El Paso Country Club
El Paso, Texas

Description: El Paso Country Club
Other Name: none
Address: Club Road, west of Fort Bliss, El Paso, El Paso County, Texas (the site is now part of Fort Bliss)
Type: fraternal: country club
Original Client: El Paso Country Club
Date: 1908-1909
Condition: destroyed by fire in 1916

Architect or Firm: Henry C. Trost
Associated Architect or Firm: Trost & Trost
Contractors: Sorenson & Morgan; interiors executed by Mitchel & Halbach of Chicago
Dimensions and Orientation: two stories with elevated basement
Budget/Cost: $50,000

Foundation: unknown
Wall Materials: unknown; plastered
Roofing Materials: flat; Spanish tile over porches
Other Materials Used: concrete floors for the veranda
Remodeling and Additions: none

Location of Drawings: none known to exist
Location of Documentary Photographs: El Paso Public Library: Ponsford 293, facade with group of equestrians gathered in front; Ponsford 294, sitting room; Ponsford 295, sitting room fireplace; Ponsford 296, dining room; Ponsford 297, general view before landscaping; Aultman A5417, duplicate of Ponsford 297.

Bibliography: (1) Lloyd C. and June F. Engelbrecht, Henry C. Trost: Architect of the Southwest (El Paso: El Paso Public Library Association, 1981) (page 42, mention of furniture; pages 79-80, discussion; illustrated on page 80, Ponsford 297; page 132, bibliographic note)
(2) El Paso Country Club, El Paso, Texas (El Paso: McMath [i.e., The McMath Co.], [1922]), pages 5-11: history of the Club and its buildings through 1922

Remarks: Although the exterior was Mission Revival, and homage was also paid to the Mission style in the interior in the arched doorways and beamed ceiling, the sitting room and dining room were decorated with Prairie School stenciling, and the focus of the sitting room was a spectacular Prairie School fireplace. Part of the building was opened informally on January 1, 1909; formal opening was January 15-17, 1909. After the 1916 fire, a new, single storey building was constructed with the same floor plan, and used for six years, it is not known who designed this building. A new building, opened on another site in 1922, was designed by C. E. Barlebaugh and Percy McGhee, Jr. Gustavus A. Trost proposed an addition. The location for the clubhouse in 1909 on Mountain Avenue east of Dyer Street. Two holes on the new nine-hole golf course were on club property, but the other  seven holes were on Fort Bliss. In 1918, the club moved to it present location in the upper valley.

Prepared for the El Paso Public Library by Lloyd C. and June F. Engelbrecht under a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, 1990