History
John and Augustus Chapman Allen retained ownership of the building after the Congress of the Republic of Texas moved from Houston to Austin, and they sold it to R.S. Blount for $12,000, in 1857, who opened the Capitol Hotel. Anson Jones, the last president of the Republic of Texas, committed suicide at the Hotel in 1858.
The old Capitol building was razed in 1881 by Colonel A. Groesbeck, who subsequently erected a five-story hotel, which he also named the Capitol Hotel. William Marsh Rice, the founder of Rice University, purchased the building in 1883, added a five-story annex, and renamed it the Rice Hotel. Rice University then sold the building in 1911 to Jesse Jones, who demolished it and built the present 17-story structure on the site. The new Rice Hotel building opened on May 17, 1913. The first air-conditioned public room in Houston, the Rice Hotel Cafeteria, opened in 1922.
For many years, the Rice Hotel was one of Houston's grand hotels, and a downtown landmark.
The hotel featured fine dining in the Flag Room, a casual first-floor coffee shop, and the underground Rice Hotel Cafeteria, known for its signature dish, rice pudding. It had a variety of retail shops, including a lobby news stand, a hat store, and Bilton's Fine Jewelry.
Power brokers from Houston and all over Texas met in the private Old Capital Club, across the corridor from the Flag Room. Here, on the burgundy leather banquettes and chairs, many deals were made and companies were born. The member list was a veritable who's who of Houston, including judges, lawyers, businessmen and other power brokers.
The Rice Hotel has had numerous famous guests including past U.S. Presidents. John F. Kennedy spent the night at the Rice Hotel before traveling to Fort Worth, and then Dallas, where he was assassinated. He also delivered his famous speech on religion in politics here to the Greater Houston Ministerial Conference on Sept. 12, 1960.
In 1962 the Rice Hotel was used for a meeting of NASA Astronaut Group 2 - The New Nine - all of whom booked in with the code name "Max Peck" as portrayed on the 1998 HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon.
The hotel was shuttered in the mid 1970s, and briefly reopened under the Rice Rittenhouse name. It saw its last hotel guests in 1977.
The historic Rice Hotel now serves as an apartment building and is known as the Rice Lofts.
In 1996 Houston Housing Finance Corp. financed the purchase and redevelopment of the hotel. Peter S. Carlsen and Dale E. Smith of the Houston Business Journal referred to the purchase as "creative."
A Houston Chronicle article stated that the Rice Lofts are believed to be haunted by spirits dancing on the roof.
Read more about this topic: Post Rice Lofts
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