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FHR-8-300A
11/78)
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR FOR HCRS USE ONLY
HERITAGE CONSERVATION AND RECREATION SERVICE
RECEIVED
NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
DAEETERElD .
INVENTORY -- NOMINATION FORM
CONTINUATION SHEET ITEM NUMBER 8 PAGE 1
services as an automatic telephone recording device and a parcel post sys-
tem with delayed billings. Art Deco detail richly adorned parapet walls
and terminus of brick columns, as well as over window bays. Its imagina-
tive location adjacent to Buffalo Bayou, two trunk line railroads, and the
city's leading thoroughfare, enabled the M & M Buidling, as locals quickly
dubbed it, to break new ground in Houston by combining in one structure
rail, truck, and water transportation.
Although local business leaders denied the judgement of the economy as lonc
as possible, the Great Depression eventually exacted its toll. Failing
prosperity forced many tenants of the M & M Building to repudiate their
leases, precluding the maintenance of operating expenses and interest pay-
ments. In 1934, the building went into bankruptcy and ultimately was sold
for the benefit of bondholders and creditors. During this period, however,
the structure continued to reflect its initial appeal to diversity, housing
oil well suppliers, rubber products, construction materials, brokers, im-
porters, wholesalers, shops, and union, consular, and government offices.
The postwar euphoria which gripped Houston and the nation revitalized the
M & M Building. In 1948, H. H. Coffield, Rockdale oil millionnaire with
extensive warehouse holdings in Houston, successfully bid for control of
the edifice. He immediately announced plans for spending up to three
quarters of a million dollars on improvements. Meanwhile, the changing
occupancy of the building mirrored the evolving economic scene. The new
electronics industry found representation in offices supplying wire re-
corders, dictating machines, and television service. Motorcycle parts
shops and airline offices entered the premises. However, another economic
trend exerted a negative influence: suburban sprawl created shopping cen-
ters which drew business away from the downtown section. Vacancy signs
soon dotted the miles of corridors.
Coffield and his son, C. H., strained to reverse the tide. In 1966 they
devoted the entire eighth floor to displays of the Houston Home Furnishing
Mart and planned for two hundred varied manufacturers from throughout the
nation to exhibit their wares. Four months of trial appeared to bring
success, but a similar arrangement at Dallas depressed the market.
The M & M Building entered a new phase in the early 1967 when South Texas
Junior College moved into four floors of the structure. The largest pri-
vate two-year college in the state purchased the building two years later.
Economic trends again prevailed, as private colleges suffered increasingly'
stringent competition from public institutions. Significantly, the Uni-
versity of Houston, itself once a private college, acquired the college
and the building in '1974. The 1 & M Building became the home of the Uni-
versity of Houston-Downtown College, appropriately the newest and most
innovative campus of the system.