Isis Theater

The Isis was Houston's first silent movie theater. Before I left
Houston in the late 90s, I recall reading an article in the Houston
Chronicle that reported that the theater was another enterprise
started by Houston businessman and industrialist Jesse H Jones
as a way to give guests at the Rice Hotel--which Jones also built and owned--something to do while staying downtown.
The Chronicle also had a neat vintage photo that showed the Isis
as it was.
Sadly, very little of the original theater remains, although bits
of the interior and at least one of the original doors are to be found in the theater's current incarnation.

I did a little more digging about The Isis. The name Saenger Amusement Company was listed with the Isis, but the article I saw
failed to mention when Saenger operated the theater. Saenger was
a theater chain based in New Orleans and in it's heyday, operated
about 350 theaters in Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas. A number of their theaters still exist.
A number of interior and exterior photos of the original Isis are listed in the Jesse H Jones Papers currently maintained by The University of Texas At Austin. I'd sure like to see those. As soon as the photo posting feature for this site is repaired, I'll be glad to include whatever photos I can find of this theater--then and now.

A Coburn theater organ was installed in the Isis Theater in 1911.