“One of Houston’s most beautiful office interiors”

When Southwestern Fidelity decamped for Montrose in 1957, the lease advertisement for its vacated space made a remarkable claim for a Heights shop row: “one of Houston’s most beautiful office interiors,” with paneled oak and mahogany, wall murals, and parking for sixty cars, and the ad carried interior photographs to prove it.

Those photographs are among the only period interior images of the building yet found, which makes a classified advertisement one of the most valuable documents in the entire archive.