Here is a ghost of an old Trost & Trost designed building on Texas Avenue, a few blocks east of downtown. Erected in 1916 for El Paso/Tucson hoteliers Alzina and Charles DeGroff, the Rio Grande Auto Painting Building is an humble single-story utilitarian structure, not meant to dazzle the eyes. And it doesn't.
The building was erected at a cost of $7,000 by contractor Hewitt & Son and is the current home of A&A Wholesale Carpets. While lost in the long line of broken buildings on Texas Ave, it does fit nicely into the fabric of Architectural history in El Chuco.
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| Photograph taken 2018 by Mark Stone |
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| Photograph is a clipping from the 1918 El Paso City Directory via the UNT Digital Archives |
