Here's a nice commercial structure designed by El Paso architect Otto Thorman for Crane O'Fallon, a Plumbing and Heating supply company that operated throughout the Southwest and other areas of the country. Crane had outgrown their previous headquarters location at 219 S Ochoa, opting to build a new showroom and office facility reflecting their increased area sales. Their old building, interestingly, was demolished and became the location of the extant Abdou Building, a structure built by Salim Abdou for his Produce and Fruit company. This is the same Salim Abdou that purchased the Trost & Trost Rio Grande Valley Bank building downtown in 1925, giving it its most common name. But that's a different story . . .
The Thorman designed Crane O'Fallon is a Spanish designed structure at the northeast corner of Texas and Cotton, and still stands today at the ripe old age of 90. It is currently occupied by the NBS Office Furniture company. The windows and interior look brand new, and the exterior looks great, suggesting a recent renovation.
The building was erected by Contractor R.E. McKee, work beginning on Friday, November 7, 1930. Erection cost was a cool $100,000. The structure was completed in time for its official Grand Opening on May 16, 1931, a mere 6 months after groundbreaking, to great fanfare. Interior and exterior painting was done by the L.R. Spitler Company with the plastering completed by Herman Bream of Ysleta. The building included a special tilting flagpole created by Elmer Carr of Chicago. Ornamental iron and fencing was provided by Wyler Industrial Works (a company that is still in business today!), and roofing was completed by A. Courchesne.
Today we swung by the building to take some photos, and found it to be in very goos condition, another monument to one of El Paso's most influential and important architects.
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Text, research and modern photography provided to Sketchclub.net by Mark Stone, citing period newspaper articles and advertising from newspapers.com, and City Directories accessed through the UNT Digital Archives at https://texashistory.unt.edu/
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| Photograph taken by Mark Stone 11/25/2020 |
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| Photograph taken by Mark Stone 11/25/2020 |
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| Clipping from the 11/07/1930 El Paso Evening Post, via newspapers.com |
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| Photograph taken by Mark Stone 11/25/2020 |
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| Photograph taken by Mark Stone 11/25/2020 |
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| Photograph taken by Mark Stone 11/25/2020 |
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| Photograph taken by Mark Stone 11/25/2020 |
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| Photograph taken by Mark Stone 11/25/2020 |
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| The firm of Trost & Trost also drew a plan for this building; however, Thorman won the commission. Photo courtesy of the El Paso Public Library's Aultman Collection, marked Ponsford 116, via the UNT Digital Archives at https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth875647/m1/1/ |
