Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Office of Building and Grounds.

Completed in 1924, the central architectural core of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston was the first major public building designed by the Boston architect William Ward Watkin (1886-1952). Watkin had come to Houston as an associate of the firm of Cram, Goodhue, and Ferguson to supervise construction of early structures at the Rice Institute (now Rice University), where he became first chairman of the department of architecture in 1916. Watkin began work on his designs for the Museum building as early as 1920. The completed central core was ceremoniously opened on April12, 1924, though construction of Watkin's east and west wings continued until their dedication two years later, on April 12, 1926. Although Watkin's comprehensive master plan for the Museum was never built in its entirety, the existing portions display a sedate neoclassical style that was characteristic of American public architecture in the 1920s and invites comparison with contemporary museums erected in Cleveland, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.

From the description of William Ward Watkin building: central block, 1920-1924. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122492183

...