City Condemns My Beloved Building, Market briefs

In Houston, Last week, as Good Friday was being remembered, I learned the building that I love the most was being shut down by the City of Houston.

Located on Montrose Boulevard, the beautiful Italian Romanesque structure was designed by Houston architect William Ward Watkin, who designed the original Museum of Fine Arts Houston, a number of buildings at Rice University and numerous other local landmarks. Watkin was a thought-leader in church architecture in the mid-1900s.

Originally a church, the Montrose edifice was renovated and became the Freed-Montrose Library public library in 1988.

Under municipal management, the Montrose library building has been deteriorating and deferred maintenance issues have been mounting, as stated by the Houston Landing publication.

So last week, the city reported the Montrose library would close because of “ongoing safety and facility issues that cannot be resolved in a timely manner.” Then Mayor John Whitmire reported Houston Public Library Director Rhea Lawson was being replaced.

The fate of this William Ward Watkin masterpiece structure in Houston’s Inner Loop is uncertain.

Why do I love this building so much? I’m writing this on Easter Sunday. So I will go to full disclosure mode.

Opening in 1946, the building was originally Central Church of Christ. I was baptized there as a boy. As a pre-schooler, it’s where I sang “Jesus Loves Me.”

I received a great deal of foundational religion instruction in that church building. I learned first-hand about the woes of poor children in east Montrose where alcoholism or incarceration destroyed families and left little ones in need of shelter.

This Montrose building is sacred to me, not that I’m special. It happens at all houses of worship where people experience weddings, funerals, baptisms and the occasional spiritual connection to something they consider to be holy.

Even though an MAI real estate appraiser can’t quantify it, we should not ignore the emotional values that humans hold for sacred places. Across the nation, there are some 100,000 “emptying houses of worship” that are obsolete now or appear to be heading toward transitioning to other uses in a few years, as stated by a recent report in Urban Land magazine. It will be a painful experience for many congregants who see their church become a redevelopment opportunity.

The Central Church of Christ opened in 1946 near the corner of Montrose Boulevard at Richmond Avenue. The church’s sanctuary became a public library 40 years later. Last week, the city reported the Montrose library would close because of “ongoing safety and facility issues that cannot be resolved in a timely manner.”

In The Fate the Former Home of Freed, Montrose Library and Central Church of Christ

In recent years, a plan has been slowly progressing to build a new replacement library near the corner of Montrose Boulevard and Westheimer Road in the Montrose Collective multi-use center developed by Radom Capital. In 2021, the Houston City Council voted to spend $4.6 million to create the new library.

Developer Steve Radom says the library location in the Montrose Collective was turned over to the city in 2022, but work has not yet started, the Houston Landing reports.

Perhaps the city could change the plan and spend a million or two to restore the Freed-Montrose Library building instead of plowing ahead at Montrose Collective.

But it appears the nearby University of St. Thomas wants to take over the Freed-Montrose library property and assimilate it into the university’s Montrose area campus which covers more than 30 acres north of Richmond Avenue, as stated by U.S. News & World Report.