The first public health hospital in Houston, Jefferson Davis Hospital was superseded in 1937 when a newer city-county hospital of the same name was built on Allen Parkway. By the early twenty-first century, although still owned by Harris County, this two- and three-story brick building, set above a raised basement, was a wreck. A community development corporation, Avenue CDC, partnering with Artspace USA, the Minneapolis-based nonprofit developer of affordable space for artists and arts organizations, acquired the property from Harris County in 2002. Working with William O. Neuhaus III they transformed it into thirty-four living units and associated gallery and community spaces in a certified rehabilitation that has restored the building to its historical role as a neighborhood landmark.