Other Public Buildings

Houston established a fire department in 1838, but it was a volunteer fire brigade until 1895 when paid firefighters were hired. The city built this structure at the corner of Texas and San Jacinto in 1902. It served until the fire department moved to new quarters at Caroline and Preston in 1924. It was at that time that the last three of Houston's fire horses retired to spend the rest of their days at the Houston Zoo.

This card of the Houston Central Library dates from 1946, a relatively new card. The portions of the building with the tile-roof seem to be in the Spanish Renaissance Revival style, popular in Texas from the 1920s to the 1950s (see the University of Texas at Austin campus as a beautiful example). The card is a "linen" card popular from about 1935 to 1950 when the modern "chrome" began to take its place. The card's text reads:

The Houston Central Library is located in the Civic Center where its beautiful architecture is an asset to the community. In addition to the Central Building, there are nine branches located in the city.

The next page considers two of Houston's early bank buildings.

The undivided back fire station card is postmarked 1907. It was published by Souvenir Post Card Co. of N.Y. The library card is a linen "C.T. ART-COLORTONE," Curteich originally distributed by Morse Wholesale of Houston.
This HTML page is copyright ©1998, 1999 Leslie Carl Seiler. All rights reserved. This page was updated 23 May 1999.