Thomas Howe Scanlan (November 10, 1832 – July 9, 1906) was a mayor of

Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

. He supported the Union during

Reconstruction Reconstruction may refer to: Politics, history, and sociology *Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company *''Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Union ...

, and was installed as an alderman and mayor during that period. As well as investing in real estate, he owned stakes in local companies, including rail transportation and utilities.

Early life and family

Thomas Howe Scanlan was born on November 10, 1832, in Castle Mahon,

County Limerick County Limerick () is a western Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West Region, Ireland, Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Reg ...

, Ireland. He moved to New York at the age of seven. Scanlan married Harmena Ebert on April 28, 1861. They raised seven daughters who survived into adulthood.

Career

Scanlan moved to Houston to work as a merchant in 1853. Scanlan joined the Republican Party at the dawn of Reconstruction, then two years later, accepted a position on

Houston City Council The Houston City Council is a city council for the city of Houston in the U.S. state of Texas. The Council has sixteen members: eleven from council districts and five elected at-large. The members of the Council are elected every four years, wi ...

representing the Third Ward. The Reconstruction Governor appointed him mayor of Houston in 1870. After collecting opinions among financiers regarding Houston's good credit standing, Scanlan recommended issuing more bonds for capital projects, such as for paving, drainage, and a new city hall complex. He characterized his own approach to public spending as prioritizing function over aesthetics, and evaluated many materials and processes to street improvement. However, his critics noted the extravagant design and cost of the Houston building housing city hall, the market house, and theater. Scanlan advocated for the purchase of lands for three parks, later indebting the city by constructing a City Hall and Market House in 1872. Scanlan invested in rail ventures, including the

Texas Western Railroad Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous state in the 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 west, and has an international border wit ...

and an early streetcar enterprise, the Bayou City Street Railway Company. His business activities included utility companies, such as the Houston Water Works Company and the Houston Gas Company, where he served as vice-president. He was Houston Postmaster General from 1875 through 1879.

Death and legacy

Scanlan died in Chicago on July 9, 1906. He is interred at Glenwood Cemetery in Houston. The Scanlan Building, a NRHP-listed property 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 ...

, is located on land he purchased in 1865. His seven surviving daughters hired

Daniel Burnham Daniel Hudson Burnham (September 4, 1846 – June 1, 1912) was an American architect and urban designer. A proponent of the ''Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts'' movement, he may have been "the most successful power broker the American archi ...

to design the building and named it in their father's honor. They donated proceeds from the building to charities. One of his surviving daughters, Lillian, established the Scanlan Foundation upon her death in 1947. Catholic institutions were the beneficiaries of the foundation. NRHP ID: 80004132. Slow downloads.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scanlan, Thomas Howe Mayors of Houston Texas Republicans People of the Reconstruction Era 1832 births 1906 deaths Irish emigrants to the United States Burials at Glenwood Cemetery (Houston, Texas)