[7] The library board selected a lot once occupied by Thomas M. Bagby, a co-founder of the 1848 Houston Lyceum.

They commissioned Cram and Ferguson as design architects, in consultation with William Ward Watkin and Louis A. Glover.

The Spanish Renaissance design draws from regional history, and includes carvings of explorers and missionaries of Texas.

The second floor hall lay under a rotunda, fronted by an interior oaken gate with carved columns and entablatures.

A group of African-American educators led by Ernest O. Smith lobbied local white leaders and the Carnegie Foundation for a library to serve the black community.

The Colored Carnegie Library of Houston opened in 1913 with an African American board of trustees and management.

[11] The branch, auctioned in February 1962 and shortly afterward demolished except for the cornerstone, was replaced by the W. L. D. Johnson Library in Sunnyside, dedicated on June 16, 1964.

[dubious – discuss][3][12][failed verification] Beforehand, blacks were permitted use of the Colored Carnegie Branch and deposit stations located at a park, a high school, and an elementary school; whites were permitted use of the main library, six branches, two bookmobiles, and several deposit stations.

[12] Desegregation occurred after a letter printed in the Houston Informer from several prominent black Houstonians, including Smith v. Allwright plaintiff Lonnie E. Smith, stated they would prefer a voluntary desegregation program despite their likelihood of winning a lawsuit; shortly before the letter was printed, Sweatt v. Painter was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, which challenged the "separate but equal" legal doctrine.

[13] In June 1953, Mayor of Houston Roy Hofheinz told the HPL board that library facilities should no longer be segregated.

On August 21, 1953, library facilities for high school students and adults were desegregated – without public announcement to the black community.

[28] In 2012 HPL administrative offices moved to the Julia Ideson Building after its historically correct renovation and the addition of a wing which was in the original design, but was not built at the time due to lack of funds.