Among the things that have arrived in the Woodson this week are some issues of a defunct Houston magazine called the Gargoyle. This publication was launched in 1928 as the first real Houston city magazine and it survived into the mid-1930s. It was quite sophisticated and looked at trends in dining, entertainment and business in addition to providing a good deal of local gossip. The back cover of almost every issue was an ad for real estate in the up and coming subdivision of River Oaks — more about this later.
The magazine is always worth the time spent on close perusal. Every issue I’ve ever read was full of interesting little Rice tidbits that I would never find anywhere else, making clear the central role the Institute played in Houston’s life. So I was expecting to find something — but I wasn’t expecting something as spectacular as this:
Click on it twice to zoom in and luxuriate in the minutiae. You’ll be glad you did. There’s a lot here that I will very carefully pick over in the next week or so.
Bonus: Be bold, y’all. Be bold.
