Julia Ideson Library Building, Houston, Texas.
On Monday, December 5, 2011, the Julia Ideson Library reopened as the rich center of local sociocultural research as an adjacent extension of the downtown Houston Public Library. The Ideson building itself first opened in 1926 as the downtown Houston Public Library in replacement of an earlier structure funded at the 500 McKinney Street location by the Carnegie Foundation. Now the facility serves as the hub and materials center for the Houston Metropolitan Research Center, a program started in 1976 in dedication to the preservation of artifacts, maps, and writings of pertinence to the history of Houston and our general area.
Now the Ideson, with its vast Texas Room collection standing out like a shining star, is back – almost exactly as it appeared from floor to ceiling in 1926, but with technology now available for processing photographs and microfilm that reaches far into 21st century levels of availability. No more is there a quarter charge for crude per page scan prints of a news page. Anything you want to take with you as a researcher is available for recording on a regular digital camera memory stick (at no extra charge) or forwarded electronically from the machine for recording directly onto your own home computer.
These are better days indeed for those of us who are regularly attracted to the library for historical research of one kind or another.
Seasons Greetings from the Ideson
Library policy prohibits photography of the interior without special permission, but I was really there Tuesday on business and wouldn’t have had much time to do anything anyway. Besides, the time I spent with photographic archivist Joel Draut proved a far better use of time. A masterful photographer on the professional level, Draut says he now has equipment that helps him work with the restoration and organization off the library’s thousands of images. He showed me quite a bit of the new technology and all I can report here in brief is that it was quite impressive. Advances in recovery technology are fast becoming the best friends of reality image preservation.
Named for Houston’s first professional librarian, Julia Ideson’s collections date back a their oldest item to the 16th century. If there is anything about your Houston area historical research project that needs to be ascertained and verified by the closest materials we still have to primary sources, Julia Ideson is likely to be your first and last stop. Hours of opening are limited these days because of city budgeting practices in hard times. The library’s Internet site notes the Ideson only being open from 9 AM to 6 PM, Monday, Thursday, and Saturday for now. You may want to call and confirm their open hours first before going down there. Their number is 832-393-1313.
Free tours of the Spanish Renaissance structure are also conducted from the first floor lobby too. You may want to ask about these. I’m not sure if this service is temporary or ongoing.
One more thing. Some people claim that the Ideson is haunted by a long ago deceased custodian (janitor/security guard/gardener) named Julius/Jacob Frank Cramer and his pet German Shepherd Petey.
Cramer played the violin. He lived in his own world. And his world was the Julia Ideson.
By one account, “sheet music is occasionally found scattered around the library, Strauss waltzes on violin sometimes echo through the halls from nowhere, and, at times, there are sounds of the nails of Mr. Cramer’s faithful German Shepherd clicking around.”
The Houston Storytellers Guild is planning a lecture on the ongoing presence of Mr. Cramer at the Ideson for next Wednesday, December 14th, at 6 PM. If you would like to attend, please call the library for further details.
Tags: Julia Ideson Library
The Pecan Park Eagle 
December 9, 2011 at 2:59 pm |
I can remember going down there as a teenager when this was the only library building downtown (and getting a parking ticket on one occasion.) How long was the Ideson building closed? It seems like they closed it as soon as they opened the new building next door, and that building is about 25-30 years old now, isn’t it? Could it have been closed all those years?
December 9, 2011 at 3:59 pm |
Yeah, I remember going here every other Saturday with my parents go check out books before the Meyer Branch opened in SW Houston. I wonder if they still have David and the Phoenix and Fast Man on a Pivot, one the Duane Decker baseball series. Any of you folks remember those? He had a book for each position on the Blue Sox, each volume trying to beat those dastardly Clippers from New York.
December 9, 2011 at 4:37 pm |
Mark, the Ideson Building has been the home of the Houston Metropolitan Resarch Center or some form of the local history collection all along. (The Jones Building opened in 1976.) They opened a new wing on the back of it a couple of years ago. At that point they closed the original building for complete renovation, but the new part was open. So technically some part of the building has been open continuously since 1926 except for a few weeks of recent construction work.
December 10, 2011 at 10:40 pm |
Thanks for your informative update, Mike.
Mark
February 5, 2012 at 11:10 pm |
I am so glad that they found a use for the building in stead of tearing it down It would of been a shame such a beautiful building to be destroyed I came from a poof family and spent many days there till closing if not as the zoo I just love it there the architect was was astounding just want to thank all who contributed to this venture