Ernest Krause was the very first registered architect in El Paso, setting up shop in 1881 when the city was first incorporated. He designed both commercial and residential structures, both spectacular and humble, over a career lasting 4 decades. Krause designed a large number of downtown business blocks and hotels, including the iconic 1883 Grand Central Hotel; the equally iconic and still standing A.B. Fall Mansion; the A.P. Coles building at Oregon and San Antonio, along with every other early 1900s building between Mesa and Oregon on the south side of San Antonio (Patterson, Nations, Turner and Rohkauer). He was a political activist, too -- leading the charge to have the City of El Paso desert its structurally dangerous City Hall in 1899, and leading a consortium of El Paso architects challenging what they felt was the unfair appointment of Trost & Trost to design the County Courthouse in 1915.
The E.K. Apartment building stands today at 910 N. Stanton, a two-story (with basement) variegated red-brick structure on a cut-rock foundation, built for El Paso businessman John Helms. It looks a little ragged because of its age, but is sound and still pretty. A largely undecorated Commercial design, it operates as the Lidia Apartments today. Interestingly, it was erected next door to Ernest Krause' residence, which was at 906 N Stanton.
An intriguing century-plus old feller - part of a city's heritage, and another Ernest Krause flavoring.
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Mark Stone, citing period newspaper articles and ads accessed at newspapers.com
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| Google Earth Street View accessed 04/28/2021 |
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| Google Earth Street View accessed 04/28/2021 |
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| Google Earth Street View accessed 04/28/2021 |
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| Google Earth Street View accessed 04/28/2021 |
