Stevens Office Building
El Paso, Texas
Description: Stevens Office Building
Other Names:
Address: 206 Texas Avenue at North Mesa Street
Type: commercial: office and retail building
Original Client: Richard B. Stevens
Historic Inventory:
Date: 1907 – 1909; work began April 1907
Condition: extant
Architect or Firm: Henry C. Trost
Associated Architect or Firm: Trost & Trost
Contractors:
Dimensions and Orientation: two stories, 50 feet x 60 feet; 60 feet on Texas and 50 feet on Mesa ave, adjoining the Toltec building on the east
Budget/Cost: $20,000; originally $75,000.
Foundation: concrete
Wall Materials: exposed concrete
Roofing Materials: flat
Other Materials Used: reinforced concert and brick
Remodeling and Additions: upper story clad; lower floor modernized
Present Owner: UTEP/ 2015 Billy Abraham
Location of Drawings: El Paso Public Library: (B-6) 8 ink on linen sheets, including side, front and rear elevations, and sections, dated March, 1907
Location of Documentary Photographs: El Paso Public Library: Aultman A5047, view of corner, ca. 1925; A5279, perspective view, ca. 1925; 451, view of North section
Bibliography: (1) “El Paso Witnessed Considerable Building Activity in January,” El Paso Herald, January 30, 1907, page 12 (description of proposal, later downsized, for a five story building, with a budget of $75,000)
(2) “Building Permits Show 50 Percent Increase,” El Paso Herald, “Skyscraper Edition,” January 12, 1910, Annual Summary of Southwestern Progress, page [1] (“The Stevens Block, two stories and basement, probably cost more than any other building of its size in the southwest.”); page 5 (exterior photograph of “The New R.B. Stevens Building”)
(3) “El Paso The Gateway to Mexico,” The Overland Monthly, volume LVI (second series) (July, 1910), pages 120 – 135 (page 123: exterior photograph; budget given)
(4) El Paso Herald, January 7, 1907 page one “Five Story Structure for Texas and Mesa”
Remarks: This valuable corner in the city was first occupied by a one story brick building.
Mr. R.B Stevens first set of plans called for a five story building on the northeast corner of Texas and Mesa Avenue. The building was to have a frontage of 60 feet on Texas and 50 feet on Mesa avenue and adjoin the Toltec building on the east. The Rio Grande Valley Bank and Trust company was to occupy corner of the new structure. Real estate firms will probably take up the balance of the first floor and other floors will be offices.
Today, nothing of Trost’s design remains. However, the name, R.B.Stevens, still appears on the Texas Street corner.
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