When I arrived at Rice in 1991 the old Tidelands Motel had been the Graduate House for some time already. A grim, ill-lighted building, it also had a weird, scruffy sort of charm. I’ve heard people talk about its early days as a fashionable place but it seemed hard to credit. This picture makes it look better than it was:
But pictures in the Houston Post photo archives at the HMRC do reveal a Tidelands that was actually–of all things–glamorous! Here, with the motel sign above them, are the Miss Photoflash contestants at the Tidelands pool in October, 1958. It doesn’t look like it was too cold:
There was a different sort of entertainment inside the building. I recently came across negatives of Jonathan Winters performing at the Tidelands in January, 1959:
Bonus: The outside of the Julia Ideson Building at the downtown library. This is where the HMRC is located. It’s a pleasure to work there.
