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B R I I — t — I — I —> S T i: i' I N N F o x AN A R C H ! I K C; T U R A L T O U R The Rice Design Alliance gratefully dedicates this guidebook to SARA H. AND JOH N H. LlNDSEY H Supplement to Cite 41: \ The ArcliitL'trurL' and Design Review of Houston, \ Spring 1998. © Rice Design Alliance. \ I Reproduction of .ill \ or pan of this publication \ without permission \ is strictly prohibited. Managing editor Barrie Scardii Graphic design \ Minor Design Group \ Photographs Hester + Hardnwjv B R N The Bryan townsile was surveyed by Theodore kosse engmcci leu the I louston & Texas Central Railway, on a 640-acre tract in Brazos County that the Brazoria County planter, William I. Hryan, a nephew ol Stephen I Austin, hail conveyed in I Sol) tor construction ol the railroad line I he I louston \ I cxas C entral was httill to tunnel the wealth ot the Hrazos River valley, the foremost cotton production area in Texas in the mid l*)th century, through I louston. The outbreak ot the Civil War halted railroad construction at Millican, in the southern part of Brazos County. The I l&TC tracks did not reach Bryan until IK(><>-67 The railroad passed through the townsile in a north-south alignment anii Kosse oriented Bryan's gridiron street plan accordingly. But he rotated the boundaries ol the townsile 45 degrees oil a north-south align- ment, si) that, in plan, the street grid appears to be inscribed in a diamond There are shills jn the street grid on all sides ci) the original townsite, where it changes direction to conform to older boundary alignments The grid inscribed in a diamond was a pattern that kosse repeated lor a number ot the lownsites he surveyed lor the I louston \ Texas ( entral between I louston and Dallas These included I learne, Calvert, Bremond, kosse, Thornton, Croesbeck. Mexia, Rice, and hnnis kir.se adopted itie Broad Street model foi the Bryan town plan Hrvaiis pnneip.il thiiniiighliire is the MMI-loot wide Main Avenue Ttie blocks fac- ing Main are only n li.ilt Mock deep The Mam Avenue storefronts hack directly onto adjacent parallel streets the main line ol the I IsiTC on tlie east, and Bryan Avenue on tile west — an attribute that reappears in Hremond and ( alvcil Architectural historian lolin darner's observation about I'Mli-cenltirv ( alvert was equally tnie ol Bryan: the railroad land the LIIIIIIII trade which occasioned Its construction) was the constituent li< i ill iiikim: .11 urn in the Brains kivel vallcA II K v a H I I Exii the Highway n Bypass ni Briarcresl Drive, head cast. .Hid altera right on Buonvillc, proceed to Coppcrhcld Drive This is where Bryan must resembles College Station A kit mild < oppcihckl leads |i.ivl S,iiu 1 Illusion I Icillcill.lrv St 111 ml to the gated Courtlandl Place subdivision. ()n axis, at the end ol the entrance street, is the newest contender for Bryan's grandest house an enormous Highland Park style French chateau by I >allas architect Richard Drummond Davis I I')1)')! Return on lioonville Road to William loel Brvan Parkway, then turn ii(>!n onto lioonville At die Boonville Ursulini'-t Kborn intersection is a vacant tract that has heen the site ol two ol Bryan's most architecturally significant buildings Both were destroyed by fire I he Villa Maria Ursuline Academy ( l'X)2l. a ^'rl••' school established by the Ursuline sisters ol Galveston, occupied a Victorian Gothic academic building designed hv N I Clayton ol Calveslon The academy closed in \')2') Alter the building burned the properly was acouircd hv William S I iowell, Ir . a grandson ol the wholesale grocer I >i I W I lowc-ll I Iowell had heen in the diplomatic seivice ,MK\ w,is lust secre- tary at the LI S Embassy In Paris in the early I'MOs when the chancery there was designed hv the New York architects Delano & Aldncli In 1938, I lowed commissioned Delano & Aklrich to design his expansive country house on this site \ he long, low I Iowell House laced lioonville its gatehouse and driveway laced ( (shorn The I Iowell I louse was IIHIIMK building in I cxas hv Delano & Aldrich At 'is Allen Idlest I ane, oil Oshom. is the last in a series ol houses built by several generations ol the Allen fami- ly, who operated Bryan's best known ediKalion.il InstitU- linn Mini \. ademv I he last Iniinlv nieniher to administer the academy. Nat B. Allen, Jr., built this ranch type house I l">52l Its combination ol materials marks it as the work ol Uiv.nl architects Norton & Mavhek! Farther west along Uisulinc St lie the R. V, Armstrong House I'M I I ai 1200 Ursuline ami next dooi the Rivers O. Allen House l I'M t) at I 120. both set deeply back from the Street Across the street at 1113 Ursuline is the Nat II. Allen House tgnominiously, the his- toric Allen Academy campus is now a Federal Prison I amp Ai the Ursultne-E, 22nd intersection H k i ,\ ,v is the campus's only remaining historic building. I he Spanish Mediterranean style Memorial Hall (l'>24), the work ol AstM architecture professor Henry N lime Robertson St leads to E 21st Street, then in Bradley St., then to E. Martin Luther King St. This is the neighborhood <>t Candy Hill, one of Bryan's historically Alrican American neighbor- hoods liivausbest known to mem porarv writer, Sunny Nash, grew up at Bradley and Dansby in Candy Hill in ihe l')50s and (>0s, at the end ot the segregation era She vividly describes tins neigh In>rhood in her memoir fiii/iiiitiiKt IJIJM'I Shot' itl Woolu will's I t'Wfi), and an adjoining ncighboi hood called Graveyard Line, closer to the Bryan City Cemetery, where residents set up tables in the streets lor nightly domino games. Nash refers to her neighborhood's 'awkward, small town urban-rural balance " .in attribute that periaills not only to Candy Hill but IIII.IL h ol old Btviin Cfcl i hunk liA („n'i/rr Baptist' hunt &&B Alfiikni.il Mill/. A/Ini Aiii.li • >N | Proceeding wesl on Martin Luther King leads one through Bryan's Frcednien Town neighborhood, where Shiloh Baptist Church i MHO i at 500 E. Martin Luther King and N I lousion the city's oldest Alrican American congregation, has occupied us site since INTO The northern tier ol Rosses original town plan was ihe historically Alrican- American, working class, and immigrant sector ol Bryan Twin towers and a geodesic dome give the Endtime Evangelical Pentecostal Church ai 5(M W Martin Luther King an cschatological aspect The Galilee Baptist Church 11972) at NOH N Logan and vi I Hth was designed bj < ollege Station archiieci David C. Woodcock; ihe steeple was the congregations luiislung louth Roberl C. Neal Elementary School 11998) at W Martin Luther King and N Randolph is one ol a number ol sinking postmodern public schools hv Bryan architects Patterson Associates. The complex has a strong civic presence, which is amplilied by public recreational Facilities In the city's Neal Park, also designed by Patterson Associates following W Martin Luther King to fv'ulnii ( NMIEI «? its conclusion past the ex -Carver Llcmenlary School I'M'' Norton \ M.wlicldi and the ex Kemp Senior High School I 1<>(>3 E Marl Merrill). one duels that the rural nl Sunny Nash's "urban- rural" kilanir assL-its usch with supnsmg rapidity At 900 N Packer Ave and W 18th is the J. B. Leonard House It IK75 I, a Victorian cottage with a kick rool over the inset veranda Historian and preservationist Marlene Klizahelh Hetk believes this may he one ol the oldest buildings in Bryan. The cedar trees thai surround the house give it the look ol a rural homestead Cedars seem to have hecn the pick-lied m-v ol I'Uh-ceutury Uiyan /iryju r om/>rrs> * WaltbotOt ( o The Lawrence Shed ot the Bryan Compress and Warehouse Co. complex in the KKKI block ol N. Bryan Avenue ic I'HtM is one ol the most intact reminders ol Bryan's identification with cotton and the railroad The 6-bay, metal surlaced shed with its saw-toothed profiles is striking in us simplicity and repetition Across the streel are a row o) wooden duplex collages, a residential complement to the working landscape represent- ed by the cotton sheds and the i.iilrn.ul li.ii.ks \d|oinmg the sheds on the south are a pairol 1950s modem smic tares, the Bryan Central Tire Station Drill Tower .11 SO? N. Bryan Avenue and, across llie street the Bryan Central Fire Station at S(M N Bryan Avenue I lacing W Martin Luther Kmgt These were ihe only two public buildings that Caudill, Rowlett, Scull SI Associates designed loi the t its' ol Hrvan 1 I'JSli Next door to the lire station is a railroad-era land- mark, the Bryan Ice Co. Building ' I'M2 I at H()(l N. Main Avenue and Martin Luther King Built In the Houston Ice & Brewing Co.. its distinctive scalloped gable and high-set sidewalk terminate the vista down Main Avenue Across the street, at 725 N. Bryan, is the how suing iruss roofed Scardino Garage I 19451 The blocks ol Main between Bryan fir ( 0 limUiuti I'unicd ituu'iiiiiir J.' •. tn I itjtitil Ftrr Sltttiou Ihill Tflll'fr |» 20th and 22nd were once part ol ihe G. S. Parker Lumber Co. complex — the colton gin opera- tions on the west side and the lumber yard on ihe east The lumber yard sheds survive, as does the office building (I'M I) at 419 N. Main and E. 22nd Across ihe street, the entire west-side block Iront is lilled wilh one-story brick buildings which represent the early 2(lth-cenlury storefronts characteristic not only ol liryan hut other Brazos Valley towns It is such individually unexceptional buildings as these that give Main Ave its strong- form urbanity, the only such space in Bryan or College Station. The buildings at 406-400 N Main contain a cornerstone dated l'KH). which identities 1 hem as the Allen Smith Buildings Main Avenue widens al 23rd Streel. marking the transition from the blue-collar downtown sector tn the middle-class uptown sector Al2l'tN Main Ave audi 24th rises downtown Bryan's mini-skyscraper, the 7-story Varisco Building (1948). Built by Brazos A Varisco. the most prosperous member ol Brazos I 0111m s Sicilian community, it was designed bv Bryan in Inn 1 ts rhdip t , Nun. ii- and S C I' Vosper Sam Vosper's touch is visible ill the building's modernistic terra cotla spandrel panels and crowning Greek Irets Despite its highrise aspira- tions, the Varisco Building is securely Integrated Into the small town streelscape ol Main Avenue The crossroads ol downtown Bryan are Main and 25lh I now William loel Bryan Parkway I In the early 20th century, Bryan's major linancial insiitu lions staked out this intersection Dallass lore- most corporate architects ol the pre-Depression era. Lang & Witchell. designed the An Dcco jewel ol downtown liryan, the limestone-clad ex-First State Bank & Trust Co. Building at 200 N. Main I 19291. The insistent parapel decorations suggest that this was planned as the base ol a multi-story building Across liryan Parkway at 120 N. Mam Ave lav ihe competi- tion, the ex-First National Bank Building (1919), a small beautifully detailed, limestone and brick laced, neo-Renaissance strongbox constructed by Bryan's oldest bank lust National was ihe Bryan First .V.ifuwi flint Iknllnui ft R V A N\ 1 Hold /.i &ili .ju.l lh 1 Jiinii f lir.jffr lanulv hank William I Bryan's descendants are still connected wuh n Ai inn N Main and W 26th, ihi'4-siory E, H. Astln Building (1l)15> housed Bryan's third hank. the City National Hank Like tile Varisco Building the; Astin Building tils inio ihe downtown street scene, despite its height. The crown floating over the pylon ol the Queen Theater at I 10 S, Main Ihv Dallas movie theater archi- tect lack (.organ & Associates1 is a downtown landmark The 7-slorv I .a Salle Hotel at IM S Main and W 27th l l')2K> was designed hv Austin archilecl (it-orgc I. Walling for businessman R W I lowell across Main Ave, Irom the original site oj the Hs Ft passenger station Across W 27th Street, the dark red brick J. W. Howell Building at 200 S, Main Ave i I906) housed the wholesale grocery company founded by R W Howell's lather Both the La Salle and the Howell Building are due lo he rehabilitated as a hotel and confer- ence center by Houston developer Morgan Hill (1998, Michael C.aertner. architect) The block on the east side ol Main, running Irom l: 26th to E Z8th, is two blocks long In Kosse's town plan, this double block was an open square thai stretched east to Regent Street and was bisected hv the H&TC tracks. In the I9di i i niiiiv In e standing buildings iwu hmli on tins unbounded square, which explains the unusual lackol block-Irom continuity Bryan's Victorian ulv hall, which burned in I'Mi'i stood near the loth Street intersection It was eventually replaced by the I'alace Theater, which collapsed in I'Wi. leaving only the stage house intact The Mallies Croup ol Houston with David C Woodcock ol College Station incorporat- ed the stagehouse into Schtilman Palate Theater p, rl. !'""• walled open l g )j ; si I air amphitheater and urban k ; U J l l J , m [ i | ;i park Bryan's red brick-laced I'uMn blmiry Masonic Hall at 107 S Main Ave l 1910) and its red brick Carnegie Public Library at I I I S Main Ave i 1903 I were built as Irec-standing buildings, The library is the oldest remaining C amcgic library building in Texas It is an early work ol F !:. Ciesecke, the lust prolessoi ol aichitecture at Texas AstM and College Archilecl Irom the 1900s |H (t v A N through the I'HIk The Masonic building was designed by the Dallas architects I landers \ Mandcrs and displays the impact of early 20lh- century Chicago School progressivism on lames I (landers Two railroad-side hotels survive with alterations I Allen Myers huilt the Hotel Charles at 201 S, Main II9I2I, but it was his son Charles who had Atkinson JS Sanders give n a streamlined relacing ! I'tWi Although covered with porcelain enamel panels the ihree-sinrv Hotel Bryan at 2 I 1 S Main I I'M I! by I )can & Ciesecke exhibits an architectural kinship to the Masonic Hall in its red brick lacing and hipped root Note how the rear wall ol the brick-built Grand Lumber Company Building ai 202 S Bryan Ave i now (>ld Bryan Marketplace Panabc-Ila's Crand Cafe, and the Childrens Museum ol the Brazos Valley) curves along the alignment ol the International is Creal Northern Railroad Hack The l&( >N entered Bryan in I'M HI. its main line was routed along W 27lh belore arcing to the south ( In S Brvan one is verv aware ol the backs ol the business buildings that lace Main. Sunny Nash recounts In fttgtaama Didn't Shop at Woolutortb'i that there was a racial undertone to this spatial arrangement. African-Americans did then business Irom the Bryan Ave rear ol calcs and shops, rather than the Mam Ave. fronts. Presiding over the west edge ol downtown is St. Andrew's Episcopal Church I'll4 l at 2 17 W 26th Street and S Parker, the oldest chinch build- ing in Bryan Its stout, brick in M I loihic lower is a local landmark. The church's Astin Memorial Parish House I l')2(l| is by College Station archi- tects LaRoche \ Dunne Across the strcel al 2 If) W 2f.lh the U.S. Post Office [1915, < iscai Wcndcioth Supcivising Aichiienot die I K'.isurv oilers a classical complement along with a basement-level courtyard The live oak trees thai begin to line W 2fith Street and adia cent streets identify the West Side has having Once been one ol Bryan's elite neighborhoods .- •- " ^ s ^ ^ E J f c v \ / A l*he grandest house on I ii iVaaJ Bryan's West Side is the •' _' *• SM Roger Q. Astin House al IJU'I F ^ J I U S S i m ^ 26th Street and N ••^V. " w f -1 Logan I l'*22l designed hy Astin HolHf I )allass lore-most eclectic archilecl. II B. Thomson Al MKl S Congress Avenue and W 2(>th is the imposing Colonial Revival-style George W Smith House I'M I At loss the high embank Mill1 \lri P.irkri Tin Heust mem nl the l&CN tracks, harking back In an earlier era. is the Milton Parker House ol c 1885 at 200 S Congress and W 27th. a suburban Victorian villa, Its grounds enclosed with a cast iron fence Parker was a cotton merchant, partner in the Parkcr-Astin Hardware Co., and one ol a number of locally impor- tant businessmen who in the late IKdOs, moved with the advance of the H&TC Irorn Millican to Uryan Note the (•ale piers at W 27th and S Randolph and the line ol cedar trees leading toward the I'arker House In the 100 block ol S Randolph visible up the driveway behind the cottage at 608 W 27th Street, is the corrugated, galvanized, sheet metal-surfaced Tin House that College Station architect and As.M prolessor (.erald Mallei buitl i \'IHH • Whatever its pretensions might once have been the West Side neighborhood now absorbs Mallei's low-tech vernacular as comfortably as H U Thomsons Swiss Avenue grand manner Tucked within the curve ol the kCN track at 201 S I'arkei Ave is the tiny Temple Freda I I'M 1i once home to Bryan's Reform lewish con gregation and a very early work of the Houston architect loseph linger and his partner 1 S Green In the nest block, at Wi S Parker Ave . is the much more conspicuous St. Anthonys ( atholii ( liui.ii I''.' ' designed lot Bryan's Sicilian parish bv Houston architect Maurice I Sullivan as a scaled-down version of the 12th-century church of San Michele. Pavia Adjacent to the lor mer site of Si losephs Hospital is the modernistic Grant Clinic I 1939) at 308 W 2Slh St and S Sterling, an early work ol William I' Nash, now the dean ol Hrvan architects < .I.H./I StflfMtn PtMBB l/i'Hv [ipprf'/i r • !.: ,Sl An\bony\ Moving westward along W 2Hih. one passes out ol the original towmite at S Congress, a iransi- Hon made apparent bv the grid shift < Inly seven blocks from Mam Avenue, one is suddenly on the outskirts ol town A lelt onto C onimercial lakes one pasl ihe Tampico Cafe at Commercial and loll ()hve, an authentic slice ol backwoods Bryan Nearby at 12(11 Ridgcdalc in another ueigllboihood spun oil the Kosse grid is a mod- < m [,Hiiiir..r- BeiiMiIaiiillemeiil.nl Sill.ml I I 0 5H designed bv William fc" Nash with A&M architecture instructor I farrv S Ransom and Stone & Pitts ol Beaumont Although ( RS made us repu- tation with modern school design in the 1950s u never designed a public school in Bryan. Nashs Hen Milam is the lown's representative school complex ol llus period I I.irrv Ransom worked as an occasional designei lor CRS and Nash Many ol (he vonng architecture faculty at As;M in the I'l ilk wen pai t nun ili sigm is In! ( l\S .mi! oiln i local firms This distended territory reconnects with the Kosse grid at ihe end of S Bryan Ave . the south tip ol the original lownsite The Victorian stvle George Samuel Parker House (HOI) S. Bryan, 1898,- remodeled as a one-story house following a lire in I'M") is located across Beck Slreet from the com- pact, manorial slvle Charles MyroH S. Myers House I BOO Beck, c l'M2i Alice Myers Kyle (a subsequent owner ol the I'arkei 1 louse with her husband, A&M dean Edwin I Kyle I and C'harks Myers were the sihlmgs ol Bryan land subsequent- ly Houston I landscape architect I Allen Mvers. Ir Their lather, the senior I Allen Myers, had been one ol ihe transplanted Millican merchants S. Hrvan leads to W 28th. which crosses Main and the H&TC tracks Al S Taboi and 201 I 27th St is the ex-Bryan Municipal Building I IU2'li a modernistic cast stone cilv ball and lire station bv the Austin architects Ciesecke 5c Harris Bertram I (iicscckc was the son ol Prolessor 1- E Giesecke I he cornel ol I: 27th and S Regcul is anchored by thecx-Wilkerson Memorial Clinic 1931 i by Waco architect Cabc Lewis. The pre- sent Bryan Public Library ( I'»<•'). I I ail Merrell, Ir ) I u es [In Slunn ipal lliiililnig at 200 E. 27th Street and S. Regent 11 occupies what was once the f LCTC I'asseugei BryanMtwidpaitiaildkf Station block At H00 I;, 2(>th Street and S Washington is the most architecturally stgnilicant building in down- B (I V A N I 5 town Bryan. I hi' extensive- ly aliereii Hrazos Clonnly Courthouse and Jail l''s>, Caudill, Rowlcll Scott * Associates] (. RS abandoned the monumen- taluy traditionally associated BmM' *"»''"""""' M nli I cxas courthouses lor n suburban si ale and spa- liality indebted to then si hools i.t ill. period "I Ins was the lirst important modernist county court- house in Texas, and it is Bryan's most Famous mod- ern building The 2<>th Street sideol the courthouse, faced with hard red paving brick and polished traver- tine, is lairlv intact but the one-story courtyard- centered wings on the Bryan Parkway side have been subsumed within an elephantine rear ,iddi tion I lack W C umptnn s. Associates) Mirroring the scale ot the CRS courthouse is the one stun Bryan Utilities Building I 1967) at MWS \V Islington AM and I JHth « ilh Ms .11(11 ul.ited concrete root plate bv William I- Nash Backing up to this spatiallv amorphous cluster ol public buildings is the present Bryan City Hall | l'»HH Williamson Croupi at 3(H) S Texas Ave and I 2''th Assertively iatinjj College Station, it exhibit! an aggressive application ol maroon-col- ored u'lleclive glass. Today Texas Avenue divides downtown I mm Bryan's east side neighborhoods as lorceltilly as the H&TC tracks once did ()riginally called Dallas Ave , Texas was renamed ( 'ollcgc Ave 111 the early 20th century. During the first ball ol the 2tllh centtiry. the blocks ol S ( ollcgc between E 27th and E 31st streets were Bryan's residential ((rand avenue In the mid-I'HJOs, the connection between S College Ave and S Texas Ave was re- engineered so that Texas look priority and the name ol this portion ol the street was changed W reflect this Us role also changed to that ol an urban highway, the primary commercial strip ot Hryan and College Station The banks deserted Main Ave . moving three blocks cist to Texas Ave into tree-standing pavilions surrounded by parking lots In the l')Ji(ls. most ol the hanks moved again, away 1mm downtown altogether Bryan's oldest Roman C athohc parish Si. Joseph's Catholic Church I 1959) at 600 E 26th Street and N Preston, Is Bryan architect W R Hide I II tt V A N J u Illy,™ dry Mull Malthews's tribute to MacKie & Kamrath s Si lohn The Divine in Houston At'Mill: Brvan I'arkway and N. Pierce, the point ol grid break, lies Travis Elementary School ( 1929), designed by Gicscckc »> I larris in the linear Art Dcco style thai they employed (or the Municipal Building downtown From the last decade ol the I'tth cen- tury well Into the 20th. one ol Bryan's most prolif- ic builders was the English horn Charles I'- Icnkins who built the Edward J. Jenkins House at 607 E. 27lh St 1 1895 1 lor his brother, a phar- macist Historian Margaret CulbertSOn has deter- mined that this lowered and shingled house was based on a design by the Knoxville architect and house plan publishci ( iCOrgC W Barber At 509 I 18th Si and S Houston Ave is the First Methodist Church I. I')5l, 1955) by Houston architect Edward Bodet, a stream- lined neo-Cothic church laceil with limestone, like St Mary's Note the ligural carving perched near the top ol its attenuated tower. fmltrm Hon* Where the grid shihs direction on I 2*>tb one enters the East Side- Historic District in the Phillips Addition, a locus ol hisiorn |.II si p..111.111 ill,iiis in Brvan \nolbi 1 imposing Colonial Revival house is thai ol Mrs. James H. Astin (1907), matriarch ot the Aslin lamily, by Waco architects Messer & Smith at 600 E 2')tb Si and S. Hill The W. Olin Sanders House 11910) at old E. 29th Si. was the home of Bryan architect W Olin Sanders, Ir, and is si ill owned by members ol his lamily The Edward Hall House at ol I I 2*)ih St I 1902) contributes to the signilicance ot the district Houston archi- tect I Rodney Tabor, a member ol the first class to graduate in architecture Irom A&M, designed the Allister M. Waldrop House 1 1910) at 6151 2<«h St. and S. Baker The popularity ol progressive architecture 111 Bryan is attested by the Dr. Seborn C. Richardson House at til I E 2"th Al the edge ol I he district at 307 S. Coulter Drive and I- 29th is the columned, neo-Georgian style Robert H. Butler House (c l*M7l by William E Nash I he grandest house on the East Side, vying in size with the Aslin House on the West Side, is the Eugene Edge House al 6()<J S. Ennis St., between 31st and 311th fc 102(1; built hv a Main £i/<)r / lomr ( fllNll / Ave. clothier and attributed to the Russell Kmwn Company ol Houston The McMichael-Wilson House at 7121 JOthSl 11903] Is a grandly scaled C I lenkinshuili house The William R. Cavitt House (1876) at 713 E. 30th St. and S. Haswell is Bryan's most famous Victorian house and one <it (lie old- est buildings In the city It occupies a half-block site In the district li is especially notable lor the splendid a I lee ol cedar trees iraining the Iront walk Both theCavitl and McMichael-Wilson houses were rehabilitated bv A&M Professor and Mrs. I'aul Van Riper William I Bryan's grandson Travis B. Bryan occu- pied the house at ft 15 I; Kith St and S I (urchins Members ol the liryan family still live in the I'lullips Addition Another notable bouse built bv C. 1 lenkins is the hist Eugene Edge House at 508 E. 30th St. and S Hill i 19021 W Olin Sanders Ir produced several houses on his home territory The Wifmer R, McCullough House at 600 E. 32nd St and S Haswell is a onc- simv I renth provincial style In •use while at Bt3 5 I mils St .null -Hid is the picturesque manori- al sivlej. M. Jones House t I'HI i Sanders and his partner I IS Atkinson Collaborated with (.icsecke 6 Harris on the imposing Stephen l:. Austin High School l 1939! at HOI S Knnis St and E 12nd Austin anchors the intersection with its flamboy- ant angled corner entrance, a restatement ol the Cicscckc firm's Martin I ligh School In Laredo Near it, at 715 E list St and S. Ennis. is the Spanish style Roy C. Stone House I I"25) One ol the most imposing bouses in the East Side dis- tiicl is the Hudson-Harrison House i IH9ft) at 6I6 I: list and S Haswell. moved to this site in 19H4 and restored bv Dr and Mrs. I. Russell Bradley AtE. list St. and 701 S Texas Ave. is the Searcy Clinic i 1950), a low-lying. Frank Lloyd Wright- inspired suburban proles sional building laced with limestone and designed by Bryan (latei San Antonio) architect I. Brooks Martin. Next door to it at 705 S \I. \ii. ;M,! ff */i**? Ill HI Ml S'trfiJifii F Ainlni Hulk sJi.in! I li/l. ifi( Apartment I .iti.dlf Houst \ur. V < ll'lk Texas Ave is the J. H. Conway House the last ol the old "College Avenue' grand avenue houses Where Texas Ave bends to the southeast one enters the old "new" highway (the "old" highway w.isS college this is the curve that was re-engi neered in Texas lavor in the 1960s) The head- quarters ol Butler, Inc the contractor and pre- engineered metal building manufacturer at 1504 S Texas, is an early work ol liryan architect W R Dcdc Matthews (c 195ft>. Carson St connects Texas to S College Ave. At 2 Hi I-2 105 S College Ave and Carson are the Hilkrest Apartments ic 1951 i hv Norton s. Mavheld. which are especial- ly prized by A&M architec- ture stall and students Downstream ai I SOT S I ollcgc is the ex Norton & Maylield architecture studio (1949). Williamson St leads into Lakeview Addition alongside a municipal goll course that was, in the 1940s and 5t)s the Bryan C ountrv C:ittb At 23 13 Truman St Is the extensively altered William W. Caudill House (1946, Caudill & Rowleli), the hrst work ol liryan archi- tecture to be published in a national architectural jour- nal On the south side ol the goll course, at I t o l C.rcen St and W Villa Maria Road, is the handsomely main- tained Edwin R. Olexa House I 1956) designed bv architect and CRS employee E. R Olexa and subsequently owned bv architect, A&M instructor and CRS partner Charles E Lawrence Green St, leads south to the parallel I hlingcr and Lynn drives in the Munnerlyii Village subdivision. At then west end is one ol the most sinking neighborhoods in Bryan, a collection of stationary mobile homes used as affordable housing The trailers are laced with corrugated siding, which gives them a curi- ously vanguard look, The landscape improvements are in some cases, quite imaginative. Villa Maria Road connects Bryan's south and north sides, arcing through what still remains in places Aliimiri'iyii VMuft II » V A N I 7 I muiim/kiHi Ho\t\t undeveloped territory on die soulhcasi side ol town This is the post-highway suburban strip; it makes S Texas and S College seem spatially mii- matt hy comparison ()ll I Villa Maria at Hint I'arkwav Fen ace is Sul koss Elementary Seliool (1961 > by C. R Watson Associates of Bryan, which is very CRS-like In character At K403 I'aikwav Terrace is the starkly modern f> Brooks Coler, Jr., House i I'Kil i by A&M architecture professor Fhco R Holleman Near the intersec- tion ol Villa Maria and I 2'itli are two maioi MI|V urban institutional complexes ol the 1960S: St. Joseph's Hospital and Health Center i 1971) by Matthews A Associates at 2H0I Franciscan Drive and the pyramid-roofed pavilions ol Crcstvlew Home for Senior Citizens I 1964 I at 2502 W Villa Maria by I: Fail Merrell, Jr., with Thomas I! I bompson ol San Antonio tiast 29th Street leads to Esther lioulevard, which Intersects Wayside Drive in Cavuts Woodland Heights Addition Woodland Heights was planned in 1915 by landscape architect N M Me( .mnis lor the W. I!. C avni (state along the new 1 lighway 6 (now S Texas) Hist as construction was near- inn completion. It was the lust ol the highway-related subdivisions and Bryan's lust garden subdivision At 21 I I Wavside Ur is the beautiful- ly detailed, limestone laced Earl C. Cunningham House Hiy.w lUuUnu.m.l I,'. I |«)5')i by Merrell f. Vrooman ,in especially notable work ol At.M architecture professor Richard I: Vrooman At 2(>IM -2MI9 S Texas, coinci oi lawience, is the trimly detailed Mauro Building a strip ollice builiiin;: with a con Unuous clerestory built bv the lather ol 1 exas Land Commissioner Carry M.iino < T'Si, | leniv D. Mayficld, jr.). At 2800 S. Texas and Oak. the Four-story, reinforced concrete ex-Bryan Building & Loan Association Building i I9(>7), designed hv t hartici ( Newton lor the ollice ol Matthews & Associates stands out as one ol the most architec- turally distinctive buildings on Texas Ave Nest dooi at 2900 S. Texas and Dcllwood is the ex- Clayton's Restaurant 11957) by E. Earl Merrell. lr.. of the Martin, Lemmon. Merrell it Vrooman partnership, a spirited example ol designed road side architecture, with its wide roof overhangs and angled window bays Unfortunately, its owner. I list Federal Bank added a gratuitous mansard I if It v ,t N WthiUw roof in 1998 Fanners A M Martin and lames H l.emmon, lr . ol the same firm were responsible lor ibe BW Building across the street at 2909-2')I') S. Texas Avenue ic I95<,i which also Features a continuous clerestory. AlfJu.i/ Am I 'dim Al S. Texas and Mary Lake Lane, a pair ot modern clinics conlrom each other The ex-Medical Arts Clink at 3501 S. Texas <1951. Caudill, Rowlell, Scott & Associatesi is laced with CRS's distinctive hard red brick and In bv a continuous clerestory band tucked beneath the low-pitched rool overhangs The BX Dr, W. H. Ritchey Clinic (c 1953, William I.. Nash with Harry S Ransom) at 1500 S I evas is more contained with Us Hal rool framed loggia and walls ol glass I )nwii Mary Lake Lane, on both sides ol the street between S Texas and Holick, are several duplex houses in varying states ol repau I hese spill around the corner to 1-119-17 I lolick Lane Built in 1951 by ( ollege Siauon builder, developer, and .n> hnet i III,IHI|III William D fitch, this was the architects' ghetto in the 1950s CRS partners Wallie Scon and William M I'ciia lived here, as did A&M design faculty members I dward I Romiemec. Frank lawyer, Ed Olvxa, Tiny Lawrence and \inw Yarbrougb AfcM landscape architecture piolessoi Koheil 1 While designed a garden and swimming pool area > no longei extant i shared bv the housing units The integra- tion ol house and carport beneath a low-pitched, open gable rool represents the most pervasive modern bouse type in Bryan and College Station ol the 1950s. OtlS l ollege Ave al 100 W lirooks.de Dr is the ex-W R. Dede Matthews architecture studio i 19d I i with Us laminated wood beam rool deck Alter CRS moved lo I looston in I95N. Matlhews's ollice became the talent pool ol Bryan and College Station, especially when A&M Faculty members Charles E Estes, lohn ()nly (.rcei Hal Moselev, lr , Charticr C. Newton, and W ( ceil Steward, lr weie associated with the lirm in the 1960s, At E lirookside and S College one enters North Oakwood Addition laid out in f9ln by the College Station developer I I. 1: Burgess and designed bv I icdenck W I lensel tlif lust proles Mir oi landscape architecture .it AsM Bryan arc In- u , * I Icon I > Mavfic-ld Ii htuh his lamih s house at 100 E Brookside i I'tto. altered}, this was the childhood home oi his son, Houston architect H Davis Mayfield III. At 301 E. Hrookside Dr is an early work ol Caudill Rowletl Scott & Associates, the Professor R. L, Puerlfoy House il''50i Along K Hrookside stands ol dense i>ost oak woodland landscape alternate with the tolling suburban lawns ot Ninth < l.ikwiiiid The combination ol lime- stone, wood and brick Iden- tities the contemporary style Brazos A. Varisco House at 415 E. Brookside Ic 1952) .is the work ol Norton & Mavlield Urvan's lirsi modern house is the now slightly altered Margaret Pearce House I I'M I i ai 101 Crescent Or by Houslon architects M.n ku & Kamrath The most stun- ning modem house in North ()akwood is the Clifton C. Carter House .11 11 I Crescent Dr i l')5f>), designed by William E Nash for ( alter, an I.U.I political operative, where the architecture accentuates the sloping site At son Crescent Drive is the Dr. R. P. Marsteller House i 1946), the must handsome tratttiion.il style house In North Oakwood. At 510 College View and Oak wood is the Dr. William C, Banks House (c 1952), another work ol Norton & Maylicld Aflvilfclll Horn HT I ii'int /'raru tlawyt t urUr HiiWif unassuming entrance (alongside a stop shop- ping center), Beverley Estates presents a lineup ol big biggies mi N Rosemary Dr. ol which the most notable is the Ford D. Albrilton, Jr., House at 72o N Rosemary 119651 This was designed by William I Nash based cm a preliminary design by Mrs. Albrittou's brother, San Augustine architect Railord W Stripling It is a grand-scaled, Palladianizcd version ol the Creek Revival Ezekiel W Cullen House in San Augustine Several years alter completion. Dallas architect lohn Astin Perkins made maior additions to the reai ol the house, including a domed classical bathhouse pavilion Around the loop at 7-lK S Rosemary is the Professor Philip C Murdoch House i I''50), a large modern house b\ I atidill Rowlett, Scott &• Associates thai has sulk-red unsympathetic alteralinns ( >n the east side nl S 1 cxas Ave Inwood I )i leads to the intersection ol Tangle-wood I k and the Andrew 1. Ogg Housed 1954) at 801 laugh-wood by William I Nash with hlarry S Ransom, ttlm h displays .1 sei lii.n.ilU activated proble Across S. Texas Ave. from North Oakwood is Itryan's posh- est intown neighborhood. Beverley Estates designed in Ini8 by landscape aichitect Entz Hensel lor developers William M Sparks aiul Douglas W Howell. As ii to compensate lor the Ii k Y A H I 9 TEXAS A &M U N I V E R S I T Y The Agricultural and Mechanical College ol Texas, the oldest state-supported institu- tion of higher education in Texas, opened on this site in 1 N7(->, In 1H7I, a group of Bryail citizens offered the State of Texas 2,4 L6 acres of land, 4'/j miles south of the center of town and adjoining the Houston & Texas Central Railway line, as an inducement to locate its land-grant college in Brazos County. This offer determined the long-term future of Bryan and its eventual sibling College Station. Architecture began to be taught at A &M in I 90s under the direction of Frederick 1.. Cieseeke, an engineering graduate of the college. This was the first academic program of architectural instruction in Texas, landscape architecture began to be taught as a disci- pline in 1923 under Trcdcriek W. I tense!, also an A &M alumnus, from the 1 Wills through the 1930s, the senior architecture faculty were responsible for designing new campus buildings. Because of his long tenure, Ciesecke's name appears with great frequency on university cornerstones. During the 1940s and 1950s, the College Architect (an appoint- ment that tended to circulate among Bryan architects, all A &M alumni) designed most new buildings. As late as the mid-1 960s, Dedc Matthews ol Bryan tilled this role in a tie fttCtO capacity. In 1931, following protracted negotiations with the University of Texas, Texas A &M got access to the state's oil-rich Permanent University I und endowment, which financed a wave of ambitious new construction at both A &M and UT. While LIT hired Paul Philippe Cret of Philadelphia to reshape its Austin campus, A &M turned once again to Professor (iiesecke. (iiesecke's design staff, led by the brilliant draftsman and ornamentalist S. C. P. Vosper, a professor of architecture from 1929 until 1933, produced the buildings that symbolize A&M. These adhered to the conservative typologies that had dominated the campus since the beginning of the 20th century. But they are enlivened by sparkling, inventive detail in tile, terra cotta, cast stone, and metals. In 1963, Texas Agricultural & Mechanical College became Texas A &M University and women were admitted for the first time as regular students. Between the mid I 9d0s and the mid 1970s, the university's enrollment tripled. A building boom during the administrations of presidents ). Earl Rudder and Jack Williams met this increase in students and new acade- mic programs. Since 1970, new buildings have been much bigger than pre-1970 buildings and tend to consist of aggressive shapes masked by brick or precast Concrete cladding. When not constrained by the spatial order of the campus core, they tend to lose any sense of connection to a larger spatial whole. As a result, the outlying sectors of the central cam- pus, especially the West Campus, lack a distinctive sense of architecturally defined place. 10 IT f * A s A * M U N I V E R S I T Y Beginning the fraying of the edges was the U.S. Department of Agriculture Building (1942, now Dulie Bell Hall) by Houston architect Alfred C. Finn at the corner of University Dr. and Wellborn Road. It is one of the few campus buildings not in align- ment with the university's Academic Building. Finn had no A8cM connection. But this building was financed with loans from the federal Reconstruction Finance Corporation, presided fiver by linn's client, Houston entrepreneur Jesse II . Jones. Finn's involvement at AtfcM hinged on this connection. Adjoining are two Finn- designed dormitories: Crocker and Mclnnis Halls (1942). Visible from Wellborn are the backs of Moses, Keathley, and Fowler Halls, low-rise, balcony accessed modern dormitories by Matthews is; Associates (1964). Marking the historic West Gate entrance from Wellborn Road (originally the entrance from the H&TC tracks and the College Station stop) is the Albritton Hell Tower ll^.S-f] by Morris* Auhry Architects of Houston, a gift of Mr. and Mrs. Ford D. Albritton, Jr., which straddles Old Main Drive. As early as 1911 Professor Gicsccke sought to reshape campus space more resolutely than it had been in the 19th century by enforcing axes of movement and view, to which I'rofessor I lensel was to contribute with his planting of live oak trees. Thus the historic Simpson Drill Field, once disen- cumbered of the faculty housing and student dormitories built oil and around it, became a monumental grass mall, establishing a grander sense of scale. On the south sale ol the Drill Field is the Memorial Student Center (1950, Carleron W. Adams, System Architect). Despite an obtrusive porte-cochere added in 197.?, the MSC stands out as a classic 4<)s-mod- em version of Frank Floyd Wright's Prairie School architecture, with its emphatic hori/.ontality and rich materials palette, including a base course of fosstlated Texas limestone. The l.os Angeles interior decorator Robert D. Ilarrell, who had just completed the interiors of the Shamrock Hotel in I louston, was responsible for the center's original interiors. Adams, a veteran San Aniomo architect, had such archi- tects as Wallie Scott, Brooks Martin, and Nikkie Holleman on his staff when the Memorial Center was designed. Glommed onto the cast side ot the building is the J. Farl Rudder Center (197.1) by Jarvis Putty Jarvis of Dallas, an arts, performance, con- tinuing education, and conference complex that includes a 12-story rower. The New York decorator William Pahlmann designed its interiors; his excesses—particularly his Flag Room—prompted campus protest. On the north side of the Drill Field is Henderson Hall (1958), a dormi- tory by Carleton W. Adams that is a reprise of the Memorial Student Center. Next to it is one of the most modest and affecting buildings on campus. All Faiths Chapel (|4sT), by Richard E. Vrooman with Ernest l.angford. Faced with fossilated limestone, the chapel is the campus's TEXAS A * At U n i v t tt s i i v l I MlFditht'haM \, ,i.li!l[f, HmUitut sr '•:.-,• ,1 only contribution to the modern architectural movement that was so important to College Station and Bryan in the 1950s. Vrooman's expansive de-centered interior, indoor-outdoor \ist.i-.. anti-momimentaliry, and tine detailing make the chapel a moving place. Unfor- tunately, the grounds, originally designed hy Robert l;. White, are not as well maintained as the building. Bookending the axis at the edge ot the central campus are the YMCA Building [1914) In architecture professor S.J. fountain and the Richard Coke Building (19511 hy Houston architects Herbert S. Voelcker &; Associates. They frame the domed Academic Building (1914) by l;. K. C.iesecke and Samuel l;„ Gideon. In 1912, Ciesecke left A&M to start the architecture program at LIT, taking his star design critic, Sam Gideon, with him. I Ins detection was not held against Gicscckc, who returned to AcvM as professor of architecture and College Architect in 1927. Until 1964, the architecture department occupied the top Moor ot the Academic Building. A focus of ritual rever- ence is Ponipeo Coppini's standing bronze figure of Lawrence Sullivan Ross { L919). Sul Ross was president of A&M College and governor ot Texas, flanking the Academic Building to the south and north are the nearly identical Civil Engineering Building 11909, now Nagle Hall) and Electrical Engineering Building (llM2, now Bolton Hall), both In Ciesecke. the Academic Building and the two engineering buildings are examples of the engineer's classicism that was Giesecke's forte. Their composition, scale, and brown brick facing are redolent of the coun- ty courthouses and high schools that AcvM students would have known troiu their borne towns, a connection that makes the central campus buildings archetypes of the landscape ot early 20th-century Texas. To the west of Nagle I lall is Hart Hall ( 19.10), with its chamfered corners, a dormitory by F. E. Ciesecke. According to Truest l.angford's invaluable document on the architectural history of the AScM campus, Here We'll BtiiLl the College (1963), all of the buildings pro- duced during Ciiesecke's second tenure as College Architect were designed by S. C. P. Vosper. I lart I Jail's chamfered corners play off the angled front of the Extension Administration Building | 1 924, now Military Sciences) by E. B. LaRoche, a professor of architecture who went on to become a partner of Herbert M, Creene and Ceorge L. Dahl of Dallas, architects for UT during the 1920s and 1930s. J.aRoche's building in turn frames the classical portico of rhe Research Administration Building (19|8, now Butler Hall), one of the few cam- pus buildings between the 1900s and 1950s produced by an outside architect, in this case, William Ward Watkin of I louston and Ins partner Ceorge Endrcss ot Austin. Watkin, professor of architecture at the Rice Institute, also designed the original campus buildings of Texas Technological College in Lubbock in the 1920s. Abutting the Military Sciences Building is the Physics Building 11921, now Psychology). It was designed 12 I T f X A i ,\1 U N I V E R S I T Y In .irdiirmurf uurrim W. Vorr Dunne, l w remembered »a Da/Ju a/dtite^ tvJio spe- cialtzed in the design of movie theaters ,itmss lexas m the 1920s and 19.10s, it mirrors the Mechanical Engineering Building ( 1920, now Fermier Hall) to the north of the Academic building, by Holland Adclspergcr, a professor of architecture. A modern note is sounded by the concrete trained Biological Sciences Building (I 9fth, now biological Sciences West) by Matthews & Associates. The Matthews office adopted modern structural expression hut fit the building to its context by respecting existing heights, alignments, and typologies. The Gushing Library (1930, F. E. Giesecke) was designed and built before the Permanent University Fund monies became available. It has the scale and dignity, if not the ornamental exuberance, of Giesecke and Vosper's subsequent campus buildings. The quadrangle trained by the Gushing Library and the Academic building is the heart of the old campus. The col- oration and scale of the surrounding architecture, and especially the presence of the live oak trees planted by Frit/. Hensel, make this colle- giate space feel very much like those on the UT campus in Austin. This perception works best if one stands with one's back to the multistory Harrington Kducation Center I |9~4) by Harriett (. ockc ex Associates ot San Antonio, a behemoth that parodies the architecture of O'Neil Ford. The mercilessness ol post-1970 architecture at AcvM begins to be inescapabl) apparent here. The dishing Library is now the tail of a vast library complex; the hotly is Jarvis Putty Jarvis's Sterling C. F.vans Library ()9e,K|, the maw is the aggressive and ungainly Sterling C. Evans Library Addition (1980) by Preston M. Cieren ex Associates of Fort Worth, which consumed a landscaped plaza formerly located between the library and the classical Agriculture Building (192.1, F. R. LaRoche). South ot the Kvans library is another of Matthews & Associates' deferential modern buildings, the interestingly textured Plant Sciences Building (1962, now C. F, Peterson building). Following the side street that Peterson faces leads, on axis, to the Corps of Cadets Dormitory Group (I9>9, Alfred C. linn), a symmetrically organized complex of banded brick buildings forming a series of linked quadrangles built with RFC funding. South ol the Agriculture Building is the ex-Animal Husbandry Pavilion (1917, Rollaiul Adelsperger), now a student services center. North of the library is another classically detailed Fndress & Watkin academic building, Francis Hall (1918). To the west is a cross-axial mall onto which Giesecke and Vosper's immense Chemistry Building (1929) faces. Colorful tile spandrel panels beneath its second- and third-floor windows exhibit chemical symbols. Fuming east along the street that passes the Chemistry building, one is especially aware of the line of cypress trees planted to complement llensel's live oaks. Across the street is another of the extraordinary buildings that Giesecke and Vosper produced, the Petroleum Engineering and Geology Building 119 *2, now I lalbouty Geosciences). 'lilMt S u tl ( . ( I J I C JV (Triil./iP'.J TEXAS At LI i* J v E « S i T y\ 13 ['tlmttifry it \\u\li\w.S • • <*?• v. Siditir* I /.ill llllllh? IllJlfihlr' 111 Kylr FifJ.1 Its polychrome tile spandrel panels arc especially captivating, as are its crisp cast stone sculptural details, another Vosper specialty, I l.ilhonty has lost its marvelous Art Deco tower, which was twice as tall as the building and meta- morphosed from a square in plan to an octagon at its summit with inset mittjiirnas. A multistor y annex to the Chemistry Building is the Ne w Chemistry Building (1984) by Pierce Goodwin Alexander ot Houston. At the east end of the street is the Veterinary Hospital Building | l l '!4, now Civil Engineering] by Gicsccke and Vosper. Since the hospital was onl\ two stories high rather than three, Vosper compensated by laying on the cast stone ornament. Turning back, then heading south, one re-engages the main axis and an entire new quadrangle shaped as part of the east campus expansion of the early I'J.lUs, Pacing each other across the wide green lawn are Giesecke and Vosper's Agricultural Engineering Building 111> >2, now Senates Hall) and the Animal Industries Building (lLM2). Scoates Hall stands out by virtue of its giant-scaled entrance portal, suffused with ornament in a variety of media. The tower-framed Animal Industries building also possesses a bold entrance pavilion, where Vosper's iconography takes on a pronounced I'exan flavor: cattle brands appear as cast metal ornament around the front door. Terminating the avis is the John K. Williams Administration Building (19.12, K. E. diesecke with S. C. P. Vosper and Raiford W. Stripling), a palace-like classical block faced with cast stone. Its visual impact from the east is even more dramatic. The site was graded so that the building appears to rise on a promontory on axis with New Main Drive, which fritz I lensel framed with live oaks. Stairs descend from the Administration building to a symmetrical parterre at the level of New Main Drive. The interior of the building is as exuberantly colored and ornamented as a 1920s movie palace. Flanking the A d m i n i s t r a t i on b u i l d i n g are the 12-story Eller Oceanograph y an d Meteorology Building (197.1, Preston M. Cieren tv Associates) and the Langfor d Architecture Center, home of the College of Environmental Design (1977, 1964, Harwoo d K. Smith tv Partners). The most clever work of modem design in the east quadrangle is the undulating berms at its west end ()97h , Myrick Newman Dahlberg, landscape architects), behind the Agricultural building. These emphasize the flat sweep of the quadrangle lawn and ingeniously screen a parking lot that has held on at the center ol the campus. Between existing buildings is the Library, Computing, and Study Complex, a huge but considerately scaled annex to the Ivans I ibrary by Austin architects draeber, Simmons tv Cowan (1998). Kyle Field, i t IT t x A s * M U N I V E R S I T Y the university's football stadium, is an extraordinary landmark. It incorporates, on its low- esi tier, the original stadium built between \^1~ and 1929 to the designs of architects Henry N. June and I'.rnest l.angford and engineer (.. L:, Sandstedr. The highrisc upper decks, served by projecting curved ramps lLoekwood, Andrews & Newnam, I9.X0), raise the profile of Kyle Held and give it its commanding presence in the landscape. Across Wellborn Road and the H&TC tracks from the central campus is AtfcM's West Campus, which has taken shape since the 1970s. It is not the architectural design of build- ings that makes the West Campus problcmmatic but the lack of a campus plan. Buildings appear to be sited at random, as though this were an architectural parking lot. The major buildings on the West Campus include: the Recreational Sports (enter and Naiatoruini (1995) by Marmon Mok of San Antonio, the Kleberg Center by ID/International of Houston, the Heep Center for Soil and Crop Sciences and Entomology 11L>~7) by Omniplan of Dallas, the Biochemistry/Hiophysics Building (I9K9) by Harper, Kemp, Clutts & Parker of Dallas, the Horticulture/Forest Service Center Building (I9N4) by Fisher Sc Spillman of Dallas, the West Campos Library |19lM) by Ray Bailey Architects of Houston, the E. L. Wehner Business Administration Building (I9SM) by Harper. Kemp, Chirr* ex Parker, the Reynolds Medical Building i T>Si] In Page Southerland Page of Austin, and the Medical Science library (19851 by Chumncy, Jones Sc Kell of San Antonio. Across Stot/er Parkway. a continuation of University Drive, is the Veterinary Medicine Small Animal Clinic (I9N11, also by Chumncy, Jones &: Kell. The architectural climax of the West Campus is the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum [ I 1 >L O , designed by CRSS of Houston and completed by llellmufli, Obata c\ Kassabaum after it absorbed CRSS. Isolated in a landscape park, the museum and library seem to forecast the innocuous suburban future toward which I nllege Station is striving. (IttWjl /inJi Pmidcntidl Li/'titryl illlif Atusruin ' 'iiJm K U'rl/ii?iii* AdlttilM'SfMBM liui'.l.iT./ • irht haw- tflm Nan Aliiin Dim IIWIJIIUI ftBiit tht Univmity AAminhlmtUm BiiiUma T r x ,i S A t M U N l v E » - i i v 15 -t 1 1 1 H H 1 1 H • I t 1—H I 1 1 t -H 1 1 1 1 H -t 1 1 1- c: C) L L E G E STATION College Station was the name given to the H&TC train stop opposite the campus of Texas A&M College. Until the 1920s, faculty lived on the campus in an array of houses between the college station and the main building. The campus was in the open countryside and there was little surrounding settlement. In the early 1920s a group of faculty members developed a residential subdivision, College Park, south of the campus. It was joined by a second Southside subdivision in the early 1930s, a subdivision at East Gate and the new Highway 6 in the late 1930s, and institu- tional and commercial development at North Gate along N, College Main St. In 1938, College Station was incorporated as a city, inhabited almost entirely by ASM faculty members and staff. From 1942 until 1966, Ernest Langford, professor of architecture at A&M, head of the architecture department from 1929 until 1956, and general eminence grise, was mayor of College Station. North Gate is the commercial and institutional area on University Drive opposite the A&M campus. In the 1920s, it was where different religious organizations began to build chapels ministering to students, some quite substantial in size. The earliest of these chapels no longer exists: the Spanish style St. Mary's Catholic Chapel 119261, designed by the El Paso architects Trost & Trost at 607 University and N. Nagle Immediately behind the site of the Trost chapel ties St. Mary's Student Center (1354) at 103 N. Nagle St. and N. Church Ave. Designed by William E Nash with Harry S Ransom, this unassuming modern building is house-like in scale. Closed on its street sides, it opens to a rear garden orig- inally planned by Robert F White Its days may be numbered. [6 I ( ii I I I i. E S r A T i o n I I I I I I I I I I - I — I — I — I — I — ( — t- Our Savior's Lutheran Church The most architecturally sensational house of wor- ship in North Gate is Our Savior's Lutheran Church (19561 at 309 Tauber St. and Cross by A&M architecture instructor and CflS partner-to-be Frank D. Lawyer, with Ernest Langford Bravura structural and glazing details complement the sweep of its ascending roof. Note the CflS-like use of hard red paving brick Much more subdued in treatment is the University Lutheran Chapel (19651 at 315 N College Main St and Cross by A&M instructor Rocky Thorpe Tucked inconspicuously into the mixed landscape of North Gate is the post oak woodland garden at 314 Spruce and N College Mam, cultivated by Robert F. White (1364). Ernest Langford designed the sedate, classically detailed A&M Church of Christ (19331 at 301 N College Mam St with Milton Foy Martin of Houston At 203 N College Main and N. Church is the Baptist Student Center 11950} by Norton & Mayfield, one of several Baptist student centers designed across Texas at that time by Henry 0 Mayfield. Unfortunately, the most architecturally distinctive commercial building on University, the stream- lined ex-Campus Theater |c 1941) at 217 University and N. Boyett, has hcnndi faced William M. Sparks's Aggieland Pharmacy Building |c 1938) at 401-405 University and N. College Main has been a focus of the City of College Station's program in the late 1990s to reha- bilitate North Gate. The block of College Mam just off University was the first part of North Gate to be intensively commercialized San Antonio architect Henry Steinbamer was responsible for the dignified neo-Gothn: A&M Methodist Church 11946,19511 at 417 University Dr. and Tauber. The northernmost point in North Gate is Hensel Park off S. College. This 30 acre park, which belongs to Texas A&M. com- memorates pioneer landscape architecture professor Fritz A&M Church olChrisI Agginliind Pharmacy Building Hensel with a dense preserve of post oak woodland marking the boundary between College Station and Bryan East Gate lies on the side of the A&M campus bordering Texas Ave This had been the back door to the college until the Texas Ave. highway opened in 1936 Walton Drive, a continua- tion of the imposing New Main Drive into the campus, leads to the subdivision of College Hills Estates, developed by John C Culpepper beginning in 1938 Although its houses are not remarkable. College Hills features the generous Thomas Park esplanade between Puryear Drive and James Parkway Reflecting his market base, Culpepper named many of the streets ol College Hills lot senior members of the A&M facul- ty, among them the dean of engineering and future college president Frank C Bolton, father of Houston architect Preston M Bolton. Backing up to College Hills Estates is the College Station City Hall, Police, and Fire Building (1970, C R Watson Associates, 19B4. Russell Stogsdill)at 1101 Texas Ave. and Francis St. Just south of the Texas-George Bush Drive intersection. Park Place South intersects Texas, Hidden on Park Place, behind the commercial strip along Texas, is one of College Station's small African American enclaves, which originated as a rural subdi- vision of the Kapchinski family farm Off Anderson St. at Wolf Bun Lane is the Wolfpen Village subdivision begun by Robert D Martell in 197t It is the townhouse enclave of College Station Row houses, many designed by College Station archi- tects J W. Wood Associates, are faced with Mexican brick, the material of choice in College Station since the 1970s. At George Bush Or and Holick, the one building that survives from A&M Consolidated Senior High School by Caudill, Rowlett. Scott & Associates is visible the 600-seat Auditorium (1954), ns fly- ing saucer-like roof sup- ported on exposed lami- nated timber arches. Also gone are all components of the original Consolidated School (1940) by Clarence J. Finney and Ernest Langford at George Bush and Timber. Like the High School, the Consolidated School was published in the national architectur- al press; it was one of the earliest schools in Texas planned according to modernist principles. Auililoriuni Cotlf G! S T A T ( (i Ml 17 Giesecke House Timber Lane leads through another Gill Fitch-built sub- division. The east side of the 300 and 400 blocks are lined with Fitch's variations •n the favored Bryan- College Station '50s mod- ern house type Park Place S. leads to (he Southside subdivision of Oakwood Addition (19321, developed by H E. Burgess. Clearly predating the 1930s is the Giesecke House 11891) al 1102 Park Place S and Lee. the second oldest building in College Station and once home to architect F. E. Giesecke. After the A&M adminis- tration decided to remove all bouses from the campus in 1939. many of the wooden cottages that had fined the perimeter of Simpson Drill Field and the zone where the Memorial Student Center was built were moved into Oakwood Addition and the neighboring College Park (Professor and Mrs. Paul Van Riper have been able to identify 41 of these houses in College Station, Bryan, and Brazos County) This house, which original- ly stood on the site ol the Memorial Sludent Center, has been rehabilitated by architect Gerald Maffei Us grounds have been brilliantly landscaped by artist Joan Maffei Newton Adjoining is Canterbury House (19751 by David G Woodcock with M 0 Lawrence St Thomas Chapel was sub- sequently joined on the Southside by the B'nai Brith Hillel Foundation 11958] al 800 George Bush Dr and E. Dexter Drive, designed by Houston architects Lenard Gabert & W Jackson Wisdom The oldest neighborhood in College Station is College Park developed in 1923 by Floyd B Clark, professor of economics at A&M. and his associates in the Southside Development Company: Charles W Burchard, professor of chemistry, Daniel Scoates, professor of agricultural engineering, and M. M Daugherty The centerpiece of College Park is the picturesque Brison Park, bounded by East and West Dexter Drives and named for F. R. Brison, professor of horticulture. This was planned by landscape architect Fritz Hensel, WIID also designed the subdivision Among the house sites that slope toward the park are those of Professor Clark at 305 E. Dexter (19241, Professor Brison at 600 W. Dexter, and the first -i—i —i—i —i—i—i —i—i—i -i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i t Warner House At 300 Lee Ave. formerly stood the first work of modern architecture in College Station, the small Clarence J. Finney House (1936), which A&M architecture profes- sor Jack Finney designed and built for himself. Influenced by the Usonian houses of Frank Lloyd Wright, Finney planned his flat-roofed wood house for maximum pene- tration by the prevailing southeast breeze. Similar considerations are visible in the C. E. Warner House at 211 Lee |c. 19361. with its south-side screened porch. Developer Hershel E. Burgess lived at 112 Lee in a restrained neo-Georgian house designed by Ernest Langford (1935) At 202 Pershing and Suffolk is the most strik- ing house in Oakwood. the Monterey style J. R. Couch House 11940) Professor Langford was also architect for the suburban- rustic St. Thomas Chapel (1938). the Episcopal student chapel, at 906 George Bush Dr. between Pershing and Newton, which is now attached to the larger St. Thomas Episcopal Church 11995) by Austin architect Chartier C Couch House Snlicmher Hmist BTSSMfs <*-"v/^l Ernest Langford House g^£ 119291 at 602 W. Dexter. _imHii^BiiiKia_-i At 606 Jersey Drive, on the north side of the park, is lln' I:IIIII|I,II:[ minium Richard E. Vrooman House (1955) by architec- ture professor Dik Vrooman There are two other small modern houses of note in College Park the Vick E. Schember House (c 1953) at 511 Ayrshire St and Bell by William E Nash with Harry S. Ransom .mil the L. Brooks Martin House (1950) al 504 Park Place S. and Walsh by L Brooks Martin Note that on the west side of Brison Park, the streets are named for different breeds of cat- tle. College Park launched Professor Clark on a long career as one o( College Station's fore- most residential real estate developers Unilmian-Univarsalist Fellowship At 305 Wellborn Ril IS the ex A&M Christian Church (now the Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship, c 1949) by A&M architecture professor Ben H Evans, which is sited in a shady grove Its angled louvered wings (19811 are by College 18 I C (1 t L t I. £ S T A T i o n Station architect Rodney C Hill Around the comer, above father's Bookstore in (he Southside Community Center at 340 George Bush Dr and Montclair |c 1938), is the second- floor olfice space where Bill Caudill and John M. Rowletl set up what would become Caudill Rowletl Scott in 1947. Following E Dexter south to Holleman Drive, then east to Winding Road, brings one tD The Knoll This was developed by F B Clark in 1947. The Knoll was conceived as the modern architecture enclave of College Station Although it never quite attained the design stature envisioned for it. The Knoll is a showcase of College Station modernism ol the 1950s. Its single, loop street descends at 1206 Orr Dr where the architectural highlight of the neighborhood, the second William W. Caudill House (1953, Caudill, Rowletl. Scott & Associates), is located. Turned on its site to open to the downward stope, the brick and glass Caudill House and its companion rear studio building commu- nicate the enthusiasm for going modern that was so appealing Caudill House House M iS/jis.n 1211(1 Langford; it has been altered The David D. Yarbrough House [c I960) at 1Z13 Winding Road was designed by A&M architecture instructor and former CRS employee Yarbrough with paneled walls of black glazed brick. At 1211 Winding Road is the Dean W. W. Armistead Housed: 1956). L Brooks Martin designed the altered, split-level Professor Arthur G. Edmonds House (19491 at 1205 Winding Road. Prolessor Clark named several of the streets on The Knoll and its exten- sion. The South Knoll, lor Weick House Yarbrough House An i stei1.1 House I I I I I I I I I I I I -t—I 1—I—I--I—I—r—I—I—I—I—I—I--(—I 1—I 1—I- l.iwyiM House in the 1950s The Frank D. Lawyer House (1954) at 1214 Orr by architect Lawyer is closed on its long street side by a wall of cement panels and high-set clerestory win- dows. Note how stands of post oak woodland landscaping separate the house sites on The Knoll. Around the corner ai 1104 Langford St.. as the loop road begins to rise, is a corrugated cement pan- eled house designed by Ben H. Evans for Ins family (c. 1957). The Evans House has suffered Irom extensive additions, but the spatial counterpoint between the house and its open carport is still apparent. Theo R, Holleman designed his family's house (1961) at 1110 Langford. At 1115 Langford and Winding Road is the Fred Weick House (1949) by Caudill, Rowlett, ScDtt & Associates. Faced with limestone, it is an expansive version of the College Station modern house type. The second Ernest Langford Evans House architects who built their houses on The Knoll Langford, Caudill, and Franklin Lawyer Langford St leads past the Longley House at 1215(c 1970), an unexpected bit of old Santa Fe At 1220 Boswell St. is E Earl Merrill's South Knoll Elementary School (1967), a testament to his apprenticeship with CRS. Southside developed in spatial layers: the interwar layer between George Bush and Holleman Dr. was followed by the postwar layer between Holleman and Southwest Parkway. The 1960s and '70s layer is between Southwest Parkway and West Loop 2B18. Along 2818, churches stand out as the most visible works of architecture in the exploded landscape of sprawl, especially Peace Lutheran Church 11981) by Rodney C. Hill at 2201 Rio Grande Blvd. and West Loop 2818 and the flamboyantly post- modern Friends United Church of Christ (1981) byClovis Heimsath Associates of Austin ai 1300 West Loop 2918 Si. Francis Episcopal Church New Col lege Station lies south ol Deacon Drive Along Rock Prairie Road, St. Francis Episcopal Church at 1101 (1987. Holster & Associates) and tin; College Station Medical CO t t t CI S T A T 1 O W I" Center Hospital (1987, Page Soulherland Pagel at 1604 Rock Prairie are the architectural stand outs On the east side ot the East Bypass. Rock Prairie leads to Stonebmok Dr and to Wilshire Court At 1307 Wilshire Court is the Julius M. Gribou House (1997) by ASM architecture department head Julius Gribou The northbound Irontage road leads to Sebesta, Foxfire, Frost, and eventually to 2509 Fitzgerald Circle, where the dramatic, triangular Peter J. Zweig House 11977), designed as an environmentally respon- sive house by Houston architect Zweig while teaching at A&M, is located At 2541 East Bypass is St Thomas Aquinas Zweig House H 1 1 1 1 1 1- I I I I I I I I I I I I Tin House Foley's Catholic Church I191)9). with its spatially remark- able interior, by College Station architects Holster & Associates with A&M architecture professor David C. Ekroth An homage to Gerry Maffei's Tin House is the Galvalume-surfaced, shed-like Tin House at 2504 Rainlree Dr. (19971. designed and buill by A&M architecture stu- dents Charley Hatfield and Matthew De Wolf Since opening in the late 1970s, the Highway 6 Bypass has stimulated sprawling suburban development. College Station's shopping mall, Post Oak Mall, was built at the Harvey Road intersection (1982); its primary architectural component is Foley's by Houston architects Lloyd Jones Brewer & Associates. At 1602 University Dr. E. and the Bypass is the College Station branch of the Scott & White Clinic ul Temple (1996) Page Southerland Page. Scott & While Clinic 20 C o t I E C E i' 1 A r i n u Acknowledgments Jay Baker Robert P Bovce Preston M Bolton Mrs J Russell Bradley Thomas A Bullock Mrs Roland Chatham Thomas Colbert C Gale Cook Margaret Culbertson Jean E Oonaho The Rev Kathleen Ellis John Gaston Fairey David Geiiing John Only Greer Julius M Gribou Frank Hartman Mrs T R Holleman James E Holster & Associates W Graham Horseley D Jean Krchnak William B Lancaster Keith Langford Charles £ Lawrence Joanne SeaieLawson Frank D Lawyer Shon Link Joan Mattei Mrs L Brooks Martin H Davis Mayfield III Steven A Moore Deborah Morris Frances Munsey William E. Mash Spencer Parsons Fred Patterson PaulE Pate Wiiham M Peria John Astm Perkins Harry S Ransom St Andrew's Episcopal Church Bame Scardmo Carl M Schoenfeid Patsy Swank Nancy Volkman Richard E Vrooman Mark Wamble Frank D Welch QavidG Woodcock John 2emanek Baylor University Library Texas Collection Ellen Kuniyuki Brown. Archivist Bryan Public Library Brazos County Clerk's Office Brazos County Historical Commission http '.'hup tamu edu BOOOV-dObl745'bchc html City of College Station Parks & Recreation Department College Station Historical Preservation Committee A ft ci college-station ix us/pwl/misc/historyv Dallas Public Library Texas/Dallas History Archives Division Carol Roark arc1* . H Houston Public Library Houston Metropolitan Research Center Steven Strom architectural archivist Texas and Local History Carol Johnson Donna Dixon Ellen Hanion Will Howard Douglas Weiskopf Rice University School of Architecture Lars Lerup dean Rice Design Alliance Linda L Sylvan, executive director Texas A&M University College of Architecture. Department of Architecture Julius M Gribou department heas College of Architecture Technical Reference Center Paula M Bender, coordinator of learning services R Bryan Stewart, senior library specialist CRS Center Robert E Johnson, executive directof Cushing Library Donald H Dy-al. Ph D . director Davrt Oisoman. Ph D . archivist Facilities Planning and Construction. Administration Division Tony Heger Melody Meyer University of Texas at Austin Alexander Architectural Archive Beth J Oodd. director Lois Brock Adnance Descendants of Moses Austin. 1793-1983 Waco. Texian Press. 1984 Deborah Lynn Baihew. College Station Texas '333 1988. College Station- intaglio Press, 1987 Jody Bates. "The 1950s a Golden Decade for Architecture m B-CS Area." Bryan-College Station Eagle, undated dipping Kathleen Davis. St Andrews Bryan The First 125 Years. Bryan St Andrea s Episcopal Chu'Ch '992 Henry C QeMoti. A Centennial History of Te\as A&MUntvewn. 1876-1976.2 volumes. College Station Texas A&M Ui- • !975 John S. Garner. "Architecture at A&M The Past One Hundred Year? ran 27iMarch-Apni 19771.33-36 John S Garner. "The Saga of a Railroad Town Calvert. Texas (1868-19! J -^/f 85<Ocrobei I98H. 139-60 Martene Elizabeth Heck. Hardy Heck Moore. Historic Resources of Bryan Texas 1985 Ernest Langford. rTie first fifty Years of Architectural Education at me ASM College of Texas. College Station 1957 Ernest Langford. "Here We'll Build the College" 2 volume manuscript. 1963 Michael McCullar. Restoring Texas Raited Stnohng's Lite and Architecture. College Station Texas A&M University Press 1985 Sunny Nash. Bigmama Didn t Shoo at Woohwnh s. College Station Texas A&M University Press, 1996 David G Woodcock Historic Architecture Brazos County Historic Architecture m Glenna Fourman Brundige editor. Braios Counv. - Past-Bright Future. Bryan family History Foundation. 1986. pp 357-415 I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I