- Neighborhood
- Downtown
- Year built
- 1926
- Style
- Beaux-Arts
- Era
- Interwar
- Designations
- Contributing resource, Main Street/Market Square Historic District
Significance
Opened in 1926 as the Auditorium Hotel, this twelve story hotel was built to serve visitors attending performances and conventions at the nearby City Auditorium. Its Beaux-Arts detailing and prominent Texas Avenue corner made it one of downtown's leading hotels of the oil boom decade. Renamed the Lancaster Hotel, it has operated continuously as a hotel for nearly a century and today anchors the Theater District as a boutique hotel. Its survival as a working hotel, rather than conversion to offices or demolition, makes it one of the best preserved reminders of Houston's 1920s hospitality industry.
Climate risks tracked
Click a risk to see what it means for this building.
The Theater District flooded severely during Tropical Storm Allison in 2001, when basements and ground floors across the area filled with water. For an operating hotel, protecting below grade mechanical spaces and having removable barriers for ground floor entrances is essential, as neighboring venues have already done. The Beaux-Arts cornice and upper story ornament face the strongest hurricane winds and should be inspected and anchored on a regular cycle. Original window openings can be fitted with interior storm systems that preserve the historic sash. The masonry exterior absorbs downtown's summer heat, so efficient interior climate control and a cool roof surface reduce load without touching the facade.
Use the preservation assistant to talk through retrofit strategies for these specific threats.
Location
Nearby landmarks
Preservation Assistant
Grounded in Auditorium Hotel (The Lancaster Hotel)
Suggested questions
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