posted 07-18-2016 09:52 AM            

Gilruth and other officials of the Space Task Group reacted quickly to the Webb announcement. The very next day they flew into Houston to begin a search for an estimated 100,000 square feet of temporary floor space. Moving began in October 1961, when Martin A. Byrnes, as the local manager, and a small cadre of center operations, procurement, and personnel employees opened offices in Houston's Gulfgate Shopping City. By mid-1962, when the move was completed, activities were scattered in 11 locations, occupying 295,996 square feet of leased office and laboratory space in the vicinity of Telephone Road and the Gulf Freeway. For both old and new employees, a street map was a necessity in the coordination of information among the various offices located in the dispersed buildings. Besides the leased quarters, NASA personnel liberally used surplus facilities..."

Clarifications would be very welcome...

The original location chosen by Gilruth was some spare office facilities at the Houston Office Center located at 6100 Gulf Freeway in the now demolished Gulfgate Shopping City, replaced by a Home Depot and the Gulfgate strip mall. During the early 1960s, the planned 11 sites grew a little and 14 additional sites were finally defined:

• Site 1: The construction site for the present Manned Spacecraft Center, at Clear Lake.

• Site 2: the Farnsworth and Chambers Building, became NASA Headquarters in Houston and was located at 2999 South Wayside Drive. This Frank Lloyd Wright-style building was occupied by Gragg Drilling from 1959 and was renamed the Gragg Building just before NASA moved in. It is now the city's Parks & Recreation Department.

• Site 3: The Rich Building housed the Space Flight Office, Spacecraft Research Division and Systems Evaluation and Development Division and still exists at 6040 Telephone Road and is now the current AmBox building, a metal fabrication shop.

• Site 4: Lane Wells Building. Across the freeway from the Gulfgate Mall location, this building at 2002 Wayside Drive was distinguished by an oil rig out the front (now gone?) and housed the Life Systems Division.

• Site 5: The Houston Petroleum Center and Stahl and Meyers Building between them housed the Project Mercury, Gemini, Apollo Flight Operations Divisions and Mission Control teams. The old Stahl and Meyers Discount Appliance Center was opposite Site 4 and shared the building with Oshman's Sports Outlet warehouse, with NASA being located on the upper floor. Both buildings now appear to have gone; the discount center has been replaced with a large Walmart. The Petroleum Center now appears to be the Sanchez Charter School, though some buildings in keeping with the style of the old Center remain between the school and the Red Carpet Inn motel. I can't see any firm evidence as to whether these existing buildings were those used by NASA or not.

• Site 6: The East End State Bank Building at 4200 Leeland Street was the Personnel and Security Divisions.

• Site 7: The Flight Crew Operations Division was located in two office blocks described as "two dumpy, early 60's low rise office buildings." These two appear to be the Office City buildings on Office City Plaza.

• Site 8: Ellington Air Force Base housed the Procurement, Financial Management, Photographic Services and Supply. Out of interest, I can't see any evidence on Google Earth that the outdoor pool used for training the Mercury 7 for capsule egress is still in existence — does anyone know what happened to the pool?

• Site 9: Minneapolis-Honeywell Building, at 5440 Gulf Freeway housed the Public Affairs Office.

• Site 10: This one caused me some confusion to track down, being listed as both the Canada Dry Building and the Robert's Carpets building. I believe the Technical Services Division was potentially housed across both buildings, located around 4750 Gulf Freeway. Most citations refer to the Canada Dry Bottling Plant off Canada Dry Road, which appears to be the 1940's style building recently the home of Sun Belt Foods. However, a 2008 NASA publication also lists the now-Robert's Carpets building as the home of Site 10. Again, clarification here would be good if anyone has firm recollections?

• Site 11: The old semi-cylindrical hut used by the Data Computation and Reduction Division at 4513 Cullen Blvd then became home to the studios of KUHT Channel 8 TV. It's now part of the University of Houston, adjacent to (part of?) the Safety and Ergonomics lab.

• Site 12: I have no firm location for the Peachy Building, which housed the Facilities Division. Best guess is it is now demolished and occupied the site in front of what is now the Royal Palms Apartment Complex off Griggs Road, between Royal Palms Street and Sunrise Road.

• Site 13: 2504 Beatty Street. NASA reportedly used four of the six apartment buildings in what was the Franklin Development Complex (now St John's Apartments), but I can't find any accurate record of what was actually housed here.

• Site 14: Veterans Administration Building, 2320 La Branch Street. Now houses, amongst other things, a Child Development Center, but as with site 13 I can't see any clear record of what this site was used for at the time.

posted 07-18-2016 12:27 PM            

Site 2 (NASA Headquarters) can be seen in photo S62-03939.

posted 07-18-2016 03:25 PM            

Site 13 is mentioned in the October 31, 1962 issue:

Manned Spacecraft Center has added another site to its temporary facilities in Houston, this one designated Site 13 ...

Four of six buildings originally intended as apartments are being modified as offices ...

The Flight Crew Operations Division has moved from Office City to the new site.

The Technical Information Division will also move into Site 13.

posted 07-18-2016 05:38 PM            

Latest addition to Manned Spacecraft Center's temporary sites is the former Veteran's Administration Building at 2320 LaBranch near the downtown area of Houston. The building will be ready for occupancy in December. It will eventually be the new home of Gemini Project Office, Gemini Procurement, and in the future of the Reliability and Flight Safety Office.

posted 07-21-2016 10:06 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by drscoop:
Those "Space News Roundup" articles are a great resource

---

The first issue of Space News Roundup was November 1, 1961. The headline read "STG Renamed: Will Move"

The big move from Langley AFB to the various temporary sites in Houston began in October 1961. The move from those temporary facilities to Site 1 at Clear Lake began in February 1964.

So MSC operated out of the temporary locations for the Mercury orbital flights of Glenn, Carpenter, Schirra and Cooper.

posted 07-31-2016 10:21 AM            

Approximately 30 Manned Spacecraft Center employees, including the astronauts, moved recently from Houston into two rehabilitated buildings at Ellington Air Force Base.

posted 08-03-2016 10:43 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by drscoop:
I believe the Technical Services Division was potentially housed across both buildings, located around 4750 Gulf Freeway.

---

The May 16, 1962 issue of Roundup has the Technical Services Division located in the Rich Building.

posted 04-06-2017 11:17 AM               

I knew about and have driven past a couple of the sites in the course of living here for the past decade or so, but your research goes beyond the locations of which I was aware.