Main Street/Market Square Historic District (Boundary Increase)
Also known as: See Also:Main Street/Market Square Historic District
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Why it's listed
Main Street/Market Square Historic District is an area of historic commercial buildings in downtown Houston, Texas. This entry covers a boundary increase to the district, which was listed in February 1984. The nomination form, photographs and map are missing from the file, so the available pages say little about the district's architecture or the reasons for its significance. What remains is correspondence from 1992. In it, the Texas Historical Commission reported that the John Baker Building, a contributing property at Travis and Preston streets, was demolished on April 13, 1992, and asked that it be removed from the Register. A newspaper account from the same period describes the building as about 124 years old and empty. It reports that federal architects had warned city officials that further losses of historic structures in the district could put its historic district status at risk. The city had adopted a moratorium on demolishing historic structures in the district.
Significance in brief: The available pages do not include the statement of significance. They show only that the district was listed and later lost a contributing building, the John Baker Building, to demolition in 1992, which federal reviewers warned could threaten the district's status.
Machine-generated summary. This summary was generated by a language model from the official nomination document and has not been reviewed line by line by an editor. It may contain errors. Check the source document before relying on any detail. Source: nomination document (PDF) · National Archives catalog entry. NRHP reference 84001811, listed February 23, 1984. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-sonnet-5-5, prompt v1.0-2026-10-29, confidence low).
Key facts
| Address | 110 Milam, 112-114 Milam, 202-204 Milam, 715 Franklin, Houston |
|---|---|
| County | Harris County |
| Listed | February 23, 1984 |
| Reference number | 84001811 |
| Resource type | District |
| Areas of significance | Commerce, Architecture |
| Level of significance | State |
| Status (as stated in the nomination) | The John Baker Building, a contributing property at Travis and Preston streets, was demolished on April 13, 1992, and the Texas Historical Commission asked that it be removed from the Register. The district itself remains listed. |
| Acreage | 2 |
| Within district | Main Street/Market Square Historic District |
| Coordinates | 29.76322, -95.36126 (NPS GIS) |
What listing means for this property
This is a historic district. Buildings within its boundary are either contributing (they add to the district's significance) or non-contributing. Owners of contributing income-producing buildings can claim the 20% federal rehabilitation tax credit; homeowners should look at state credits. National Register districts impose no design review by themselves; a local historic district ordinance, if one exists, does (the difference explained).
General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; confirm with your State Historic Preservation Office or a qualified adviser.
Sources and further reading
- National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places database (snapshot May 2026), reference 84001811.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- Wikipedia article (used for cross-checking only; text not reproduced here)
- Wikidata Q6736072
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.