General Services Department
Public Information Office
Published in Houston Chronicle
July 14, 2015
By: Craig Hlavaty
Allen Brothers Statues Inching Closer to Installation at City Hall
A pair of statues honoring two of the men who made Houston possible could soon see installation at Houston City Hall if the project gets final approval.
While perusing old newspaper records, Lynna Kay Shuffield, from the Texas Star Chapter of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, found that architect Joseph Finger, who designed the City Hall structure over 75 years ago, had planned on incorporating two statues of Houston's founding fathers, John Kirby Allen and Augustus Chapman Allen, to the front terrace of the building.
"The city ran out of money in the Great Depression, so they didn't have the $8,000 needed to build the statues at the time," Shuffield says. "By World War II, the materials needed to be used to build the statues were needed for the war effort."
Shuffield told the Houston Chronicle that she wants to correct what says is 75 years of oversight by the city.
Last September she enlisted a Houston sculptor, Lori Betz, to complete models of the Allen brothers statues. They’ve since been turned into life-size bronze figures.
The price tag of the statues is inching closer to $100,000 as the project moves forward.
A change in leadership of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas chapter brought in a need for another organization take-over the project to see it to conclusion. The Oran M. Roberts Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy came into shepherd it along while, descendants of the Allen brothers have been consulting on the project. The tiniest details, like hair and clothing, were being doted on.
Paul Marro, who works in the building maintenance department at City Hall Annex, has said that an engineering firm has said that the statues should be structurally sound in their places right outside the front door of City Hall if they are in fact installed.
Still there are additional hurdles for Shuffield and the statues to jump through before the statues are even installed at 901 Bagby.
Back in Feb. 2014 Minnette B. Boesel, Mayor Annise Parker's Assistant for Cultural Affairs, said the group would need to pay 10 percent of the stated value of the art in order for the city to accept a donation of the statues as public art. This money goes into a conservation fund used for the upkeep of public art that has been donated. Bronze preservation can get costly.
The Houston Arts Alliance has approved the project, says Maricela Kruseman the general service department of the City of Houston.
There are no problems with the statues and their placement, according to Kruseman. The structure has been approved.
The city’s birthday is Aug. 30, by the way, so getting them installed close to that date would be ideal.
A request for council action has been sent to the city’s legal department. Final approval for placement would need to be a city council action.
For now the statues of the brothers are currently at Betz’s home in Porter awaiting placement in Houston.
- Link to Story (may expire over time)