Hotel ICON is a boutique hotel located in downtown Houston, Texas, USA. The building was originally built for the Union National Bank.
History
The Union National Bank was the renaming of the Union Bank & Trust Company after it acquired Merchant's National Bank in 1908. The bank's first president was Jonas Shearn Rice, nephew of William Marsh Rice and brother of Horace Baldwin Rice. The bank was capitalized in 1908 with 1 million dollars.[1]
The building housing the present-day Hotel ICON was originally built as the Union National Bank Building, opened in 1912. Jesse H. Jones, the most influential developer and retail banker in early-twentieth-century Houston, contracted with the St. Louis architectural firm of Mauran, Russell & Crowell to design and build a skyscraper to house the bank. The twelve-story concrete building was set on a two-story limestone base, with very detailed ornament on the Main Street facade. Columns, architraves, and carved heads in the likeness of Mercury decorated the bays on the Main Street side of the building. The upper floors were clad with dark bricks and decorated with piers and pilasters.[1]
The Union National Bank Building featured modern conveniences such as an air conditioning system and three elevators.