S. H. Kress & Co. Building

Significance

Built in 1939 as a Houston store of the S. H. Kress & Co. five and dime chain, this Main Street building was designed in the Art Deco style by Edward F. Sibbert, the company's in house architect, who designed hundreds of Kress stores nationwide. Kress stores were known for their distinctive architecture, and the company treated its buildings as advertisements for the chain. The Houston store is a well preserved example of the chain's later Art Deco and Streamline Moderne design, with stylized ornament and a strong vertical sign. Like other downtown five and dime stores, it was a site of lunch counter sit ins during the civil rights era, when Black Houstonians protested segregated service in 1960. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has been adaptively reused.

Climate risks tracked

Located on Main Street in the downtown core, the building faces the same flash flooding risk as its neighbors; Tropical Storm Allison flooded ground floors across this corridor in 2001. Flood shields at storefront openings and raised utilities protect the interior without changing the historic storefront design. The applied Art Deco ornament and projecting sign are exposed to hurricane winds and should be inspected and anchored. The flat roof and parapet typical of commercial blocks of this era need careful drainage maintenance, since ponding water accelerates deterioration of the roof membrane and the masonry below.

Use the preservation assistant to talk through retrofit strategies for these specific threats.

Location

Nearby landmarks

• 1913 · Beaux-Arts

  Rice Hotel

• 1926 · Spanish Renaissance Revival

  Julia Ideson Building

• 1927 · Italian Renaissance Revival

  Niels Esperson Building

• 1924 · Commercial / Chicago School

  Sam Houston Hotel