Hurricane Harvey Damages the Historic Dow School

FAIN: PB-261199-19

MECA (Houston, TX 77007-7611)
Alice Elizabeth Valdez (Project Director: January 2018 to March 2022)

The replacement of damaged and deteriorating doors on the Historic Dow School, an original Victorian structure in one of the oldest neighborhoods of Houston and listed on the National Register of Historic Places that houses the MECA's exhibitions and programing and was damaged during Hurricane Harvey.

The primary losses from Hurricane Harvey are due to vast rainfall that entered the basement and classrooms throughout MECA's home in the Historic Dow School.  The Dow School, built in 1912, is located in The Old Sixth Ward Historic District (the oldest intact neighborhood in the city of Houston with the largest concentration of Victorian structures in the region, outside of Galveston, and designated as a Historic District by the Houston City Council in 1998).  Both the Sixth Ward and Dow School are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, emphasizing why preservation of Dow School is so important to the neighborhood's historic recognition.