Kennedy Bakery, Historic bakery building in downtown Houston, US

Kennedy Bakery is a two-story brick building in downtown Houston at 813 Congress Street featuring wooden sash windows and pilasters framing the central entry. The structure faces Market Square in the historic district and displays the architectural style typical of 19th century commercial construction.

John Kennedy, a baker born in Ireland, reached the Republic of Texas in 1842 and opened his first Houston bakery on Franklin Street that fall. He lost his Congress and Travis streets buildings to a fire in August 1860 and rebuilt promptly, though it is only conjecture that the present building is that reconstruction. By 1873 the structure housed a drug store, with druggists as tenants until 1932.

The building is named for John Kennedy, a baker born in Ireland who arrived in Houston in 1842. By 1873 it operated as a drug store, with druggists as tenants through 1932, and it stayed a retail location after that. In 1970 the Kennedy family sold it to William V. Berry, who opened La Carafe, one of Houston's oldest bars as of 2012.

The building is located in the Main Street Market Square Historic District in downtown Houston and easy to spot on its original site. Visitors can appreciate the exterior and explore the interior when La Carafe Bar is open.

The 1979 National Register nomination notes a five-foot alley on the east side leading to an interior courtyard, and fifteen feet of brick frontage on Congress Street. The building is only probably Houston's oldest surviving structure on its original site, a claim the nomination itself hedges.