Photos: Vintage construction pics of Houston's favorite landmarks



See more photos of the performance hall as it was being constructed in downtown Houston... In October 1965, Sir John Barbirolli visits Jesse H. Jones Hall for the Performing Arts construction site.

See more photos of the performance hall as it was being constructed in downtown Houston... In October 1965, Sir John Barbirolli visits Jesse H. Jones Hall for the Performing Arts construction site. Photo: File Photo: File Image 1 of / 210 Caption Close Photos: Vintage construction pics of Houston's favorite landmarks 1 / 210 Back to Gallery

Click through the slideshow above to see what Houston's favorite landmarks looked like while they were under construction...

From freeways, to stadiums, to theaters, a lot of dirt has been moved around the city in the past century or so.

It was this week in 1964 that ground was broken on the Jesse H. Jones Hall for the Performing Arts in downtown Houston, replacing the aging City Auditorium. It was paid for by Houston Endowment Inc., a foundation established by Jones and accepted as a gift for the city.

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The $7.4 million facility would have its grand opening in October 1966, an event that attracted national attention with critics falling in love with the acoustics and marveling at the movable ceiling.

That ceiling moved in five different patterns to accommodate music or the spoken word, and similar systems could shrink the auditorium from 2,912 seats to 2,300.

Since its opening, it has hosted acts as diverse as Sammy Davis Jr., Eddie Vedder, Bun B, Keith Urban, Johnny Cash, and William Shatner.

Today Jones Hall is also home to the Houston Symphony and the Society for the Performing Arts. Hundreds of thousands of people come to the venue each year and bask in its beauty. That plush carpet inside doesn't hurt either.

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Although Jones, a man who helped build Houston during the first half of the 20th century, died a decade before it opened, he knew that the city needed an arts destination at which to gaze.

Though Jones Hall looks beautiful inside and out now, there was a point in the mid-1960s when it was just another construction project.

Like every other Houston landmark, it had to start with a mess of wood, wire, and steel.

Craig Hlavaty is a reporter for Chron.com and HoustonChronicle.com. He's an intolerable native Texan with too much ink in his skin and too much brisket stuck in his teeth.