COMMENT OF THE DAY: MAKING HISTORY IN GALVESTON 
“what’s equally funny is that the sign on the [pier] now reads ‘[coming] soon: galveston’s historic pleasure pier’. i guess on this island, things are now considered historic even before they’re built.” [JC, commenting on Landry’s Kicking Galveston’s Flagship Hotel Off the Pier, for Amusement] Photo: Ellen Yeates
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Tag: Historic Preservation
HISTORIC DISTRICTS VOTE: NEXT WEEK Yesterday’s scheduled city council vote on the latest version of revisions to Houston’s preservation ordinance was postponed for a week — but not before 7 council members offered their own separate amendments. Among them: a proposal by mayor pro tem Anne Clutterbuck that would allow historic districts to keep their current rules — or submit an application to be governed by the new stronger protections. But Mayor Parker doesn’t want a tiered system: “The mayor argued that leaving the ordinance unchanged would allow districts to be weakened ‘one house at a time,’ such as when owners legally could proceed with demolition even after their request to do so was denied. ‘We may lose some of the footprint of existing historic districts, but we’ll have an ordinance that actually protects them,’ she said.” [Houston Chronicle]
Got a question about something going on in your neighborhood you’d like Swamplot to answer? Sorry, we can’t help you. But if you ask real nice and include a photo or 2 with your request, maybe the Swamplot Street Sleuths can! Who are they? Other readers, just like you, ready to demonstrate their mad skillz in hunting down stuff like this:
Well, our readers didn’t come up with answers to these questions from last time, so Swamplot did a little digging:
- River Oaks: Will the recently denuded River Oaks Blvd. host any actual oaks again? According to River Oaks Property Owners general manager Gary Mangold, that decision hasn’t been made yet. ROPO, the River Oaks Foundation, and boulevard residents will eventually vote on one of 3 separate proposals for reforestation.
- Houston Heights: Design firm APD‘s Mark Van Doren tells Swamplot there never was a plan to put parking under the scooted-over and raised Perry-Swilley House now settling into its new digs at 1103 Heights Blvd., one lot north of its original site (see photo below). But there are plans to park an enclosed wine cellar and gameroom under about 30 percent of the house’s elevated footprint. What’s going into the lot on the corner of Heights and 11th St. the house vacated? Either a single-story commercial building or a 2-story house fitted for commercial purposes, Van Doren says. Either one would be “historically styled.” But nothing’s happening for now — the property owner is waiting for an anchor tenant to appear.
Note: Planning and development weighs in. See update below.
Tonight’s 6:30 meeting at the George R. Brown is the only public meeting scheduled to discuss the latest round of proposed changes to Houston’s preservation ordinance, dubbed the “final draft” in some documents. The planning department came out with this revised set of proposed amendments last week, but figuring out what’s in them isn’t so easy. The department hasn’t created any summaries of the new proposal — thought it did for the last round — and it hasn’t specified what’s different from the earlier proposed amendments either. Even more fun: The new amendments have only been released as image scans, making text searching — and what should be the simple task of comparing one set of amendments to the other — a not-so-simple task.
So what’s in the latest round of proposed changes? Swamplot outlined the new proposed method for existing historic districts to “reconsider” — and possibly shed — their historic designation last week. But since then, the department has only released a presentation given by the planning director. Working from that, here’s the best summary of the rest of the provisions we can piece together:
Got an answer to one of these reader questions? Or just want to be a sleuth for Swamplot? Here’s your chance! Add your report in a comment, or send a note to our tipline.
- River Oaks: A reader wants to know how River Oaks or the City of Houston could “get away with not replacing the 30+ trees they destroyed when resurfacing River Oaks Blvd. [(above)] . . . Isn’t there an ordinance requiring trees to be replaced?”
- Houston Heights: Another reader has joined the saga of the traveling 1903 Perry-Swilley House (photo below) on the northwest corner of Heights Blvd. and 11th St., already in progress: “[They] moved the house across the lot and [then] raised the house by building brick columns underneath. I’m not sure what the point was.” Why, more strip centers and more parking — isn’t it always? The house was moved from the corner so the project’s developer might be able to fit in a small shopping strip with Heights Blvd. frontage; 2 years ago the city historical commission approved plans to raise the house so that parking could be fit underneath. But . . . what’s the current status of this project?
The planning and development department is out with a revised version of proposed changes to the city’s historic preservation ordinance, meant to respond to criticisms. Among the changes: The new draft spells out a process by which existing and recently designated historic districts (except for the Old Sixth Ward) can jettison their historic designations entirely — if enough residents don’t like the strictures of the new ordinance, and if city council approves.
But there’s a time limit: Applications for kicking off those oppressive preservation shackles must be submitted within 15 days of the passage of the ordinance, and must include the signatures of enough property owners to account for 25 percent of the tracts in a district. Once a district gets past that hurdle, there’d be a neighborhood meeting and a poll of property owners by mail-in ballot. There’s no defined threshold that would trigger a repeal, though: After the votes are tallied, it would be up to the planning director to make a recommendation and city council to make a decision — if a district wants to opt out. And it appears to be an an all-or-nothing process: Districts would either fall under the “no means no” provisions of the new ordinance or lose their historic designation entirely — having the old 90-day waiting period, meant to deter unapproved renovations and new construction without prohibiting it, would no longer be an option.
The launching pad for I-45’s Mount Rush Hour, that presidential muck circle in Pearland, and more outsize sculpture projects has a buyer. David Adickes — creator of the giant Sam Houston of Huntsville and the disembodied cellist in front of the Lyric Center Downtown, and yes, the original owner and projectionist for sixties psychedelic Commerce St. hangout Love Street Light Circus — is selling his SculpturWorx compound off Sawyer St. to Phil Arnett and L.E. “Chap” Chapman. Arnett and Chapman are best known for turning an old staple manufacturing building down the street from the original Goode Co. Bar-B-Q on Kirby into the Bartlett Lofts. Their plan for Adickes’s 78,175 sq. ft. of warehouse space at 2500 Summer St.: keeping the “artist flavor” (and most of the tenants) of the old buildings, while renovating the property and using up to 22,000 sq. ft. of it (Adickes’s first-floor studio, for example) as commercial space — maybe including a restaurant or two.
COMMENT OF THE DAY: APPRECIATING ARCHITECTURE IN A STATE OF DISTRACTION “Sad to see the area lose some of its deco history. That being said, I shop at the Walgreen’s next door once weekly, and I’ve never even noticed this building.” [Superdave, commenting on Daily Demolition Report: MiniMax Axe]
Texas Southern University President John Rudley is now saying he gave the order to paint over 2 murals in Hannah Hall created 40 years ago by longtime TSU art professor Harvey Johnson. An earlier official statement issued by the university — and an abc13 story last week — had claimed the whitewashing had been a “mistake.” But Rudley fesses up to the Chronicle:
Rudley said the murals, which covered two walls in the Hannah Hall administration building, had become eyesores.
“When I bring dignitaries to campus, I can’t have them seeing that kind of thing,” Rudley said. “All art isn’t good art.”
SELF PRESERVATION 
Among the businesses and organizations smoked out of the 36-story former Gulf Building Downtown at the corner of Main and Capitol after last night’s fire on the 27th floor: The Greater Houston Preservation Alliance, which has offices on the ground floor of the 1929 tower, now named after JPMorgan Chase Bank. It’s likely the organization hasn’t lost anything, but none of the businesses with offices there will know for sure until the building is reopened. “Crews are currently on the scene fanning smoke out of the building,” the GHPA reported this morning — from a remote location. [abc13 update] Photo: Jim Parsons.
Start with a few architecture students on some kind of field trip with their professor. Throw in a “freak storm.” Then trap everyone — along with a “chaperone†— inside a massive and spooky abandoned building. What do you get? The setup for Hellstorm, a new horror movie from local producers Epiphany Filmwerks.
Epiphany promises its filming location, Galveston’s long-abandoned and rotting Falstaff Brewery, will be “one of the main characters in the movie.” That’s where the young cast of pouty screamers will, of course, “encounter something much more terrifying than the storm itself.” What could that be?
COMMENT OF THE DAY: A REVOTE FOR THE HEIGHTS HISTORIC DISTRICTS? “As everyone pretty much expected the [Preservation Ordinance] meeting [last night] was different than the others. It looked like about 500 showed up and the opponents of the new ordinance were dominant. At the end Sue Lovell had a hand vote by District “For†and “Against†having a revote on the Historic District application. The vote broke down this way: Heights South: For – 65 / Against – 40 Heights West: For – 38 / Against – 25 Heights East: For – 49 / Against – 31 Because there was a clear majority in favor of a revote Sue said that there would be one (I recorded the meeting). . . .” [SCD, commenting on Proposed Historic District Changes: No Will Mean No, 67 Percent Will Mean Yes]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE JERRY J. MOORE MEMORIAL HOUSTON CHATEAU JUNKYARD 
“Spoke to demo contractor and all structures will definitely be demolished, but finishes (both exterior and interior) will be salvaged and sold to be reused.” [Jonny A, commenting on Is Jerry J. Moore’s Friar Tuck French Palace Ready To Be Demolished?]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE KINDS OF CRAP DEVELOPERS DON’T WANT TO DEAL WITH “It is in the developers best interests to retain historic structures whenever possible. They know that if you remove them all, you lose the sales value of the area. They aren’t stupid. They are just realistic about what people are going to live in and what is structural worth saving. Would you live in a home that’s had a hundred different animals [defecating] on the walls and floors for years? It looks structurally sound, but would you live there, where the pee has soaked into everything including the shiplap?” [Heights Weirdo, commenting on Proposed Historic District Changes: No Will Mean No, 67 Percent Will Mean Yes]
A VAGUE OPT-OUT PROVISION FOR HOUSTON’S 16 HISTORIC DISTRICTS Will each existing historic district get to vote on whether it wants to be governed by new, toothier preservation regulations than the ones they signed up for? Maybe: “City officials will hold public meetings from the end of July to mid-August to gauge public reaction to the proposal. If it appears a majority of residents who live in one of the city’s 16 historical districts oppose the ordinance, officials will allow them to vote on whether to remain a historic district, said Councilwoman Sue Lovell, chair of the council committee dealing with preservation issues.” [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]