Elder Street Artist Lofts At 1101 Elder St.

[jenncom]

Does anyone have any pictures from the 70's of this hospital? I was born there in 74 and then moved very young to PA. I went to try and find it in 1994 and was told it had changed names and we were sent in a wild goose chase all over Houston. I would really love to find some pictures and more info abotu that time period.

quote name='Subdude' date='Friday, October 1st, 2004 @ 11:21am' post='3485']

Here's the article:

Ceremony signals a new era for hospital

First Ward site ready to evolve into artist lofts

By TOM MANNING

Chronicle Correspondent

The Jefferson Davis Hospital has stood vacant at 1101 Elder for more than two decades, but it will soon be transformed into 34 loft-style apartments that will be made available to mixed-income families in Houston's First Ward.

At a groundbreaking ceremony held at the hospital site on Sept. 23, members of the Avenue Community Development Corp., a local nonprofit group devoted to revitalizing the Washington Avenue and Near Northside communities, joined with donors, city council members and others close to the First Ward to celebrate what they expect to be the dawn of a new era for the neighborhood.

The land on which Jefferson Davis Hospital now stands was initially home to the city's second oldest municipal cemetery, established in the 1840s and the final resting place for thousands of Confederate soldiers.

The cemetery, however, subsequently fell into disrepair, and the city chose the site for the home of Jefferson Davis Hospital, which was built in 1925.

Fourteen years later, the hospital was replaced by a new building, and the old building continued to deteriorate. In 2001, Avenue CDC began exploring the possibility of purchasing the building from Harris County and making it the centerpiece of a revitalization effort in the area.

"Avenue CDC approached the county about buying the property and turning it into affordable housing," Avenue CDC Executive Director Mary Lawler said. "But we needed an experienced partner to make it happen."

The group found that partner in Artspace Projects, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit developer of artists' home and work space.

Since it was formed in 1979, Artspace has developed 17 projects in cities like Chicago, Seattle, Reno and Pittsburgh. But it was an Artspace project in Galveston that led to the partnership with Avenue CDC.

In 2001, Artspace turned the 13-year-old National Hotel, at the corner of 23rd and Market streets, into a 28-unit building, a project that earned praise from the city of Galveston and led many in Houston to petition Artspace to do work in the city.

Creating a success

Betty Massey, a member of the city of Galveston's Livable Community Steering Committee who has since become the Texas board member for Artspace, said the National Hotel project was more of a success than anyone could have imagined.

"That redevelopment has been a catalyst for building after building in that area," Massey said. "It created a pedestrian link between The Strand and Post Office Street. It's my confidence that the Jeff Davis building will do that for this area."

Artspace Projects President Kelley Lindquist said the success in Galveston led him to believe a similar project would work in Houston.

"We finished the building in Galveston and were getting a lot of calls from different organizations here," Lindquist said. "A number of people responded positively to the Galveston project.

"We usually don't have local development partnerships, but we felt that Avenue CDC was the most mature of the local nonprofits we'd met with. It was just a good fit. The building itself was the best building we saw in the city."

In early 2003, Avenue CDC purchased the hospital building from Harris County for $200,000. Two months later, it entered into an agreement with Artspace.

"This building is in the heart of our target community," Lawler said. "The idea was the preservation of a building that has a lot of significance in this area, but had become an eyesore and a danger.

"At the same time, we've had a lot of lower-income people displaced because of downtown development, so we saw this as an opportunity to provide a place for them to live and work."

While Avenue CDC began intensifying its efforts to raise money for the project, Artspace had to deal with renovating a building while at the same time respecting the cemetery grounds on which it stood.

"Because of the cemetery, this is a very important archaeological site," Lindquist said. "A lot has been done to make sure the grave sites are respected. We worked hand in hand with state archaeologists."

Completing the puzzle

It took two years for Avenue CDC to raise the $6.3 million needed for the project. The final piece of the fund-raising puzzle, which includes contributions from 23 public and private funders, came in July, when Houston's City Council provided a $500,000 federal community-development loan.

The project is 70 percent funded by government loans and tax credits, and 30 percent by the private sector.

"It took a year for the city to become a full partner, but this project does all the things that the city is looking for," said City Controller and former council member Annise Parker. "It puts everything together in a great package."

"From the first time I was introduced to Artspace, I was intrigued by their vision," said H. Joe Nelson III, president of Houston Endowment Inc., which provided a $175,000 grant toward the project.

"The multiple goals of this project, to support artists and their talents and to support historical preservation, will spark this neighborhood's development," he added. "It's a win-win."

Once completed, the Jefferson Davis Artist Lofts will be operated and maintained by Artspace.

"All of our buildings pay for themselves," Lindquist said. "We've never had to go back to a community and ask for more money."

Lindquist said he is expecting people to be able to move into the building, which will feature one- to four-bedroom lofts, by Sept. 1, 2005.

While artists will be encouraged to live in the building, housing in the Jefferson David Artist Lofts will not be exclusively available to artists.

With construction crews in the background already working on the transformation of the Jefferson David Hospital building, Avenue CDC board President Cleola Williams, whose family has lived in the First Ward for generations, celebrated what she hopes will be a bright new chapter for the area she has devoted her life to preserving.

"This is a bright day in my life," Williams said. "As a child I played up and down these hills. My great-grandfather and my great-great-grandmother lived here. It's a privilege for me to see that we are going to preserve this hallowed ground.

"We are going to kiss this Sleeping Beauty and make it a wonderful example of what can be done in a community."

Link

[Vertigo58]

All we have left is my big sister's birth certificate with a photo of Jefferson Davis in front as it looked in 1945. Sorry.

[nativehou]

Does anyone have any pictures from the 70's of this hospital? I was born there in 74 and then moved very young to PA. I went to try and find it in 1994 and was told it had changed names and we were sent in a wild goose chase all over Houston. I would really love to find some pictures and more info abotu that time period.

You were most likely born at the Jeff Davis Hospital on Allen Parkway, not the one on Elder.

See post 86 on this page for a photo:

http://www.houstonarchitecture.info/haif/i...ic=38&st=75

[gnu]

Does anyone have any pictures from the 70's of this hospital? I was born there in 74 and then moved very young to PA. I went to try and find it in 1994 and was told it had changed names and we were sent in a wild goose chase all over Houston. I would really love to find some pictures and more info abotu that time period.

this is a photo of the 2nd jeff davis hospital..the one (as nativehou stated) you would have been born in. It was demolished in 1999 (photo courtesy of mr. gonzales' bayou city history blog).

and then 2 more pics (courtesy of Houston Deco).

[(Otto Mation)]

Patrick Feller has added a photo to the pool:

Jefferson Davis Hospital, dedicated in 1924, was built on the site of the 1840 Houston City Cemetery. It spent many years vacant, but recently became the Elder Street Artist Lofts.

Click here to view this photo at the HAIF Photo Pool on Flickr

[(Otto Mation)]

Patrick Feller has added a photo to the pool:

1101 Elder Street

Built 1924

Currently Elder Street Artists ofts

View the full article

[DWah]

So nine years later has there been any additional info on the status of the lofts. Any additional poltergeist events we should be aware of?

 

The latest GoogleEarth street views show that area around the lofts hasn't improved much. The graves out front in the cement border are filled with large bushes now. I wonder if they ever moved those bodies.

 

In looking around the web, I came across this listing for an art crawl there this Saturday. Is anyone going?

 

[HoustonMidtown]

The building right by the lofts, that burnt down a few years ago, has finally been torn down....foundation for something new is being poured