“Plate 1. This stately home, architecturally true to colonial tradition, was built prior to the Civil War by Judge Edwin A. Palmer of Virginia. It then stood remote from the street in the center of a square of ground bounded by Rusk, Walker, La Branch, and Austin Streets. Generous trees lent their shade to its spacious grounds, hedge-bordered paths led to its hospitable door. Today it is the remaining relic of a neighborhood once noted for beautiful homes, and though assigned to a meager portion of its original space, bereft of its charming setting and effective perspective, its stateliness and dignity still command attention.”

“Plate 2. In the early sixties this charming home was built by William Marsh Rice, founder of Rice Institute, for his bride. It was sold by his heirs to Emma Richardson Cherry, Texas painter, and moved several miles from its first environs to the south end of the city, escaping thereby the inevitable heel of business progress. Its massive doors and windows, carved woodwork, high ceilings, and spacious rooms bespeak the life of a past generation.”

“Plate 3. The plain brick home built by Paul Floeck, banker and baker of Houston, and sold by him in 1862 to C.S. Longcope, captain of a Mississippi steamboat, was one of the very few brick houses in the city at that date. The lace-like iron rail and gallery supports frequently found on the same type of house in Louisiana, were later bought by Captain Longcope, in New Orleans, to enhance the home. The homestead stands on its original site on Chenevert street in the immediate neighborhood, at present, of the new freight terminal of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad.”

“Plate 4. This is old Houston in the shadow of the new. Built in 1878, the quaint old building with mansard roof is seen against the modern eighteen storied Rice Hotel.”

“Plate 5. This presents the Administration Building of Rice Institute from the Academic Court. ‘The building is three hundred feet long and fifty feet deep. It has a central tower of four stories and a vaulted sally-port thirty feet high. Its architecture reveals the influence of the earliest periods of the Mediterranean countries; vaulted Byzantine Cloisters, exquisite Dalmatian brickwork, together with Spanish and Italian elements in profusion; all in a richness of color permissible only in climates similar to our own. To meet the local climatic conditions the building has been pierced by loggias and many windows, while its long shaded cloister opens to the prevailing winds.'”

“Plate 6. The Museum of Fine Arts at the intersection of Main and Montrose Boulevards, is a tribute to the vision of its Board of Trustees and the architectural genius of William Ward Watkin.”

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