Rice Lofts
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The Rice
(Rice Hotel) |
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The top of the The Rice Lofts, indicating its former name
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| Location | 909 Texas Avenue @ Main Street Houston, Texas United States |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 29°45′38″N 95°21′46″W / 29.7605°N 95.3628°WCoordinates: 29°45′38″N 95°21′46″W / 29.7605°N 95.3628°W |
| Built | 1913 |
| Architect | Mauran, Russell & Crowell; Alfred C. Finn, and J. Russ Baty |
| NRHP Reference # | 78002947 |
| Added to NRHP | June 23, 1978 |
The Rice Lofts, formerly the Rice Hotel, is a historic building at 909 Texas Avenue in Downtown Houston, Texas, United States. The current building is the third to occupy the site. It was completed in 1913 on the site of the former Capitol building of the Republic of Texas, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The old Capitol building was operated as a hotel until it was torn down and replaced by a five-story hotel around 1881. The 1913 Rice Hotel building underwent two major expansions in 1925 and 1958, as well as several remodelings. It continued to operate as a hotel before finally shutting down in 1977. The Rice was renovated and turned into apartments in 1998 after twenty-one years of standing unused.
When Augustus Allen and John Kirby Allen commissioned the first survey of Houston in the fall of 1836, they made plans to set aside property for use by the Republic of Texas. Eventually they chose property on the south side of Texas Avenue between Travis and Main Street. They also agreed to construct a capitol building for the Texas government, and leased the building on easy terms.
Republic of Texas used this as its capitol building from 1837 to 1839, and again from 1842 to 1845. In 1841, Mr. M. Norwood leased the building from the Allen Brothers, and ran it as the Capitol Hotel. After the Texas government left Houston again, Augustus Allen resumed leasing the building to various hotel operators. R.S. Blount bought the property in 1857. There were various hotel operators between 1857 and 1881 with a few name changes (Houston House and Barnes House).
Anson Jones, the last president of the Republic of Texas, committed suicide at the hotel in 1858.
Col. Abraham Groesbeck razed the original building and constructed a five-story Victorian hotel in 1881. The building, then known as the Capitol Hotel, was designed by George E. Dickey, and represented his first major commission since relocating to Houston in 1878.
William Marsh Rice bought the hotel after Groesbeck died in 1886. He added a three-story annex. Rice was murdered in 1900, and the hotel property was transferred to the Rice Institute, which he had established in 1891. The Rice Institute trustees renamed it the Rice Hotel.
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