{"nrhp_refnum":"97000550","name":"Johnson, Charles, House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"301 E. 35th St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Houston","county":"Harris County","state":"TX","lat":29.818344033000074,"lon":-95.39592763899998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1997-06-04","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Black"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A one-story wood frame vernacular L-plan house at 301 E. 35th Street in the Independence Heights neighborhood of Houston, Harris County, Texas, built around 1915.","why_significant":"It is one of the earliest and most intact examples of the vernacular L-plan house form in Independence Heights (Criterion C, Architecture). It is also tied to Charles Johnson, one of three ice delivery men serving the community, who ran his business from the home (Criterion A, Ethnic Heritage: Black).","narrative":"Built around 1915 on the corner of 35th and Courtlandt in Independence Heights, this one-story wood frame house follows a vernacular L-plan. It has weatherboard walls, a hipped asphalt-shingle roof, concrete pier foundations, and an inset hipped-roof porch covering two doors and a window. Windows are two-over-two wooden sash, and a shed-roof rear addition probably dates to the late 1920s or 1930s. The house is among the earliest in the community and one of its most intact examples of the L-plan form, kept up by the Johnson family and later owners. It is also linked to Charles Johnson, known as Charlie, who ran one of three ice delivery businesses in Independence Heights from about 1915 through the 1920s. Ice delivery needed little investment and could be run from home, and Johnson is remembered as probably the earliest and most successful of the ice men. The house was listed for its architecture and its role in the neighborhood's Black heritage.","period_of_significance":"c. 1915-1947","architect_builder":"Unknown","architectural_style":"Other: Vernacular L-plan","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Current function is a single dwelling; the form says the house has been maintained by the Johnson family and later owners and retains integrity.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:24.199348-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/89/9694/40969489/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/97000550.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/97000550/ed7eeeaac4-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/97000550/ed7eeeaac4-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"Ed Uthman, Houston, Texas, USA","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Charles_Johnson_House_Houston_(HDR).jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Ed Uthman, Houston, Texas, USA</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Charles_Johnson_House_Houston_(HDR).jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40969489","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Johnson_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60750180"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/harris-county/johnson-charles-house-97000550/"}