This well maintained 3-Story Apartment Building, located at 1508 North Stanton in El Paso, is known today as the Lamar Apartments and has been since the 1950s, when Hotelier and former Dentist D. Lamar Hall purchased and operated a number of Apartment buildings throughout El Paso. As of this writing, we know of 4 other "Lamar", "D. Lamar", or "Lamar D." apartments in town, but this enterprising fellow may have had a few more. We've featured two of his buildings here at the Society's Facebook page: the 1897 Knights of Columbus Building at https://www.facebook.com/TrostSociety/posts/3005596699558376, and the 1917 Delevan Court, https://www.facebook.com/TrostSociety/posts/3102688863182492. At the time we detailed the Delevan, which is one of architect S.E. Patton's most creative designs in town, we didn't know it had spent time in the Lamar family. We recently discovered that it spent a goodly amount of time as the "D Lamar" Apartments.
This particular Apartment home was erected in 1921 by Mrs. Helen Gilroy at a cost of $20,000. The building permit was issued on June 13 of the same year, and it was advertised very profusely in period newspapers as a "Desirable new attractive apartment!" It was known as both the "Gilroy Apartments" and the "Gilroy House" until 1928, when it became the Willretta Apartments. We believe it remained the Willretta until Hall purchased the property.
During the 1930s, it spent time as the headquarters building for the El Paso Apartment House Association, who brokered apartments in a number of city complexes from its first-floor office.
The building is a very cleanly designed red brick, mounted on a concrete foundation. A scantily decorated Commercial design, we can find no primary documentation identifying the architect but the building definitely leans towards Otto Thorman. Nevertheless, 1921 El Paso saw **a lot** of very talented architects that would have been capable of this design.
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Text, research and modern photography provided to Sketchclub.net by Mark Stone, citing period newspaper articles and advertisements accessed through newspapers.com
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| Photograph taken by Mark Stone March 2021 |
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| Photograph taken by Mark Stone March 2021 |
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| Photograph taken by Mark Stone March 2021 |
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| Photograph taken by Mark Stone March 2021 |
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| Photograph taken by Mark Stone March 2021 |
