Annunciation

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14 March 1929: On the right, Union Station was the center of activity on the west side of Texas Avenue with many trains arriving and departing every day. On the left, Houston's oldest existing church building, Annunciation Church, was first constructed in 1869 and added to by renounced Galveston architect Nicholas Clayton in 1895. 1. 1618 Texas: Annunciation Catholic Church, 1869-1889, tallest building in Houston 1889-1912; 2. 705 Main: Kress Building, east face, 8 floors, 1913; 3. 1518 Texas: Travelers' Inn, Orville D. and Emma Patterson; 4. 1312-20 Texas: The Petroleum Building, originally commissioned by oilman, Joseph S. Cullinan, who retained the penthouse office for himself, 21 floors, 1927; 5. 1100 Texas: Post-Dispatch Building developed by Ross Sterling, founder of Humble Oil and soon-to-be Governor of Texas, to hold the offices of radio station KPRC and The Houston Post-Dispatch newspaper, 22 floors 1926; 6. 1120 Texas; Southwestern Telegraph and Telephone Building (Keystone Building), 10 floors, 1922; 7. 909 Texas: Rice Hotel, 18 floors, 1913; 8. 513-19 Main: Binz Building, 6 floors, 1895; 9. 1311 Texas: Hogan-Allnoch Dry Goods (Edward Joseph Hogan (1861-1947) & sons Cyril Lander Hogan (1896-1967) and Edward Leslie Hogan (1891-1970) / Fred James Allnoch (1872-1945), 4 floors, 1923-2015; 10. 1423 Texas: William Penn Hotel, 10 floors, 1925 (demolished in December 2006); 11. 1521 Texas: Ben Milam Hotel, 10 floors, 1926-1928 (imploded 9 December 2012 to make room for a 7-story apartment building); 12. 501 Crawford: Union Station, depot on the first floor, various rail company offices on other levels, 5 floors, 1911.
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​21 October 2010: 1. 1618 Texas: Annunciation Catholic Church, 1869-1889, renovations 1895; 2. 1520 Texas: The Westin Houston Downtown (Houston World Trade Center Building), 12 floors, 1962; 3. 720 San Jacinto: The Texaco Building, 13 floors, 1915; 4. 711 Louisiana: Pennzoil Place II, 36 floors, 1975 / 700 Milam: Pennzoil Tower, 36 Floors, 1975; 5. 700 Louisiana: TC Energy Center (Bank of America Center, Republic Bank), 56 floors, 1983; 6. 1312-20 Texas: Petroleum Building (Great Southwest Building renovated 2019 to Cambria Hotel, Houston downtown Convention Center), 21 floors, 1927; 7. 600 Travis: JP Morgan Tower (Texas Commerce), 75 floors, 1982; 8. 1100 Texas: Magnolia Hotel (Post-Dispatch Building), 22 floors 1926; 9. 1114 Texas: Hyatt Place Houston/Downtown, 16 floors, 1948-1950; 10. 1120 Texas; Southwestern Telegraph and Telephone Building, Keystone Building (now Keystone Lofts), 10 floors, 1922; 11. 717 Texas: Calpine Center, 34 floors, 2003; 12. 909 Texas: Only the top floor of the Rice Hotel can be discerned here, 18 floors, 1913; 13. 1001 Texas: Binz Building, 13 floors, 1982; 14. 1515 Texas: Ben Milam Hotel, 10 floors, 1926-1928, closed in the 1970’s and never reopened, imploded 9 December 2012 to make room for a 7 floor apartment complex completed in 2016; 15. 501 Crawford: Minute Maid Ballpark, first opened as Enron Field, home of the Houston Astros baseball team, 1996-2000.
To: Miss Billie Buswell
Lumberton
New Jersey
(Burlington Co.)

Postmarked: Mar 14, 1929
Stamp: 1c Deep Green Ben Franklin #552

Message: This view is at the Union Depot where we take the train to go to Bay City & Corpus Christi looking up the centre of the city.
Dad
“Billie” is Wilberta Buswell, the 16 year old daughter of John James Buswell, an insurance agent based in Lumberton, Burlington County, New Jersey. He was described on his Word War I draft registration on September 11, 1918 as short in stature, with a medium build, blue eyes and dark brown hair. His signature on this document is a match for that on the postcard.

The author of the postcard speaks of the depot “where we take the train to go to Bay City and Corpus Christi.” The syntax suggests that he was in the habit of repeated trips south from Houston, which seems to suggest that he was staying in Houston for significant periods of time. These trips south were apparently in connection with his activities as a marine insurance agent. Though he may have made work trips to Houston, and probably other communities, he apparently continued to live in Lumberton, a rural community of less than 1,000 inhabitants east of Philadelphia and south of Trenton.

John James Buswell (born 1876 in Philadelphia) was the son of Herman S. And Mary Buswell. He married Lillian Clayberger (1874) daughter of Benjamin and Nellie Clayberger of Schuylkill County, PA. They had three children: Robert Langsdale Buswell (1904), Jean (1908), and Wilberta (1913). Wilberta married Gared C. L. Barnes and they had two children: Harold (1940) and Joyce Ann (1944).

Lillian Buswell died in 1962 and John James Buswell died in 1964; they are buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Lumberton, Burlington County, NJ, as was Lillian’s father Benjamin Clayberger, who died in 1933. Gared Barnes died in 1993 in Wilmington, Delaware and Wilberta “Billie” Buswell Barnes died in 2013 in Lakewood, New Jersey.