Myers-Spalti Manufacturing Plant
Houston, Harris County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Myers-Spalti Manufacturing Plant The City of Houston developed rapidly in the 19th century due in large part to its capacity for shipping and transportation. This was made possible by waterways, such as Buffalo Bayou, and railroads, five of which radiated from the city in 1861. Houston's industrial center, the warehouse district, grew up east of Main Street, along the banks of Buffalo Bayou. In 1860, Samuel May Williams sold this property to Houston physician D.F. Stuart, who built a warehouse in the 1880s for cotton storage. The Lottman brothers purchased the site in 1893 and converted the building into a mattress factory. In 1904, they sold the property to H.F. Spalti, vice-president of Olive & Myers Manufacturing Company of Dallas. Spalti and Company President W.B. Myers started Myers-Spalti on this site. J.A. Grieves assisted them in developing the Houston branch of their successful mattress and furniture factory. The original warehouse housed the millwork and planning sections of the company. Built in 1905, Warehouse Number Two housed the shipping, cabinetry and finishing departments, and Warehouse Number Three contained the printing and management offices. By 1907, a rail line extended onto the property from nearby tracks. Myers-Spalti added a fourth warehouse for storage in 1909 and additional structures in the 1920s. The company moved operations in the 1950s. The development of Houston's industrial architecture can be seen in this site's building styles, which range from brick and heavy timber to concrete slab and columns. Since the 1950s, the buildings have housed hardware sales, electronics and manufacturing, storage and other light industrial businesses. The structures were once part of a city marketplace project and later developed into residential housing. (2003)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Houston's warehouse district grew up east of Main Street along Buffalo Bayou, where waterways and five converging railroads made the city a shipping powerhouse by the Civil War. On this site an 1880s cotton warehouse was converted into a mattery factory and, after 1904, became the Houston branch of the Myers-Spalti mattress and furniture company. Over the following decades the firm added warehouse after warehouse, its buildings—ranging from brick and heavy timber to poured concrete—charting the evolution of Houston's industrial architecture.
Why it matters
The complex is a physical timeline of how a bayou-side cotton port grew into a diversified industrial city, its changing construction methods written into the walls.
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Related people
- · H.F. Spalti
- · W.B. Myers
Themes & tags
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