James S. and Alfred T. Lucas
Houston, Harris County, Texas
Marker Inscription
James Sherwood Lucas (1836-1888) and his son Alfred T. Lucas (1863-1922) immigrated to the United States and became influential brick masons and contractors who helped develop the city of Houston. James Lucas was born in Nottingham, England, to registered brick layer Thomas Lucas and Ann Lucas. At age 34, James, his wife Emily and their four children traveled aboard the British steamship Alice from Liverpool to New Orleans. By 1873, the family settled in Houston. From 1870 until his death in 1888, James Lucas built a lasting testament to his talents as seen at the 1884-85 Houston cotton exchange building and the 1883 Preston Street Bridge. By the age of sixteen, Alfred T. Lucas, James Lucas’ son, was an apprentice to his father. After his father’s death, Alfred continued the family contracting company. Lucas worked with Eugene T. Heiner on the 1896 Harris County Jail and Criminal Court Building and the 1899 Lavaca County Courthouse. Along with John Stadtler, Lucas built ten professional buildings and three private homes, including 1891 Houston Light Guard Armory, Henke and Company Store, Magnolia and American Breweries and the Houston Water Works Pump House. Lucas also helped build the 1895 City Auditorium and the 1903 Houston City Hall and Market Place. His company, Lucas Brick Works, paved many of Houston’s streets, mostly from bricks produced at their brick yard on Buffalo Bayou near Shepherd and San Felipe. James and Alfred T. Lucas, two generations of brick masons, left a legacy of craftsmanship that aided in the development and expansion of Houston.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
James Sherwood Lucas, a Nottingham-trained brick layer, emigrated from England and settled his family in Houston by 1873, where his craftsmanship shaped landmarks like the Houston Cotton Exchange and the Preston Street Bridge. His son Alfred apprenticed at sixteen and carried on the firm, building courthouses, breweries, armories, and City Hall, while Lucas Brick Works paved many of Houston's streets from clay dug along Buffalo Bayou.
Why it matters
Two generations of immigrant brick masons literally built the fabric of a booming Gilded Age Houston, a reminder that a city's rise rests on the skilled tradespeople whose names rarely make the history books.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · James Sherwood Lucas
- · Alfred T. Lucas
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
James Robert Cade
Houston, TX
English-trained railroad car builder James Robert Cade emigrated to the United States and reached Harrisburg, Texas, in 1873, hiring on with a small railroad that Southern Pacific later absorbed. Rising to Master Car Builder for SP's Atlantic System, he oversaw the manufacture of high-quality private rail cars and pioneered the industry-wide shift from wooden to iron construction, with his 1892 iron rigging design adopted nationally.
Auditorium Hotel
Houston, TX
Built in 1926 for Houston investor Michele DeGeorge, an Italian immigrant who reached the United States in 1881, the Auditorium Hotel showed off Italian Renaissance detailing in its upper floors, designed by architect Joseph Finger. Standing at the heart of Houston's theater district beside the old city auditorium, it became a fixture of the growing downtown. Its rise reflects the commercial energy transforming the city in the 1920s.
The Kennedy Bakery
Houston, TX
Irish immigrant John Kennedy (1819–78) arrived in Houston in 1842 and, after running stores elsewhere in the city, commissioned this two-story brick building around 1860 for a steam bakery. Kennedy went on to become a leading Houston businessman, and the structure — one of the oldest in the city still on its original site — stayed in his family until 1970. It was named a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1980.
Pillot Building
Houston, TX
The original cast-iron-front building here rose between 1857 and 1869 for Eugene Pillot, a French-born merchant and Houston civic leader. Over the decades it housed attorneys, real estate brokers, a dry goods merchant, and later a hotel, barbershop, restaurants, and bars, staying in Pillot's family until 1944. After severe damage the structure collapsed in 1988, and a 1990 replica reused some of its original cast-iron columns, sills, and lintels.