Jefferson Davis Hospital - Houston, TX - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

The old Jefferson Davis Hospital, located near downtown Houston, TX, operated from 1924 to 1938 and was the first centralized municipal hospital to treat indigent patients in the city. As best described by the original August, 2004 NRHP Nomination Submission form:

(see: "ftp.thc.state.tx.us/nr_program/Houston,%20Jefferson%20Davis%20Hospital%20NR.pdf"; waymarking.com does not accommodate for automated links to FTP sites)

"The 1924-25 Jefferson Davis Hospital and its associated power plant building are on a slight bluff northwest of downtown Houston at the corner of Dart and Elder Streets, just north of the Southern Pacific railroad tracks. The hospital is a three-story Classical Revival style building composed of a central section with wings on a raised basement. The central bay projects from the building plane and has a cast stone portico with monumental fluted Ionic columns. The building sits on a slight bluff and faces southeast towards downtown Houston. Located on the site of the Old City Cemetery, the only active city cemetery from c.1840 to c.1870, the hospital grounds were designated a State Archeological Landmark in 1995 by the Texas Historical Commission [...]. The 1929 power plant building is located to the rear and north and is similar stylistically and in the method of construction to the hospital.

Jefferson Davis Hospital:

The Jefferson Davis Hospital building features a structural concrete frame with clay tile back up and a red brick veneer. Examples of the Classical Revival style are found in the cast stone detailing, brick corner quoins, the entry portico, and the pedimented basement entry doors. Above the second floor windows, a belt course surrounds the building just below the cast stone cornice. Historically, the windows of the building were paired 6/1 wooden sash in the central bay and slightly larger 6/1 single sash windows in the wings. All windows have been replaced with identical windows as part of the federal tax credit rehabilitation.

The central section of the building is three-stories with a continuous raised basement. The third floor rises above the cornice in this central section only and has a wood-framed, hip-on-hip roof with a hipped roof elevator penthouse in the rear. The roofing material was originally a green-colored terra-cotta tile and is currently asphalt composition shingles. The two-story wings have surrounding parapets that conceal a flat concrete deck roof. The concrete deck is continuous along the rear of the building connecting the wings at the roof level.

The symmetrical front or main façade has a rhythm of A-B-C-B-A. The central bay projects forward from the building plane. A grand staircase rises above the basement level to a large entry portico. Fluted Ionic pilasters and columns define the portico and support a full entablature with “Jefferson Davis Hospital” carved into the frieze. Above the entablature is a balustrade that is badly damaged. Cast stone molding and a pediment surround the entry. Brick quoins at the corners of this projecting bay are repeated on the corners of each bay on this façade. The symmetrical second and fourth bays (B) feature four pairs of windows, set at regular internals. At the basement level, each side has an arched cast stone door surround with pediment. The outer wings (A) feature four single regularly-spaced window openings. At the raised basement level, each of the windows has a cast stone keystone. The first and second floors follow the same fenestration pattern established at the basement level. Above the cornice of the wings is a brick parapet with cast stone coping.

The east and west facades are identical, with six window openings on each floor. The raked brick veneer of the façade wraps around the sides about 36" and then changes to a softer brick that has color ranges of orange, buff, brown with black glazed spots. A two-story stucco-veneered four-by-six bay addition on the northwest rear of the building was added in 1929. This addition was respectfully executed and follows the massing and rhythm (but not materials or window details) of the main building.

The rear of the hospital is four bays wide with a central three-story rear projecting ell and follows an A-B-C-B-A pattern. On the northern most part of the ell there is a small projecting one-story storage room. On the first and second floors of the second and fourth bays (B) are the sleeping porches located on either side of the central elevator and stair core (C). These porches were screened and were an integral part of the ventilation of the building in a time before air-conditioning. The presence of these sleeping porches is an architectural expression of a major shift in public health beliefs as the “age-old fear of the night air gave way to a fascination with fresh-air sleeping.”1. The windows on the rear of the building follow the pattern established on the main façade. On the rear of the third floor, the window pattern is irregular and includes narrow 4/1 sash as well as wider 6/1 windows. A large non-contributing two-story stuccoed frame clinic building dating to the 1960s caught fire, burned and was demolished in 2003.

[editor's note: the following comments are slightly outdated, as the interior has been restored since the then] The interior has suffered over the years from vandalism and changes to some of the interior spaces yet the majority of the original floor plan is extant. The entry foyer has a terrazzo floor with cove base – a detail that continues throughout the main corridors that run parallel to the main façade. The elevator shaft and a concrete staircase are located on the western or rear wall of the corridor and face into the entry foyer. The walls and ceilings throughout the hospital are plaster on a metal lathe. Offices, exam rooms and other small service rooms were located off of the main corridor with the wards at each corridor end on the first and second floors. The hospital was segregated and it is know from the original drawings that the raised basement level offered services to African American patients. Also on this level is a double or segregated corridor.[...]

Power Plant:

The power plant building is located to the rear and north and is similar stylistically and in the method of construction to the hospital. This building faces almost directly south towards the rear hospital façade. Completed in 1929, the Classical Revival building has a symmetrical A-B-A pattern.2 The main façade is composed of two large arched openings with cast keystones in the central 1½-story bay flanked by smaller wings. Above the large arched openings are horizontal windows with metal multi-light sashes. A smokestack with concrete veneer rises from the rear of the building. This building housed water tanks and boilers that provided steam to the hospital via an above ground pipeline.

The interior is industrial in feeling and has concrete walls and floors with no finishes. The floor plan is a large open central bay where the boilers were housed with the two wings. In the west wing is one large rectangular shaped room where the water tanks were once installed. The east wing has two rooms. The eastern-most (towards the façade) was a storage room and the small rear room was used as a maintenance office. The boilers and water tanks, clad in asbestos, were removed in 2004 as part of the hazardous materials abatement. [...]"

Street address: 1101 Elder St. Houston, TX USA 77002 County / Borough / Parish: Harris County Year listed: 2005 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Architecture (Architect: W.A. Dowdy -- Style: Classical Revival), Health/Medicine Periods of significance: 1925-1949 Historic function: Health Care (Hospital) Current function: Residential (Multi-unit Housing) Privately owned?: yes Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Secondary Website 1: [Web Link] Secondary Website 2: [Web Link] Season start / Season finish: Not listed Hours of operation: Not listed National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed

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