Houston City Hall lit up for Christmas (Creative Commons license attribution: photo courtesy Katie Haugland)
The Allen brothers, John and Augustus, Houston’s founders, donated land to the city for a city hall to be located in Market Square. This building was destroyed twice by fire (first in the 1870s and then again in1901), but was rebuilt each time. This city hall was in use from 1841 until 1939. The city government offices were on the second floor and a fish market occupied the first.
Voters approved bond issues for a new civic center ($1.4 million) and a new city hall ($1 million) in 1927.
Will C. Hogg, the developer of the River Oaks area and the son of Texas Governor James Stephen Hogg, chaired the planning commission that recommended a civic center around Hermann Square, a park given to the city by George Hermann, and a city hall to be located on Bagby Street between Walker and McKinney streets. The construction was delayed by the Great Depression. The city applied for a Works Progress Administration (WPA) grant and it was approved. The architectural contract was awarded to Joseph Finger.
Construction of the new city hall began on March 7, 1938. On October 1, a time capsule containing a Bible, the 1937 City Auditor’s report, copies of the city charter, and copies of Houston’s three daily newspapers was placed in the cornerstone. Construction was complete in July 1939. Pay for the workers was 40 cents to $1.85 per hour. Approximately 800,000 man hours were used to complete the job.
The old city hall building was repurposed to a bus terminal which was later destroyed by fire in 1960.
The approximate total cost of the new facility was $1,670,000, 45 percent being covered by the WPA grant.
Closeup of Houston City Hall. The bobcat head sculptures can be seen on either side of the clocks (Creative Commons license attribution: photo courtesy Patrick Farrell)
The city hall building is the Stripped-Classical Moderne style. The design was to symbolize Houston’s progressive future outlook. The exterior of the building is native Texas shell stone. The cut stone panels above the windows on the first floor represent the industries of Houston. Above the tenth floor windows the panels represent the functions of city government. The carved heads of the Texas bobcat are on the top of the building. Above the lobby entrance, which faces the Hermann Square reflecting pool, is a stone sculpture that shows two men taming a wild horse. This symbolizes the struggle of government bringing order out of chaos.
The main entrance doors of the building are grillwork made of cast aluminum. Embedded in the grillwork are medallions of the great law-givers from ancient times to the founding of America. Those include Akhanten, Caesar, Moses, King John, Charlemagne, and Thomas Jefferson.
All the lobbies and halls are filled with marble walls and wainscoting. The doors and wood trim are made of figured gum which is a product of Texas.
Elaborate murals and bronze, marble, and nickel trim decorate the main floor lobby and elevator lobby. The ceiling mural depicts administration, culture, industry, and law. The mural was painted by Daniel MacMorris, a commercial artist from Kansas City. At the center of the mural is a plaster representation of the western hemisphere. The star of Houston is at its center. Surrounding the plaster relief are the signs of the zodiac.
The Houston City Hall building was one of the first completely air-conditioned buildings in the city.
Today Houston’s downtown Civic Center, which includes the George R. Brown Convention Center, the Central (Jesse H. Jones) Public Library, City Hall and the City Hall Annex, Hermann Plaza, Sam Houston Park, Jones Hall, Tranquillity Park, and Wortham Theater, is the center of the local government. The City of Houston employs more than 23,000 people who work in over 500 government buildings.
The Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau Visitor Center is located on City Hall’s ground floor.
The Houston City Hall was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.
