What tales of real-estate scandal are buried beneath the blocks surrounding Market Square? In 1988, the Bethje-Lang building at 316 Milam St., better known as the site of the Warren’s Inn bar, was torn down without so much as a permit by its new owner, Guardian Savings. According to an account enshrined on the Downtown District website, the soon-to-be-defunct S&L was able to wrest the building from its previous owner, Warren Trousdale, only after a multi-year campaign of harassment that included mysteriously cemented-up sewer lines. (Trousdale’s sister established the current Warren’s Inn, across Market Square on Travis St., in his — and the building’s — memory.) Guardian Savings was never able to build the development it planned for that site, but the parking lot it left behind was ripped out this past summer for construction of the 40-story Market Square Tower.
The block likely held the remnants of other storied escapades, but a Swamplot reader says it’s all gone now: “The entire site [was] bulldozed, excavated and historically sanitized in a matter of a few days. During the excavations red brick foundations were exposed to a depth of about 15 feet and destroyed. There was no sign of any archeological due diligence by the developer before or during the demolition.”
But if you like digging in Houston real estate dirt, there’s still plenty left to explore beneath an adjacent parking lot:
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On the block surrounded by Milam, Travis, Preston, and Prairie, where Essex Commercial Properties and Stream Realty appear to be planning a 40-something-story office tower, remnants of some of the many buildings that stood here are still visible in spots, under and around the asphalt rolled out for the current surface parking lot.
Photos taken in September (above and below) “reveal store front foundations of three sides (Milam, Preston, Travis) of the block [are] pretty much intact (peeking out from the edges of the asphalt covered parking lot),” writes the reader who sent them in. “The lot is extremely built up, and it is possible that the foundations of every former structure built on the lot may still exist under the parking lot.”
Here’s a map of what once stood there:
The reader hopes some of this can be unearthed before the next development: “Proper excavation and structure documentation of this block prior to construction would present a ‘last chance opportunity’ to study the history as well of the architecture of an entire 19th century downtown Houston block.”
Photos: Swamplot inbox
Some etymology might be helpful—archaeology—from á¼€Ïχαῖος, arkhaios, “ancient.” Ancient.
From where/how/when/for how much $$ can you get your hands on maps such as those?
As far as the original Warren’s Inn goes, lets not forget the harassment by the City of Houston. Because
gay City of Houston workers would often stop at Warren’s after work, city inspectors were relentless,
at one point making Warren put central AC into a broom closet. The two story ceiling with recessed
sculpted lighting alcoves, the elongated island bar made it one of the classiest cocktail rooms in town.
Warren was a very large tall presence welcoming all. City inspectors and city police were out of control
in this era (Jose Campos Torres). The sleazebags at the S&L and the sleazebag city inspectors
ran a perfectly honest businessman out of business. The S&L got bailed out and the inspectors are
enjoying their overly ripe pensions, while Warren is long gone. God Bless you Warren Trousdale and thanks for all the hospitality and good times!
The original Warrens was a great bar. I was shocked and sad when it was demolished and remember wondering why. Especially for a parking lot.
I went to the Astros game last night and parked in a surface lot (north side of Congress between LaBranch and Crawford). So many of these surface lots have foundations that are still a part of them. You can see where walls and entrys once stood. Still so much of the area around MMP is just a vast parking lot wasteland.
Rodrigo,
You can literally get your hands on those Sanborn Fire Insurance Company maps at the Texas Room at the Julia Ideson Library Building, or you can access them online through the Houston Public Library website (you must have a library card to do this). You can also access some of the early Sanborns through the UT library system online. Sanborn maps are a fantastic tool used by historians and architectural historians to trace the built history and progression of a city, neighborhood, or a block.
I used to work at the Chronicle when I was going to college and I remember we would get like a 20 minute break on our shift and all the workers would race down to the original Warren’s and down vodka shots and pitchers of beer. Then we would go back to work operating dangerous equipment.
Houstonians do not look back at the past. They are so intent upon running into the future, at break-speed that any glance into the past could lead to a disastrous fall. I will have you know that they are running with scissors.
When I think of archaeology, I think arrow heads and fossils – not buildings <150 y.o. buildings.
It is amazing to me that we are doing it again and again. There is an old bar on market square known as “La Carafe”. Anyways, students have done several excavations behind that bar and discovered all manners of items from old pistols to belt buckles and the like. I think the general area of market square was once the really seedy area of houston…filled with pimps and pushers of all types. While not historical in the normal sense of the word, I did take a truly historic CAT 5 Dump in the old Kim Son that used to be on market square. Thing looked like a drowned rat sans fur. Speaking of the Kim Son – does anyone remember the high stakes gambling ring that was busted on the top floor of Kim Son? Probably 12-15 years ago.
Thanks!
> No History Remains
> You can literally get your hands on those Sanborn Fire Insurance Company maps at the Texas Room at the
> Julia Ideson Library Building…
Now this is the reason why I love to read Swamplot. Thanks NHR.
> Superdave
> When I think of archaeology, I think arrow heads and fossils – not buildings <150 y.o. buildings.
Alas, in TX/LA it is important to know the recent history of the land, because there is a lot of nasty stuff buried in the ground. For example, you sure as heck don't want to eat catfish taken from Caddo Lake…
Warrens was a great bar for sure. Incredible how quickly the areas change in Houston. One day the hood the next the chic area. I got my butt handed to me outside of warns one time. Simply asked a guy MISYB and he beat the heads out of me.
Good times
Why haven’t we given a d**m about these relics for the past 30 years? Now that a developer wants to convert the property to something meaningful, we take notice. Bizarre. I call BS.
I took a course in historical archaeology at UH. At the site of the George R. Brown they excavated a cistern that was used by a brothel–along with the usual stuff you would find in such a feature, they also found a large wooden dildo, which apparently caused quite a stir and brought out a few bigwigs to check out the progress of the dig. Part of the newish Criminal Justice Center(?) sits on what likely was part of the Underground Railroad.
No History Remains, thanks a million.
wooden dildo? seems I have been digging in the wrong spots
That is fascinating about the underground railroad operating in this location. I believe a study by archeologist Dr. Franz Bukake of Rice University tracked artifacts in this area to pre civil war and Spanish colonization thru the land grant system. In regards to a brothel or wooden sex toys I was not aware of that bit of info.
Remember the What?
If you travel to the four corners of the world and you say “Remember the Alamoâ€, someone there will know you are talking about San Antonio. Texas history also happened in Houston, including cattle drives, space races, oil wells, medical advancement, and revolutions. Market Square in downtown Houston is one of the most central historic spots in the 150 years of area history.
When no one was looking this past summer, Essex Commercial Properties and Stream Realty ripped up and disposed of 15 feet of history for a whole city block next to Market Square. Not a single archeologist was consulted. There are over a half a dozen top Universities in town with Archaeology Departments, yet none were consulted.
I suppose you can expect that some real estate developers are so sneaky and selfish that they will try to get away with not doing history due diligence, but where are our elected the public servants? Apparently the Houston City Council and the Mayor of Houston don’t think that anything happened in Houston that was worth remembering. Perhaps when their terms are over, people with think the same of their performance in elected office.
I went to Warren’s and La Carraffe a lot in the 1980’s.Both are/were full of history and should be saved. Sadly Warrens was torn down in the dead of night after Warren folded to the non-stop harassment and vandalism. I recall being told in the late 70’s or early 1980’s by the 80yo black man that used to shine boots outside La Caraffe that it was originally a slave auction house, then an orphanage, and then a brothel. It is the oldest continuous bar in Harris county which should give it some protection from the wrecking ball