Esperson Buildings

 building  Add category

The Niels and Mellie Esperson Buildings are a pair of historic office buildings located at 808 Travis Street in downtown Houston, Texas.

Originally developed as a memorial to famed real estate and oil tycoon Niels Esperson by his wife Mellie, they are among the most recognizable buildings in downtown Houston, and are elaborately detailed in the Italian Renaissance style, with a grand tempietto at the top of the Niels Esperson Building.

Designed by famed theater architect John Eberson, upon its completion in 1927 the 32-story Niels Esperson Building was the tallest building in Texas, and the third-tallest in the United States. The 19-story Mellie Esperson Building, also designed by John Eberson and completed in 1941, was the largest office structure built in Houston during the Great Depression and the first with central air conditioning.

Through the years since her passing in 1945, many reports claim sightings of Mellie's ghost still walking the halls and lobbies of her grand structure.




www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/EE/fes25.h...