The Kirby Lofts is an 11-story building at 917 Main Street in

Downtown Houston Downtown is the largest central business district in the city of Houston and the largest in the state of Texas, located near the geographic center of the metropolitan area at the confluence of Interstate 10 in Texas, Interstate 10, Interstate 45 ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, currently consisting of apartments with retail on the ground floor, originally built in 1926 and designed by

Alfred C. Finn Alfred Charles Finn (July 2, 1883 – June 26, 1964) was an American architect. He started in the profession with no formal training in 1904 as an apprentice for Sanguinet & Staats. He worked in their offices in Dallas, Fort Worth, and Houston. H ...

, a noted Houston-based architect.

History

The Fashion, Kirby offices and theater

Finn designed the building in 1926 for lumber barton

John Henry Kirby John Henry Kirby (November 16, 1860 – November 9, 1940) was an American businessman whose ventures made him the largest lumber manufacturer in Texas and the Southern United States. In addition to serving two terms in the Texas Legislature, ...

to house the Kirby Theater (cinema), and offices in the upper floors. Retailer Ben Wolfman moved The Fashion, his upscale department store for women's apparel and accessories, to the Kirby building. Wolfman had already established himself as a well-known retailer in Houston: prior to 1919, he was a partner in the men's shoe store Wolfman-Rauch at 614 Main Street. In 1919, he converted it to an upscale women's store, The Fashion. The Fashion gradually expanded into the upper floors of 917 Main until occupying most of it. In 1947, Wolfman carried out a $2 million renovation, with "swanky" interiors and a modern limestone façade, now hidden behind a layer of mirrored glass added later. Finn also designed the renovation alongside New York architect Peter Gray.

Neiman Marcus

In 1955

Neiman Marcus Neiman Marcus is an American department store chain founded in 1907 in Dallas, Texas by Herbert Marcus, his sister Carrie Marcus Neiman, and her husband Abraham Lincoln Neiman. It has been owned by Saks Global, a Corporate spin-off, spin-o ...

and Ben Wolfman, Inc. merged, and the store became a branch store – the first ever – of Neiman Marcus.

Palais Royal

Neiman Marcus moved its Houston store to

The Galleria The Galleria, stylized theGalleria and also known as the Houston Galleria, is an upscale mixed-use urban development and shopping mall located in the Uptown District of Houston, Texas, United States.Palais Royal The Palais-Royal () is a former French royal palace located on Rue Saint-Honoré in the 1st arrondissement of Paris. The screened entrance court faces the Place du Palais-Royal, opposite the Louvre. Originally called the Palais-Cardinal, it was ...

. In 2000 owner

Stage Stores Stage Stores was a department store company specializing in retailing off-price brand name apparel, accessories, cosmetics, footwear, and housewares throughout the United States. Stores were usually located in shopping malls and centers or in st ...

closed the Palais Royal Downtown Houston store along with many other branches as part of its bankruptcy restructuring.

Kirby Lofts

In 2004, the building was converted to its current function – residential with ground floor retail.

References

{{Reflist Retail buildings in Texas Buildings and structures in Houston Apartment buildings in Texas