Robert Emmet Hines first appears at the corner of Texas and Dallas streets in El Paso in the 1914 City Directory, doing business as the Hines Lumber and Coal Co., with himself as President. With moderate success, in 1924 the company decided to expand their operations with a new building at their current location, and in July of 1925 took over the entire city block with a delightful Spanish/Mission eclectic blended complex.
The new Hines Lumber and Coal Co. building was celebrated in period newspapers, and on July 15, 1925 the new facility opened at 3:00 pm with food and music - and then had a dance, with a live orchestra, between 8:00 and Ten. Five years after the building was completed, it won First Prize in a national competition for "being the most conveniently planned and efficiently operated" lumber yard in the country (El Paso Times, 08/22/1930). Unfortunately, it was not owned by Hines by that date.
The joy surrounding the opening of the new building was short-lived. In 1927, as the building was entering its terrible twos, Hines was arrested on felony charges for skimming the company's funds for personal use. Hines Lumber went out of business and filed for bankruptcy. In a celebrated 1929 trial, Hines was acquitted on all charges, although he did admit on the stand that he had purchased a car for his wife, and painted a home he owned in Los Angeles with company funds. He was sole owner, and assumed that the company moneys were his to use. The court saw his side of the case and he became a free man.
Creditors, to whom Hines failed to pay almost $200,000 in debt, were outraged by the decision. Unable to pay his creditors, yet able to buy his wife a car? For years afterwards, they urged the courts to charge him again. They never did.
Peterson Lumber Company took over the building and operated at the location (in addition to other El Paso locations) until 1959, when they moved operations to the Kern Village Shopping Center on Stanton.
The complex of buildings stands today, although the three main structures are now separate buildings owned by different companies. The two main structures, the smaller office and the large showroom/warehouse, are brick stuccoed edifices designed in a Spanish and Mission eclectic blend. The original complex had a wall joining the two main buildings topped with Spanish tile, with arches at the ends, unifying the structure. However, the wall and arches are long gone.
We can find no primary documentation identifying the architect, but strongly lean towards the belief that this was drawn by Otto Thorman. In the mid 1920s, the only two firms designing Mission styled projects of this stature were Thorman and Trost & Trost, and if Trost designed the structure it would have been well documented. The squared shoulders of the main building along with the triplet windows under each of the two parapets also suggest that Trost was not the architect. Thorman, although active at the time, was not as celebrated as he was in the 1940s when he became El Paso's dominant architect; therefore we can understand why he wasn't mentioned, if it was him.
The condition of the building complex is iffy. All buildings are occupied, but clearly bowing to their age. Note that a major Chicago firm, called Hines Lumber, operated in El Paso starting in the 1930s - however is not associated with Robert Emmet Hines.
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Text, modern photography and research provided to sketchclub.net by Mark Stone, citing period newspaper articles and advertising accessed at newspapers.com, and El Paso City Directory entries accessed at the UNT Digital Archives at https://texashistory.unt.edu/
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| Photograph taken by Mark Stone 12/12/2020 |
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| Photograph taken by Mark Stone 12/12/2020 |
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| Photograph taken by Mark Stone 12/12/2020 |
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| Photograph taken by Mark Stone 12/12/2020 |
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| Photograph taken by Mark Stone 12/12/2020 |
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| Newspaper ad clipping from the El Paso Times, 8/22/1930, when the building was owned by Petersons, via newspapers.com |
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| Photograph taken by Mark Stone 12/12/2020 |
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| Photograph taken by Mark Stone 12/12/2020 |
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| Photograph taken by Mark Stone 12/12/2020 |
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| Photograph taken by Mark Stone 12/12/2020 |
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| Photograph taken by Mark Stone 12/12/2020 |
