Sheridan Apartments

The Sheridan Apartments represent an important period in the architectural development of Houston's inner residential neighborhoods. Multiple-unit apartment buildings had become fashionable in the 1920s and early 1930s, although few have survived intact. The Sheridan was constructed as an investment by a prominent attorney, Robert C. Duff, whose residence stands across the street.

The first quarter of the twentieth century saw a new building type appear in Houston: the apartment building. While the city had large tracts of available land for single-family residential construction, it was still considered more desirable to live close to the city's business district. This led to the construction of a number of multiunit apartment buildings, mainly located near Main Street, to the southwest of the downtown business district. Many of these structures have been demolished during the city's post-World War II building boom. Although the Sheridan cannot claim the elegance of the Beaconsfield (National Register, 1983), it is of importance because it has undergone no significant alterations since its erection.

The property on which the Sheridan Apartments stand was acquired by Robert C. Duff on September 3, 1919, with construction of the building starting in 1922. The building was fully occupied by mid-1923. Robert C. Duff, who built and owned the Sheridan, was a cultural, social, and business leader in Houston and considered one of the legal giants of Texas. He was a lawyer and the son of another well-known attorney, George Washington Duff, in Brazoria County, Texas. His brother, F.J. Duff, also a lawyer and Robert's partner, later became a judge in Beaumont. Another brother, J.E. Duff, was a Beaumont banker who became a pioneer oil operator and a partner in H.R. Cullen's first oil strike in the Pierce Junction Field.

While still in Beaumont, Robert Duff was elected in 1902 to the Twenty-Eighth Texas State Legislature, representing Jefferson and Orange counties. The Beaumont law firm of F.J. and R.C. Duff was appointed division attorneys in 1900 for the Santa Fe Railroad at Beaumont. From then on, Robert Duff was involved in the purchase, merger, and sale of a number of railroads, and served as officer and director of them. He came to Houston in 1909, as a result of extending the Beaumont, Sour Lake, and Western Railway Company from Sour Lake to Houston and was one of the original directors of the Houston Belt and Terminal Railway Company. He also became a partner with J.M. West and held vast timber loads and a lumber mill.

Robert Duff continued buying, managing, extending, and selling railroads until the "Great Depression" of the 1930s when he lost most of his personal fortune trying to save the Waco, Beaumont, Trinity, and Sabine Railway Company. He was also involved in banking. He was one of the six organizers in 1912 of the National Bank of Commerce in Houston which, after various mergers, became the present Texas Commerce Bank. After Mr. Duff had to sell his home at 803 McGowen, he lived out his remaining years in an apartment at the Cotton Hotel (now the Montagu), continuing his business and legal activities at a much-reduced rate. He died in December of 1942.

The Sheridan is the only building still intact and on its original site which belonged to Robert Duff, one of Houston's early entrepreneurs who, with his wife, contributed much to the legal, business, and cultural development of the city.