I can’t pick my absolute favorite thing about the picture of Main Street across from Rice in 1921–there is just too much awesomeness. One of my favorites, though, is the bird’s eye view of The Owl, to the left of Autry House near the street.
I don’t know a whole lot about it, but I do know that there was a little refreshment stand in that place from the very early days of the Institute. There are a lot of references to it scattered around in various scrapbooks, letters and reminiscences. Here’s a picture from a scrapbook that belonged to one of the guys in the first class. You can see that in this very early iteration The Owl was much smaller and sort of ramshackle and that a Coke cost 5 cents. (I know this was The Owl because the person who kept the scrapbook labeled his photos. Let this be a lesson to us all.)
I don’t know who built this first Owl, but I do know that in 1919 it passed into the hands of George Martin, who expanded and improved it. (Note how much bigger and nicer it is in the 1921 photo.) A few years ago, former Rice basketball coach Don Knodel very graciously sent several things over to the Woodson for safekeeping. One of the more interesting was a beautiful scrapbook kept by Martin, best known to most people as the original owner of Ye Old College Inn and a fervent supporter of Rice athletics. In that scrapbook I found this picture:
This photo is dated 1919, and Martin notes that this was his first restaurant and that it was built on the site that later was home to Palmer Memorial Church. It’s clearly the same place, in the early stages of being fancied up, not yet as big or as nice as it is in the 1921 picture. (And how creepy is that Honey Boy sign?) So how long did it stay there? Martin opened Ye Old College Inn in 1920, but I don’t know when The Owl disappeared. Rice’s architecture professor William Ward Watkin designed Palmer Church in 1927 and I think it was built soon after that, so it must have shut down sometime between 1921 and roughly 1928. I’ll check and see if I can find anything in the Thresher or Campanile, and I’ll also look in Watkins’ papers. You never know.
Bonus picture:
This is the newly installed sign for Ye Old College Inn in 1920. Check out the fresh cement.
Wouldn’t there be a city directory from this time frame, too? Not entirely accurate, but it might help narrow the time down before you go to the Thresher.
I read the article before the comments, and had the same idea as Lisa. Houston Public Library has a lot of city directories digitized and online. In the 1918 directory, I found this (http://digital.houstonlibrary.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/citydir/id/10860/rec/2 scroll down to p. 594, but physical page ), the last listings under Main St.:
ws [west side] Rice Wm M Institute
Northrop J W Jr office
opp [opposite] Rice Inst Smith E V
So, no listing for The Owl or its proprietor, but the name of the person living in the house on the east side of Main is a E V Smith, who is (p454, physical p879) Egbert V Smith, Secretary-Treasurer of the Smith Drug Co.
J.W. Northrop, Jr. is listed (p385, physical p746) as an architect of Rice Institute, living at 701 Huntington Av in the 4th Ward (a street that no longer exists, not sure where it was).
Just found your blog a little while ago, got lots of entries to catch up on!
That’s great! Thanks very much for chipping in too! I need all the help I can get.
Very nice picture of Ye Old College Inn. I noticed that there appear to be light bulbs under the roof of that sign. Also there are two black lines running from the right of the picture to the sign. I assume those are electical lines and that the sign was illuminated, which must have made the sign pop out after sunset. Good story.
Hi, Phil! I always think of you when I’m looking through the scrapbooks.
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Honey Boy => Very creepy
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Hi great readingg your post