{"nrhp_refnum":"77001447","name":"Ideson, Julia, Building","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"500 McKinney St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Houston","county":"Harris County","state":"TX","lat":29.758876232000034,"lon":-95.36905910999997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1977-11-23","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Art","Education","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three-story, L-shaped buff brick and concrete library building at 500 McKinney Street in downtown Houston, Harris County, Texas, opened in October 1926 as the Houston Public Library and designed in the Spanish Renaissance style.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it is the only completed example of Houston's pre-Depression civic center planning, and a distinctive work by noted architect Ralph Adams Cram in a style now rarely seen. Its interior holds eight P.W.A. murals from the 1930s. It is also slated to house the Houston Metropolitan Research Center, continuing its educational purpose.","narrative":"Opened in October 1926 at 500 McKinney Street, this three-story library served as the Houston Public Library until 1976, when a new central library was built beside it. Ralph Adams Cram of Boston designed it in the Spanish Renaissance style, working with Houston architects William Ward Watkin and Louis A. Glover. Buff brick and concrete walls are trimmed with limestone and several marbles, beneath red Spanish tile roofs, with carved shields, seals and reliefs across the facades. Inside are an oak-beamed lobby, a two-story rotunda with marble columns, and eight New Deal murals by three women artists. It was meant to be the first of several civic buildings in matching style under a 1920s city plan, but the Depression halted the project, leaving it the only one built. Listing recognized that planning history, Cram's work, and the murals. Rehabilitation was underway to house the Houston Metropolitan Research Center.","period_of_significance":"1926","architect_builder":"Ralph Adams Cram, architect (Cram and Ferguson of Boston); William Ward Watkin and Louis A. Glover, associate architects; W. A. Dowdy, city architect","architectural_style":"Spanish Renaissance","criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition listed as good and altered (1958 addition and air conditioning); rehabilitation work was in progress at the time of nomination to house the Houston Metropolitan Research Center.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:19.221565-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/46/9723/40972346/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/77001447.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/77001447/a5203522ed-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/77001447/a5203522ed-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"WhisperToMe","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HPLIdesonBuilding0.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">WhisperToMe</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HPLIdesonBuilding0.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40972346","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Ideson_Building","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6306479"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/harris-county/ideson-julia-building-77001447/"}