sketchclub.net: The El Paso Sketch Club: Richard Caples Building

Richard Caples, born in 1854 in Canada, was the Mayor of El Paso from 1889 to 1893, and is as responsible as any other historical figure of the time in the shaping of the young city he adopted. During his time in El Paso, he was heavily involved in building, and at least three of his structures still stand today: the 1887 Merrick building (where he and partner Lewis Hammer were the contractors); the 1902 Caples Hotel, also referred to as the Caples-Hammer building, as contractor and owner; and his most famous building, the subject of this article, the 1909 Richard Caples building, where he was intimately involved in the design along with master architects Henry C. Trost (1909), John J. Stewart (1917) and C.E. Barglebaugh (1917). A fourth building was erected and owned by him - the 1910 Posener Building, also lovingly referred to as the "Little Caples", which was demolished in the 1940s to make way for the Lerner Building, a Mabel Welch design.

Caples was primarily a Masonry contractor, and was the president of a number of companies and partnerships in his field. According to period advertising, he ran the Mt. Franklin Lime and Stone Co., and Long Lumber Company, among others (El Paso Herald, 6/21/1911). He also advertised frequently as a contractor under the name Caples-Hammer (with the aforementioned Lewis Hammer). His namesake building, located at the corner of San Antonio and Mesa, was Henry C. Trost's first (of a long series) of reinforced concrete structures, and it is easy to speculate that this feature was included at the request of Caples because of his history in the field.

The Caples building sits as a monument to Richard Caples at the point where Mesa Street "ends" at San Antonio. Driving south on Mesa places the building dead center in your field of vision, with a sign centered directly under the cornice "CAPLES BLDG". The structure was built in three stages: in 1909 the bottom 5 floors, designed in an Early 20th Century Commercial architectural style by Henry Trost, were erected in less than a year. In 1917, Caples had his friend John J. Stewart, an architect employed by Trost & Trost at the time, add two floors. Stewart designed the upper floors in a stunning Romanesque style, closely emulating his design (as a supervising architect for Trost & Trost) of the 1910 Roberts-Banner building a couple blocks to the north. Stewart had been the architect for both the Merrick Building and the Caples-Hammer building, establishing their friendship and working relationship. In 1917 the Dallas architectural firm of Lang and Witchell was hired for a first floor expansion of the building to accommodate the F.W. Woolworths. The design was drawn by C.E. Barglebaugh, the local representative of the firm.

The Caples building is rich in El Paso history, and was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1980 (see https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/AssetDetail...).

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Quoting the Historical Marker at the site: "The fifth floor offices offered sweeping views of El Paso and Juarez. In early 1911, provisional president Francisco I. Madero announced that El Paso would be the center of the revolutionary movement in the United States. The offices, located in rooms 507 and 508 of the Caples Building, became the headquarters of the Madero junta. Junta members included provisional Chihuahua governor Abraham Gonzalez, who operated the government in exile and met with the press and issued communiques. The loose condition of the junta members soon included Francisco "Pancho" Villa, former professor Briulio Hernandez, attorney Fredrico Gonzalez-Garza, Alberto Fuentes, and Castulo Herrera (who reportedly fired the first shot of the Revolution).

"El Paso physician Ira J. Bush, known as the "Gringo Doctor", helped form a Revolutionary Medical Corps for the movement, and Guiseppe Garibaldi, grandson of the famous Italian patriot, also joined the junta. When the United States Government issued warrants for Madero and Gonzalez, they fled into Mexico but left their staffs at the Caples Building. Those left behind continued to recruit troops, purchase arms, and promote the revolutionary cause."

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Since before the Financial Crisis of 2008, the century-plus old building has been vacant and deteriorating except for first floor retail. In November of 2018, real estate investor Sy Dordashty of Los Angeles, owner of Greenfield Products, purchased the building at auction. Greenfield primarily deals in apartment management, mostly in the Las Vegas, NV area, leading us to speculate that the Caples may become apartments. Again, this is mere speculation based on the company's history.

Restoration on the Caples began in the springtime of 2019 and continues today. The interior has been demo'ed and we have observed construction underway inside the building. It seems ready for the beginning of exterior restoration, however I have not seen the beginning of that process yet. The building is actively leasing office space, so I don't believe there will be too much of a delay in the completion of its renovation.

It will be more than interesting to see what they do with rooms 507 and 508!

Research and text provided by Mark Stone for Sketchclub.net, citing:

-- Newspaper records accessed at the Library of Congress' Chronicling America project (https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/)

-- Newspaper records accessed at the University of North Texas (Denton) Digital Archives (https://texashistory.unt.edu/)

-- National Park Service Asset Detail at http://npgallery.nps.org