Myers-Spalti Manufacturing Plant

Six connected buildings at 2115 Runnels Street in Houston's Warehouse District make up the Myers-Spalti Manufacturing Plant, built between about 1900 and 1928 on the bank of Buffalo Bayou. The buildings form a U around a courtyard that once held a railroad spur, and rail lines bound the four-acre site on two sides. The four earlier buildings have load-bearing brick walls, heavy timber frames, arched openings and corbelled cornices that give them a plain Italianate look. The two later buildings are poured-in-place concrete with brick panels and large windows. Heights run from two to five stories above full basements. Early uses included millwork, cabinetry, printing, shipping and warehousing. Alterations in 1984 and 1997 removed original doors and windows, and part of the complex became apartments. The plant is considered significant as one of very few intact early 20th-century industrial complexes in Houston, and for showing the major manufacturing construction types of the period on one site.