HistoricSiteMarkers
Progressive & Modern Era

Houston Heights City Hall and Fire Station

Houston, Harris County, Texas

Marker Inscription

Houston Heights City Hall and Fire Station When the former city hall burned in 1912, Houston Heights mayor J. B. Marmion and the city council commissioned Houston architect A. C. Pigg to design a new building to house city offices and also serve as a fire station and small jail. Completed in 1914, the city hall and fire station served its intended purpose only until 1918, when the city of Houston annexed Houston Heights. The building, which features decorative brick and cast stone work, then became Station No. 14 for the Houston Fire Department and remained active until 1995. A neighborhood landmark, the historic building continues in use as a community gathering place. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2001

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

After the former city hall burned in 1912, Houston Heights mayor J. B. Marmion and the council hired architect A. C. Pigg to design a building that combined city offices, a fire station, and a small jail. Completed in 1914, it served its full civic role only until 1918, when Houston annexed Houston Heights. It then became Fire Station No. 14, active until 1995, and still stands as a decorative brick-and-cast-stone neighborhood landmark.

Why it matters

The building marks the brief independent life of Houston Heights before annexation folded the streetcar suburb into greater Houston.

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Related people

  • ยท J. B. Marmion
  • ยท A. C. Pigg

Themes & tags

Nearby & related markers

John Milroy House

Houston, TX

When the Omaha and South Texas Land Company bought the land that became Houston Heights in 1891, John Milroy, an early investor, came to manage its office. He threw himself into civic life, serving as alderman and mayor of the new streetcar suburb, and in 1898 moved his family into this eclectic house of gables, bays, and fish-scale shingles. The home stands as an artifact of one of the nation's early planned suburban communities.

Mulcahy House

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In 1909, banker William Mulcahy and his wife Mattie bought this newly built home in the developing Houston Heights, where Mulcahy was climbing from bank teller to bank president. Its Dutch Colonial Revival design is distinctive: a T-shaped cross-gambrel roof, native cypress siding, and an inset front porch on square paneled posts. The family held the house for ninety years, a rare span of continuous ownership.

Heights Church of Christ

Houston, TX

Founded in 1915 as only the second Church of Christ congregation in Houston, this church built its first home in 1916 and, less than a decade later, commissioned noted architect Alfred C. Finn for a Renaissance Revival sanctuary. Anchoring the Houston Heights neighborhood, the congregation went on to plant new churches across the region and support foreign missions.

David Barker House

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This American Foursquare house was built in 1910 for David Barker, a business, civic, and political leader who was then serving as mayor of Houston Heights. Its wraparound porch with Tuscan columns, denticulated cornice, and transom-and-sidelight entry mark it as a fine example of the style. The Barker family kept the home until 1971.