The Rice, formerly the Rice Hotel, is an historic building at 909 Texas Avenue in Downtown Houston, Texas, United States. The current building is the third to occupy the site. It was completed in 1913 on the site of the former Capitol building of the Republic of Texas, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The old Capitol building was operated as a hotel until it was torn down and replaced by a new hotel around 1881. Jesse H. Jones built a new seventeen-story, double-winged hotel in 1913, also called "The Rice Hotel." This building underwent major expansions: adding a third wing in 1925, adding an eighteenth floor in 1951, and adding a five-story "motor lobby" in 1958. In addition, there were several renovations during its life as a hotel. It continued to operate as a hotel before finally shutting down in 1977. After standing vacant for twenty-one years, The Rice was renovated as apartments and reopened in 1998 as the Post Rice Lofts. It was sold in 2014 and renamed simply The Rice.
Capitol building
When Augustus Chapman Allen and John Kirby Allen commissioned the first survey of Houston in the fall of 1836, they made plans to set aside property for use by the Republic of Texas. Eventually they chose property on the south side of Texas Avenue between Travis and Main Street. They also agreed to construct a capitol building for the Texas government, and leased the building on easy terms.
The Republic of Texas used this as its capitol building from 1837 to 1839, and again from 1842 to 1845. In 1841, Mr. M. Norwood leased the building from Augustus Allen, and ran it as the Capitol Hotel. After the Texas government left Houston again, Augustus Allen resumed leasing the building to various hotel operators. Charlotte Allen sold the property to R.S. Blount in 1857. There were various hotel operators between 1857 and 1881 with a few name changes (Houston House and Barnes House). It is not clear how long Charlotte owned the property before it was sold in 1857. John Kirby Allen had died in 1838 without a will. After 1843, there was a dispute about his estate, which led to a permanent estrangement between Augustus and Charlotte Allen. Augustus left Houston in 1852.
Anson Jones, the last president of the Republic of Texas, committed suicide at the hotel in 1858.
First Rice Hotel building
Abraham Groesbeck razed the original building and constructed a five-story Victorian hotel in 1881. The building, then known as the Capitol Hotel, was designed by George E. Dickey, and represented his first major commission since relocating to Houston in 1878.
William Marsh Rice bought the hotel after Groesbeck died in 1886. He added a three-story annex. Rice was murdered in 1900, and the hotel property was transferred to the Rice Institute, which he had established in 1891. The Rice Institute trustees renamed it the Rice Hotel.
Jessie H. Jones, who would later redevelop the site, resided at the original Rice Hotel when he first arrived in Houston around 1898. Texas Governor James Hogg maintained a Houston residence there in 1904.
Second Rice Hotel building
The hotel had been losing money and its taxes unpaid. Jesse H. Jones offered to lease the land from the Rice Institute and replace the existing hotel through his company, the Houston Hotel Association. Jones obtained a ninety-nine year lease with an option for a ninety-nine year extension. The Rice Institute also invested funds from its endowment to assist Jones in building a new hotel. After demolishing the original Rice Hotel in 1912, Jones hired Mauran, Russell & Crowell to design the new hotel. The new seventeen-story, C-shaped (or U-shaped) hotel opened in May 1913. The hotel featured four restaurants, a banquet room, a small concert hall, and a rooftop deck. The construction cost was about $3.5 million, .