{"nrhp_refnum":"90001471","name":"Houston City Hall","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"901 Bagby St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Houston","county":"Harris County","state":"TX","lat":29.76018743900005,"lon":-95.36931545999994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1990-09-18","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Landscape Architecture","Art","Politics/Government","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Houston City Hall is a 1939 municipal government building at 901 Bagby Street in downtown Houston, Texas, designed by architect Joseph Finger. It sits on a terrace at the end of Hermann Square, a formal landscaped park with a reflecting pool.","why_significant":"The nomination argues for statewide significance under criteria A and C. It is an archetypal New Deal public building, a small Modernistic skyscraper financed by the Public Works Administration, with notable art and landscape design. It is also tied to Houston's municipal history and still serves as city hall with little alteration.","narrative":"Houston City Hall, completed in 1939 at 901 Bagby Street, is a ten-story Modernistic building of steel frame construction faced in rough-cut Texas Cordova shell limestone. Its stepped, symmetrical massing recalls a small skyscraper, and ornament is concentrated around the entrance, where aluminum grilles and carved relief panels appear. Inside, the main lobby has travertine and marble walls, a terrazzo floor, a plaster relief map ceiling and murals by Daniel MacMorris. Architect Joseph Finger modeled the design on the Racine County Courthouse in Wisconsin, and the project was funded by a Public Works Administration grant that also provided Depression-era jobs. Hare & Hare designed Hermann Square, with its T-shaped reflecting pool, to complement the building. The nomination holds that the building represents New Deal public architecture, art and landscape design, and that it is unusual among Houston's New Deal buildings for still serving its original purpose with few alterations.","period_of_significance":"1939","architect_builder":"Joseph Finger, architect; Thomas Bate & Son, builder; Hare & Hare, landscape architects","architectural_style":"Modern movement: Modernistic; Art Deco","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Still used as city hall, as built; the original windows were replaced in 1987 and interior modifications from the 1970s were partly reversed.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:21.477561-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/82/9724/40972482/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/90001471.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/90001471/99797dca7f-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/90001471/99797dca7f-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Owen Johnson, photographer. Historic American Buildings Survey, Heritage Documentation Programs, a division of the U.S. National Park Service","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aerial_view_of_Houston_City_Hall_-_01.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Owen Johnson, photographer. Historic American Buildings Survey, Heritage Documentation Programs, a division of the U.S. National Park Service</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aerial_view_of_Houston_City_Hall_-_01.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40972482","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houston_City_Hall","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1631477"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/harris-county/houston-city-hall-90001471/"}