DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker's the source of what I'm about to tell you — here's my telling of it. Now, some buildings just sit there. They hold offices, they hold hallways, they hold the occasional bad cup of coffee.
And then there are buildings that sit at the very heart of something enormous. The Roy and Lillie Cullen Building in Houston is that second kind. Let's back up a step.
The Baylor University College of Medicine didn't start in Houston. It came from Dallas, makin' the move in 1943 — and it didn't move for small reasons. It moved to launch the proposed Texas Medical Center.
Think about that. A whole institution picks up and relocates itself to be the seed of something that didn't fully exist yet. That takes a certain kind of faith in what a city and a vision can become.
Of course, faith alone doesn't pour foundations. You need names on checks. And that's where Hugh Roy and Lillie Cullen come in.
The Cullens had come to Houston themselves — back in 1911 — and they made their fortune in oil. When the time came to fund the new medical building, the Cullen Foundation wrote its very first check in 1947 to do exactly that. First check.
First dollars. The kind of gesture that gets a building named after you, and rightly so. The building itself was designed by architects Hedrick and Lindsley, and they gave it something worth lookin' at — modern deco elements, and Texas cream limestone.
That limestone alone tells you something. There's a particular quality of light that comes off Texas cream limestone on a Houston afternoon, warm and almost dignified, like the building knows what it's for. Then in 1982, a portico was added to enhance the main entrance, giving it a little more welcome, a little more presence.
The Roy and Lillie Cullen Building remains at the heart of the Texas Medical Center to this day. The medical center that was once just a proposal, just a reason for a college to pack its bags and head south from Dallas — it grew up around this building. And this building stayed right there at the center of it all.
Some things are just built to last. Some things are built to anchor everything that comes after them. This one managed to be both.
What the marker says
The Baylor University College of Medicine moved to Houston in 1943 from Dallas to launch the proposed Texas Medical Center. The building to house Baylor’s medical school was named after Hugh Roy and Lillie Cullen who moved to Houston in 1911 and made their fortune in oil. The Cullen Foundation’s first check was written in 1947 to fund the new medical building. Architects Hedrick and Lindsley designed the building with modern deco elements and Texas cream limestone. A portico was added in 1982 to enhance the main entrance. The Cullen Building remains at the heart of the Texas Medical Center. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark – 2014