Samuel Fain Carter, the founder of Lumberman's Bank in Houston, commissioned the architecture firm of
Sanguinet and Staats to design a sixteen-floor, steel-framed building on Main Street at the corner of Rusk Street in Houston. The
Fort Worth-based Sanguinet and Staats had already been building skyscrapers in various cities in
Texas, and was building a reputation for this type of structure. In 1909, the building had an estimated cost of $650,000. Carter planned to finance construction through issues of equity and debt, stipulating that he would restrict bonds to $400,000 in value. The
Rice Institute agreed to purchase up to $200,000 in bonds. shares Main Street in the background At the time of its completion in 1910, the Carter Building was the tallest structure in Texas. Carter, who had founded the Lumberman's Bank in 1907, used space on the sixteenth floor for his own office, though he opted to keep the bank at its original location on Main at Prairie. Carter sold the building in 1923 to the financial institution he founded, Second National Bank of Houston. The bank hired
Boston-based architectural firm
Thomas M. James Company to design a six-story addition, with assistance from Sanguinet, Staats, Hedrick, and Gottlieb. In October 2009, the Second National Bank Building sold for $3 million. The purchaser, Pearl Real Estate of Fort Worth, specializes in the development, construction, and operation of hotels. At the time of purchase, forty office tenants were leasing a total 70,000 square feet, and the last of these tenants was scheduled to vacate in February 2010. The office building had 204,000 square feet of rentable space. A
Christian Science Reading Room and a
Domino's Pizza had been renting ground-level retail space. ==Renovation==