Alfred C. Finn

• Illustration — Rice Hotel, Houston, Texas in 1916 • Illustration — Illustration of the Gulf building, Houston, Texas, 1929 • Illustration — Upper story of the Simon Theatre, Brenham, Texas Finn's first commission was as project manager for the Rice Hotel, under contract with the firm of Mauran, Russell & Crowell. The owner of the new hotel, Jesse H. Jones, soon after established a collaboration with Finn which would change the face of Downtown Houston. Finn designed two buildings for Jones across the way from the Rice Hotel: the Foster Building, a.k.a. the Houston Chronicle Building, in 1914, and the Rusk Building in 1916. The corner of Texas and Travis was dominated by buildings built by Finn and Jones. In 1926, Finn designed a new seventeen-story wing for the Rice Hotel on behalf of Jones. Finn did architectural work for other commercial clients in the 1920s. He completed State National Bank Building (NHRP-listed) at 412 Main Street in 1923. Jones contracted with Finn to build the Lamar Hotel, where Jones established his new residence. The Jones apartment consumed the whole top floor, though he hired John F. Staub for the interior design. Jones also promised a venue for the 1928 Democratic National Convention without consulting the city of Houston, pledging $200,000 of his own capital. He engaged Finn and Kenneth Franzheim to design and erect the Sam Houston Hall in just four months. The Sam Houston Hall, ostensibly built to be a temporary structure, was larger than Madison Square Garden, and equipped with heavy-duty fans and apertures between the roof and the walls to facilitate air flow. Jones contracted with Finn on another project in downtown Houston, this time with in collaboration with Franzheim and J.E.R. Carpenter, to finish the 37-story, art deco Gulf Building in 1929 at that time the tallest building in Texas. Finn designed theaters in Brenham, Dallas, Fort Worth and Houston. Only one of these is still extant (as of October 12, 2017): the Simon Theatre in Brenham, designed in 1925. Finn and Jones collaborated in the fruition of two theaters in Downtown Houston, the Metropolitan in 1926 and the Loew's State in 1927. Finn established a robust practice for residential architecture, especially in some wealthy Houston subdivisions such as Courtlandt Place, Montrose, and Shadyside. His first work in the Rossmoyne subdivision was the Sterling-Berry House (NHRP-listed), which he completed in 1916 and enhanced with a large portico in 1919. He designed a new house on nearby Montrose Boulevard for Henry H. Dickson, President of the Dickson Wheel Car Company (1917). In the Houston Heights, his early work included the Woodward House (NRHP-listed), which he completed in 1918. In 1920, he designed a home for Earl K. Wharton in the wealthy enclave of Shadyside. Already known in the Courtlandt Place subdivision through his work on the A.S. Cleveland House and James L. Autry House while under the employ of Sanguinet & Staats, Finn moved and remodeled an 1890 Victorian house for Sarah Brashear Jones (Jones-Hunt House, NRHP-listed) in 1920. Other homes in Houston designed by Finn include the Sid Westheimer house (1920), and one for oil mogul, Walter Fondren (1923). He designed the Benjamin Apartments (NRHP-listed), a synthesis of Renaissance Revival style and Arts and Crafts principles. Perhaps Finn's most ambitious residential project was the Ross Sterling House in Bay Ridge Park near Morgan's Point, completed in 1928. He and Robert Smallwood designed a two-and-one-half story house overlooking the Houston Ship Channel with a bay-side portico design based on the south facade of the White House. The next year Finn's office completed a commission for William Lewis Moody III. Smallwood designed the Georgian neo-classical home in Galveston's Cedar Lawn Subdivision, and this neighborhood is now NRHP-listed. Finn was an architect for the Capitol Lofts, and the L. A. and Adelheid Machemehl House. Finn designed the fifteen-story People's National Bank Building (NRHP-listed) at Courthouse Square in Tyler, Texas. The brick-and-black-granite-faced art deco skyscraper was finished in 1932, in the middle of the Great Depression. The East Texas oil boom created a demand for office space in Tyler, and Finn designed an expansion which added six stories to a four-story wing in 1936.

Finn died in Houston, on June 26, 1964, aged 80 and is interred at Forest Park Cemetery in Houston. The Houston Metropolitan Research Center is the repository for the Alfred C. Finn Papers. The JPMorgan Chase building in downtown Houston underwent a major conversion of its lobby and mezzanine into a 20,000 square-foot dining hall. The new facility is called "Finn Hall", in honor of Finn, the building's architect.