Houston Post-Dispatch Building
a.k.a. Shell Building; 609 Fannin
609 Fannin, Houston, TXDesigned by Carl Staats of Sanguinet, Staats, Hedrick and Gottlieb for Texas oilman and entrepreneur Ross Sterling, the 1926 Houston Post-Dispatch Building illustrates the mark that new wealth was making on Houston's skyline during the boom years of the 1920s and is emblematic of Houston's growing importance as a commercial center of the state and Gulf Coast. In the Roaring Twenties, Houston took its place as the headquarters of the southwest's oil and timber industries. Skyscrapers sprang up all over downtown Houston during this period, as oilmen, lumbermen, and bankers sought to put their entrepreneurial stamp on the center of Texas commerce, Houston. The Post-Dispatch building was commissioned by an oilman Ross Sterling to house his new businesses and was later used from 1930 to 1970 as the regional headquarters of Shell Oil. It embodies the entrepreneurial spirit that was the hallmark of Houston's commercial success in the 1920s and is therefore nominated at the local level of significance in the area of Commerce. The building is also eligible in the area of Architecture as a good example of the tension between Classical Revival form language and modern skyscraper design. Despite alterations to the ground-level facades and the interior spaces, the building retains a sufficient degree of integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association to remain recognizable to its period of significance.
Local significance of the building:Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 2002.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.