south. Municipal government moved from Market Square in 1939, and the vacated building served as a bus station until a fire in 1960 forced its demolition in 1962. The buildings on the left have not changed much since 1914. 1. 305 Travis: Nightly Spirits (Char Bar); 2. 307 Travis: Warren's Inn [Behind these buildings at 900 Preston now rises the 32 floors of the Aris at Market Square, completed in 2017]; 3. Texas 909: Rice Hotel, 18 floors, 1913, with third wing added in 1925 and 18th floor added 1951; 4. Main 1000: Reliant Energy Plaza, 36 floors, 2003; 5. 1200 Travis: HPD Edward A. Thomas Building (Houston Natural Gas Building), 28 floors, 1967 [Cantilevered level shades of the Humble Building are visible, 800 Bell, 44 floors, 1963]; 6. The building with the "Grand Tempietto" structure on the top at Travis 808: Niels Esperson Building, 32 floors, 1927; 7. Travis 600: JP Morgan Tower (Texas Commerce), 75 floors, 1982; 8. Travis 518-20: The Chronicle Building, 10 floors, 1910/1923, demolished 2017 [soon to be replaced by The Texas Tower at 845 Texas, 47 floors, 2018-2021]; 9. 1001 Louisiana: Kinder Morgan Building (Tenneco Building), 33 floors, 1963; 10. 811 Louisiana: Two Shell Plaza, 26 floors, 1972; 11. 1000 Louisiana: Wells Fargo Plaza (Allied Bank Plaza, whose building footprint is an abstracted dollar sign), 71 floors, 1979-1983; 12. 711 Louisiana and 700 Milam: Penzoil Place I and II, 36 floors, 1975 [a tiny sliver of One Shell Plaza is visible between Pennzoil and Calpine at 910 Louisiana, 50 floors, 1971]; 13. 717 Texas: Calpine Center, 34 floors, 2003; 14. 719 Prairie: 710 Preston Garage (Houston Chronicle Garage), 6 Levels, (taken down in 2019 to be replaced by The Preston, a planned 46 story residential structure at 414 Milam to be completed in 2021).
|
|
To: Mrs. Sol Weston
633 - 29th St Newport News VA Postmarked: Houston, Tex, Ter. R. P. O. 27 May 1914 Stamp: 1c Green George Washington #405 Message: Houston - Texas 7. 0.. am May 27 . . 50 miles to go. Feel fine this morning. Love Syd. R. P. O. is an abbreviation for Railway Post Office, indicating that the letter was posted either on a train, or at a special railroad depot mailbox.
Caption: A rare spelling error: “rom” instead of “from.”
|
Sydney Harcourt Weston was in a hurry to reassure his wife Annie that he was okay, and his message was written in a terse and energetic scrawl. His employer, the U. S. Custom House Quartermaster, later the U. S. Army Transport Service, obliged him to travel a great deal in pursuit of his duties, and he had lived in San Francisco, CA, at Manila the Philippine Islands and in New York before Newport News, VA. Since he was within 50 miles of his destination, it is tempting to speculate that he was bound for Galveston, an active port city like Newport News, where perhaps he would embark for home.
Sydney was born October 13, 1862 in Portsmouth, England, and enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1890, discharged in September 1893 and immigrated officially to this country in October 1893 at the age of 31. About 1902 he married Clara Anna G. from Pennsylvania, who was born about 1867; she had been married previously in 1885 and had a child deceased by 1910. Nothing is known at this point about her youth and first marriage. Syd had been married in Portsmouth before immigrating, but nothing is known about that marriage either. He was naturalized about 1918 and lived in New Jersey after that time, first in Newark in 1920, then in Bergen County in 1930. After his captaincy in the military with the Army Transport Service, he worked at States Golf Club in Lyndhurst. The graves of Sydney and Annie have not been located. Sydney Harcourt Weston was in a hurry to reassure his wife Annie that he was okay, and his message was written in a terse and energetic scrawl. His employer, the U. S. Custom House Quartermaster, later the U. S. Army Transport Service, obliged him to travel a great deal in pursuit of his duties, and he had lived in San Francisco, CA, at Manila the Philippine Islands and in New York before Newport News, VA. Since he was within 50 miles of his destination, it is tempting to speculate that he was bound for Galveston, an active port city like Newport News, where perhaps he would embark for home. Sydney was born October 13, 1862 in Portsmouth, England, and enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1890, discharged in September 1893 and immigrated officially to this country in October 1893 at the age of 31. About 1902 he married Clara Anna G. from Pennsylvania, who was born about 1867; she had been married previously in 1885 and had a child deceased by 1910. Nothing is known at this point about her youth and first marriage. Syd had been married in Portsmouth before immigrating, but nothing is known about that marriage either. He was naturalized about 1918 and lived in New Jersey after that time, first in Newark in 1920, then in Bergen County in 1930. After his captaincy in the military with the Army Transport Service, he worked at States Golf Club in Lyndhurst. The graves of Sydney and Annie have not been located. |
Syd Weston - Passport Application Photo
|
Syd Weston - Postcard Signature
|
Syd Weston - Passport Application Signature
|
