Saved on the Bayou: The Story of Houston Preservation, A 4-Part Video Series){kind=link}
Building of the Month
Scientific Barbershop
4610 Market Street
Houston, TX 77020
The Scientific Barbershop staff members
The Scientific Barbershop
The name conjures images of a 1950s-style sci-fi movie, but Scientific Barbershop is an elegantly old-fashioned, gentleman’s hair emporium specializing in the “science” of barbering. Founded in 1944 in Houston’s Fifth Ward and established at 4610 Market Street since 1949, Scientific Barbershop was the enterprise of a forward-thinking woman, barber and entrepreneur Willia “Bill” Glenn Scott. Scott and her sister, Nannie Glenn, were the first female barbers in the Fifth Ward. Glenn was also an instructor at Tyler Barber College in Houston, located on Dowling Street, which produced the majority of African-American barbers in the 1930s and 1940s. Scott attended Prairie View A & M and worked for Tyler Barber College’s owner, H. P. Morgan, for whom she traveled across Texas opening barber colleges. At Scientific Barbershop, Scott employed both male and female barbers. The shop remains in her family and is owned and operated by her daughter, Bernadette Presley. Read more....
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- Saved
- Threatened
- Lost
As of: May, 2010
Farnsworth and Chambers Building (AKA Gragg Building)
2999 South Wayside Drive
Designed by noted architects MacKie and Kamrath and completed in 1956-1957 for the construction firm of Farnsworth and Chambers, the Farnsworth and Chambers Building is historically significant as the first Houston home of NASA. Also known as the Gragg Building, NASA’s Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC) was located here from 1962 to 1964 while the Johnson Space Center was being developed in Clear Lake. When the MSC moved in, NASA’s Mercury Program was underway and the remaining Mercury flights were planned by engineers and scientists who worked in this building.
The Farnsworth and Chambers Building became a City of Houston Protected Landmark in 2008 before undergoing a sensitive rehabilitation in order to improve the functionality of the building. Rehabilitation included the installation of nine new skylights, new egress doors, the lengthening of existing ribbon windows and the replacement of a window wall and sliding glass door system which was too damaged for restoration. Many of the interior elements such as the mahogany paneling were retained. The Farnsworth and Chambers Building has served as the headquarters of the City Parks and Recreation Department since 1976.
As of: May, 2010
Alamo Elementary School
207 E. 27th Street
Listed on HISD’s disposition list for sale, Alamo Elementary School has been a neighborhood landmark in Sunset Heights since 1913. Originally named Sunset Heights Elementary, it was part of the Harris County school system. The school became part of HISD in the mid-1920s and the name was changed to Alamo Elementary School.
Alamo Elementary School consists of the original Romanesque Revival building and a 1926 Classical Revival building. The property occupies a full block and has been used as a maintenance facility for HISD for at least the last 10 years. In 2009, the Greater Houston Preservation Alliance (GHPA) succeeded in having it included on Preservation Texas’ list of Texas’ Most Endangered Historic Places. Preservation Texas singled out Alamo Elementary for its significant architecture and because it faces preservation challenges common to all of the historic schools on HISD’s disposition list. The surrounding neighborhood, Sunset Heights, is facing significant redevelopment pressures, and GHPA hoped the listing would increase awareness of the property and attract a developer who would preserve the historic buildings.
According to GHPA spokesman David Bush, HISD is currently accepting sealed bids on the property.
As of: May, 2010
The Bungalows
Houston Heights & Montrose Districts
The bungalow is an all-American housing type with its roots in the Indian province of Bengal. These single-family homes were called bangla or bangala, and British colonists adapted these one-story thatch-roofed huts to use as summer homes. The space-efficient floor plan clustered the kitchen, dining area, bedrooms, and bathroom around a central living area.
In the first quarter of the 20th century in Houston, an impressive number of bungalows in a rich variety of styles were built throughout Montrose, the Houston Heights, and Woodland Heights, forming an important and neighborhood-defining vernacular architecture. The rampant demolition of these structures in recent years has resulted in significant – and irreplaceable – losses, particularly in the Houston Heights. HAHC estimates that the majority of demolitions in Houston’s historic districts have occurred in the Houston Heights East and West Historic Districts.