Battelstein's | |
Location | 812 Main Street Houston, Texas |
---|---|
Coordinates | 29°45′30″N95°21′52″W / 29.7583111°N 95.3644078°W |
Built | 1950 |
Architect | Joseph Finger George Rustay |
Architectural style | Modern |
NRHP reference No. | 100004966 [1] |
Added to NRHP | February 6, 2020 |
Battelstein's is a commercial skyscraper located on Main Street in downtown Houston, Texas, United States. From 1924 until 1980, it housed an eponymous department store founded by Philip Battelstein. Originally only two floors, it was expanded to its present ten-story form between 1934 and 1950 by architects Joseph Finger and George Rustay. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 6, 2020.
Philip Battelstein arrived in Houston in 1897 as a Jewish immigrant from Lithuania. Arriving with only a few dollars to his name, he soon opened his own tailor and haberdashery, P. Battelstein & Company, located inside the Prince Theater building at 314 Fannin Street (now a walkway adjacent to the Harris County Tax Office); it later burned down. [2]
Battelstein restarted his business at 618 Main Street in 1909; around the same time, the partnership dissolved and the company name became just "P. Battelstein". [3] This business also burned down in 1924 after a fire broke out at the adjacent Old Capitol Hotel. [1]
Battelstein then purchased the present-day site at 812 Main Street. This new iteration of Battelstein's was a simple two-story building, completed in early 1924; however, the architect Battelstein hired to plan the works is unknown, [1] but at least the interior fixtures were the work of Houston Showcase & Manufacturing Co. [4]
Originally, Battelstein shared the building with several other tenants, but quickly began to expand. [1] By June 1924, Battelstein's announced it would double in size and touted itself as "being made the most modern in the Southwest". [5] By 1933, his business had expanded enough to take up the entirety of the first floor. The following year, Battelstein hired Houston architect Joseph Finger to design an expansion. The store expanded again in 1937, this time adding three floors and multiple new departments. [1]
Battelstein's prospered during the post-World War II years. The department store business in Houston flourished, and several expanded their buildings and services during this time; they were some of the first companie to start building skyscrapers in downtown Houston. By the late 1940s, Battelstein's was ready to increase in size again and planned a major remodel along with it. Finger was rehired and Tellepsen Construction Company was chosen to construct it. The expansion was completed in 1950 and was followed by several minor restorations and redecorations over the decades, as well as the opening of two new stores: at River Oaks in 1953 and at Sharpstown Mall in 1961. [1] Although Battelstein himself died in 1955, his store's success did not slow. [6] From 1952 to 1956, Battelstein's was announced to have advertised so much that it led the nation in newspaper linage for its menswear ads. [7]
In 1967, Battelstein's was purchased by Manhattan Industries, a New York-based clothing manufacturer, for $8 million. [8] In 1969, two new outlet stores at Northwest Mall and Almeda Mall opened. By this time, Battelstein's employed over 1,100 people and was one of the largest department store chains in Houston. [1] Another location later opened at Greenspoint Mall. [9]
Soon, however, Battelstein's began its decline. Throughout the 1970s, crime in downtown Houston increased significantly. The downtown location had long been outsold at its sister stores, as well as other department store outlets, especially those located in suburbia. It also did not have the parking capacity to support immense numbers of shoppers, which the while the suburban malls could build sprawling parking lots. [1] Battelstein's was sold again in 1980 to Bealls, [9] who closed the downtown location in 1981. [2] It then entered a period of on-and-off vacancy at different tenants occupied the building and operated as a nightclub and then as condominium apartments. The building then sat vacant for over a decade before it was purchased by the neighboring Marriott Hotel in 2019. [1]
Overall, the building covers a total floor area of 63,960 square feet (5,942 m2) over ten stories, and its footprint measures about 52 by 128 feet (16 m × 39 m). The first two floors are original to the 1924 construcution and were designed by an unknown architect, but the top eight floors date from the 1930s to 1950; these were conceived of by architects Joseph Finger and George Rustay, who chose a Modern design with International elements. The facade is made of limestone on its eastern (street-facing side) and brick on the others. Its roof is flat with a flared edge. There is an inset balcony with three bays on the second floor, which overlooks the street below. The ribbon windows on the upper eight levels are all identical and are set in the center of the facade. [1]
Saks Fifth Avenue is an American luxury department store chain headquartered in New York City and founded by Andrew Saks. The original store opened in the F Street shopping district of Washington, D.C. in 1867. Saks expanded into Manhattan with its Herald Square store in 1902 and flagship store on Fifth Avenue in 1924. The chain was acquired by Tennessee-based Proffitt's, Inc. in 1998, and Saks, Inc. was acquired by the Canadian-based Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) in 2013.
The Galleria, stylized theGalleria and also known as the Houston Galleria, is an upscale mixed-use urban development and shopping mall located in the Uptown District of Houston, Texas, United States. The development consists of a retail complex, as well as the Galleria Office Towers complex, two Westin hotels, and a private health club. The office towers and hotels are separately owned and managed from the mall. The mall features Macy's, Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, and Saks Fifth Avenue.
Comerica Bank Tower is a 60-story postmodern skyscraper located at 1717 Main Street in the Main Street District in downtown Dallas, Texas. Standing at a structural height of 787 feet (240 m), it is the third tallest skyscraper in the city of Dallas. It is also the sixth tallest building in Texas and the 61st tallest building in the United States. The building was designed by Philip Johnson and John Burgee, and was completed in 1987. The structure has 1,500,000 square feet (100,000 m2) of office space.
Marshall Field & Company was an upscale department store in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in the 19th century, it grew to become a large chain before Macy's, Inc acquired it in 2005. Its founder, Marshall Field, was a pioneering retail magnate.
Foley's was a regional chain of department stores owned by Federated Department Stores, later owned by May Department Stores (1988–2005) and headquartered in Downtown Houston, Texas. On August 30, 2005, the division was dissolved and operation of the stores was assumed by Federated's Macy's West and Macy's South divisions. Foley's operated stores in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas and Louisiana. On September 9, 2006 Foley's and all the regional May Co. stores names were phased out and rebranded as Macy's.
Joske's, founded by German immigrant Julius Joske in 1867, was a department store chain originally based in San Antonio, Texas. In December 1928, Hahn Department Stores acquired the company along with the Titche-Goettinger department store of Dallas, and three years later Hahn became part of Allied Stores. Allied was taken over by Campeau in 1986, and Campeau in turn sold the Joske's chain in 1987 to Dillard's. All Joske's stores were then quickly converted into Dillard's locations.
The Broadway was a mid-level department store chain headquartered in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1896 by English-born Arthur Letts Sr., and named after what was once the city's main shopping street, the Broadway became a dominant retailer in Southern California and the Southwest. Its fortunes eventually declined, and Federated Department Stores bought the chain in 1995. In 1996, Broadway stores were either closed or converted into Macy's and Bloomingdales.
The William H. Block Company was a department store chain in Indianapolis and other cities in Indiana. It was founded in 1874 by Herman Wilhelm Bloch, an immigrant from Austria-Hungary who had Americanized his name to William H. Block. The main store was located at 9 East Washington Street in Indianapolis in 1896. The company also identified itself as The Wm. H. Block Co., and Block's.
The Joseph Horne Company, often referred to simply as Joseph Horne's or Horne's, was an American department store chain based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The store was one of the oldest in the country being founded on February 22, 1849, but was often overlooked as it maintained only a regional presence. The chain ceased operations in 1994 after being merged with the Lazarus division of Federated Department Stores.
May Company California was an American chain of department stores operating in Southern California and Nevada, with headquarters at its flagship Downtown Los Angeles store until 1983 when it moved them to North Hollywood. It was a subsidiary of May Department Stores and merged with May's other Southern California subsidiary, J. W. Robinson's, in 1993 to form Robinsons-May.
3 Bealls Holding Corp. was a Texan chain of department stores, owned by Stage Stores Inc. and headquartered in Houston, Texas. The store specialized in retailing desirable brand name apparel, accessories, cosmetics, footwear, and housewares.
The Titche–Goettinger Building is one of Dallas' original broad-front department stores located along St. Paul Street between Main and Elm Street in downtown Dallas, Texas (USA). The structure currently houses apartments, retail space, and the Universities Center at Dallas. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places both individually and as a contributing property in the Dallas Downtown Historic District and is a Dallas Landmark as part of the Harwood Street Historic District. It is also located across the street from Main Street Garden Park.
Sakowitz was a men's clothing store which grew into a small chain of family-owned high-end department stores based in Houston, Texas. It operated from 1902 until 1990. Sakowitz was responsible for launching many of the now-famous European fashion designers in America - among them Andre' Courreges, Yves St. Laurent Rive Gauche, Zandra Rhoades, Givenchy, and Erminegildo Zegna. The Sakowitz catalogues were mailed to all fifty states and abroad.
Buffums, originally written as Buffums' with an apostrophe, was a chain of upscale department stores, headquartered in Long Beach, California. The Buffums chain began in 1904, when two brothers from Illinois, Charles A. and Edwin E. Buffum, together with other partners, bought the Schilling Bros., the largest dry goods store in Long Beach, and renamed it The Mercantile Co. The store grew to a large downtown department store, and starting in the 1950s, grew slowly over the years to be a small regional chain of 16 speciality department stores across Southern California at the time of its closure in 1990.
The Scarbrough Building is a historic commercial building in downtown Austin, Texas. Located on the corner of Congress Avenue and Sixth Street, the Chicago-style building was originally home to the flagship E.M. Scarbrough & Sons department store, simply known as Scarbrough's by locals. The building was the first steel-framed high-rise in Austin. In 1931, a renovation introduced Art Deco elements to the building; the renovation also made Scarbrough's the first retailer to have air conditioning west of the Mississippi River. The building was named a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 2001.
The Stowers Building is located at 820 Fannin Street in downtown Houston. The building was constructed in 1913 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). The building is named for George Arthur Stowers and his furniture company, which had moved into the new "skyscraper" after a fire at his Main Street store. The local firm of Green & Finger designed the ten-story building which was constructed out of reinforced steel by Pearson & Co. The building was representative of a period of skyscraper construction in Houston between 1908 and 1913. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
7th Street is a street in Los Angeles, California running from S. Norton Ave in Mid-Wilshire through Downtown Los Angeles. It goes all the way to the eastern city limits at Indiana Ave., and the border between Boyle Heights, Los Angeles and East Los Angeles.
The Offerman Building is a historic building at 503–513 Fulton Street in the Downtown Brooklyn neighborhood of New York City. Designed by Danish architect Peter J. Lauritzen in a Romanesque Revival style, the eight-story building was built between 1890 and 1892 as a commercial structure, housing the S. Wechsler & Brother department store. Although the lower stories remain in commercial use, the upper stories were converted into a 121-unit residential complex in the 2010s. The building is a New York City designated landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Retail in Southern California dates back to its first dry goods store that Jonathan Temple opened in 1827 on Calle Principal, when Los Angeles was still a Mexican village. After the American conquest, as the pueblo grew into a small town surpassing 4,000 population in 1860, dry goods stores continued to open, including the forerunners of what would be local chains. Larger retailers moved progressively further south to the 1880s-1890s Central Business District, which was later razed to become the Civic Center. Starting in the mid-1890s, major stores moved ever southward, first onto Broadway around 3rd, then starting in 1905 to Broadway between 4th and 9th, then starting in 1915 westward onto West Seventh Street up to Figueroa. For half a century Broadway and Seventh streets together formed one of America's largest and busiest downtown shopping districts.
The Kirby Lofts is an 11-story building at 917 Main Street in Downtown Houston, Texas, currently consisting of apartments with retail on the ground floor, originally built in 1926 and designed by Alfred C. Finn, a noted Houston-based architect.