Leeland Apartments
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27 February 1912: Leeland Apartments at 1300 Leeland at Caroline was characteristic of a number of apartment houses of that time and a little later in downtown Houston [The Colonial Flats at 704 Lamar, residence in 1912 of Denton W. Cooley, and see Savoy, Beaconsfield, Rossonian, The Waverly, and Oxford Flats]. Constructed before 1910, there were 9 apartments, and the turnover from year to year was high. In the time period from 1910 – 1915 some of the tenants were: Apartment 1) Martha C. Wead, widow of Charles E.; 2) Samuel Schwartz, attorney based in the Chronicle Building; 3) Sidney S. Russell, a real estate developer and owner of Russell Land Company; 5) from Louisiana, Leon Levy, a shipping clerk at Levy Brothers Dry Goods Company; 7) Churchill Towles, a cotton dealer from Virginia; 8) J. Gibbons Brown, civil engineer; 9) Eugene Denman, deputy chief of the International & Great Northern Railroad.
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6 September 2017: Houston's street art scene is one of the most active in America. Once considered an act of vandalism punishable by fine and threatened imprisonment, public art became elevated to an acceptable form of graffiti, then sought out as an asset to a property. "Space City" by French artist Sébastien Boileau adorning the walls of the former Leeland Apartments is a masterpiece of the art form.
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Postmarked: 27 February 1912 Houston, Tex.
Stamp: 1c Green Ben Franklin #374 To: Kinzea Stone & Hotel Perla de Cuba Havana, Cuba Message: Mighty glad to hear from you and that you are getting along fine. I guess I leave here about March 1st for Ala. for two weeks then home. Sincerely S. T. R. The identity of the author of the card, “S. T. R.” cannot be established, but he seems to be at someone else’s disposal or the vagaries of some market good.
The recipient of the card, Kinzea Stone, was a prosperous merchant from Georgetown, KY, who would have been 60 years old when he received this card. He was beyond question the most outstanding entrepreneur of his city. He was founder of The Old Kentucky Tobacco Company and the Buffalo Springs Distillery, and in 1908 had founded the Lexington Motor Car Company. Real Estate holdings in five states included oil lands in Kansas and phosphate lands in Florida. In 1891 he had won the Kentucky Derby with his horse “Kingman.” His Main Street mansion “Kenston” was one of the most notable homes in a very prosperous central Kentucky small city. Architects from Lexington, Frank L. And Edwin W. Smith, modeled the house after an 11th century English Castle, and the artist who did the fresco work on the tower gave it its name. Constructed of pressed brick trimmed with blue and white stone, the rooms were finished out in hardwood. A carriage drive with a porte cochere entrance was a fitting approach to the house of the town mayor a few years later, 1914-1918. Beause he had been instrumental in providing the first electric lights in his hometown, his home was brightly illuminated by over 100 electric lights, making it a model for the marvel of the day. |
His stay at the grand Hotel Perla de Cuba in 1912 was no doubt related to his landholdings in Cuba which totaled 53,000 acres of prime cotton and sugarcane acreage with harvestable mahogany and cedar forests. The hotel was located in the center of Havana at the corner of Dragones and Amistad adjacent to the iconic El Capitolio, center of government. The Perla de Cuba was expanded in 1923 with addition of a 6-story tower, and under later governments was a popular inn and watering-place. After the Cuban Revolution of 1959 the assets of common use were collected by the State and taken away, and the residents were made owners. Furniture remaining behind was inventoried and charged in installments. The new owners carried out sloppy renovations, knocked down walls and eventually squandered the place. Balconies became unsafe and were removed, and common areas became filled with graffiti and trash. Upper floors were abandoned and vegetation filled the rooms. When hurricane threatened the area, residents were evacuated since the structure was thought to be under threat of collapse from the force of winds. [LINK: https://www.islalocal.com/hotel-perla-de-cuba-de-lujoso-establecimiento-habanero-en-el-corazon-de-la-habana-a-ruinoso-edificio-de-apartamentos-para-familias-cubanas/]
Kinzea and his wife of 34 years, Sallie Belle Hoover, had 3 children: Mamie (born 1881), Andrew Kinzea (1891), and Louise (1902). Kinzea pursued his various business interests as he lived in his Georgetown mansion until his death of Bright's disease in 1925, and his widow remained there as head of the family. Her daughter Mamie died in 1938 at age 57 from liver cancer; her remaining daughter, Louise, married James Edward “Ted” Glass, owner of a Georgetown Confectioners’ shop, and moved away from the family home. Andrew Kinzea Stone had only a single child, Mary Elizabeth Stone, who in 1942 married Junius Sylvanus Greer, son of J. Scott Greer, a Kentucky minister. In WWII Junius was a soldier in the Corps of Engineers, and after training at Ft. Oglethorpe, GA, Junius and Mary Elizabeth lived for a time at Medford, OR. Sallie died in 1945 leaving her son Andrew Kinzea Stone in charge of the home and business concerns. Andrew Kinzea Stone died in 1965, and his daughter and son-in-law, Junius Greer, took on the family responsibilities. Junius Greer died in 1977, leaving his widow and children and her Aunt Louise Glass (herself widowed in 1973 with the death of James Edward Glass), sole descendants of the Stone Family. They took charge of “Kenston” at 406 Main Street, and preserved the family heritage. Louise Stone Glass died in died in 1989, and Mary Elizabeth Stone Greer died in 2000. They are buried in Georgetown Cemetery. |
