Kennedy Bakery

Believed to have been constructed in the 1860s, the Kennedy Building in downtown Houston is generally acknowledged as the oldest structure in Houston existing on its original site. The building occupies the site of the previous "Shakespeare Coffee House." Legends report the two-story brick structure, which was built for pioneer merchant John Kennedy, at various times housed a trading post, stage stop, and slave market. Research indicates, however, that the structure housed Kennedy's bakery. This long, narrow building, constructed of load-bearing masonry, is a fine example of 19th-century commercial architecture with elaborate brick delineations in the cornice area.

John Kennedy, a native of Ireland and a baker by trade, came to Houston in 1842. Residing first in New Jersey and later in Missouri, Kennedy had amassed and subsequently lost two considerable sums of money before moving to Houston, penniless at the age of twenty-three. In the fall of 1842, Kennedy opened a small bakery on Franklin Street, between Main and Fannin, which was later moved to what is believed to have been the old two-story, wood-frame coffee house on Congress Street between Travis and Franklin. In the next few years, Kennedy acquired this latter property, now identified as 813 Congress, as well as the adjoining property at the corner of Travis and Congress. A building erected on the corner lot became known as Kennedy's Building and the property thereafter known as Kennedy's Corner. These properties are located in what was once Houston's central commercial district, Market Square. A disastrous fire swept through the block in August 1860, destroying all of Kennedy's property improvements. He began reconstruction immediately and erected a second Kennedy Building, a three-story brick structure on the site of the original one. It is believed that the present bakery building, today known as La Carafe, is this building. By the time the Civil War began, Kennedy was maintaining a steam bakery, gristmill, and a retail grocery store as well as a large number of Negroes and several thousand acres in Harris and adjoining counties. During the war, the Kennedy Building served as an arsenal and the Bakery was contracted to supply the Confederate Army with "hardtack." When the occasion arose, Kennedy engaged in running cotton through the blockade established by Federal authorities. Following the war, Kennedy disposed of his vast acreage, which he considered worthless with the abolition of slavery, and focused his attention on mercantile pursuits. Kennedy's reputation for honesty and sound business management earned him respect and popularity in professional and private circles. For many years one of the few Catholics of means within the city, Kennedy was a primary supporter of Houston's first Catholic church, St. Vincent de Paul, constructed in the early 1840s. Kennedy contributed significant funding to the first church building and donated lots for the present cemetery. He entertained priests and visiting dignitaries at his home on San Jacinto Street and offered his trading post (as it became known) as a refuge for missionaries and a haven for the poor, regardless of color or creed.

The 1873 Houston City Directory lists a druggist operating from the bakery building, and drug stores, under several different ownerships, and continued to operate there until 1932, from which time a wide variety of businesses occupied it. Ownership remained in the Kennedy family until 1970. The building was sold to William V. Berry in 1970, who operates a pub, known as La Carafe, in the building.

In the mid-1960s, the family made structural repairs to the building and added nonstructural grillwork to the facade. This grillwork, while inconsistent with the historic fabric of the structure, is removable and should not be considered an irreversible incursion into the architectural integrity of the building.