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East Main Street

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1912–1940. 200 and 300 blocks of E. Main St.

The original wood buildings on Main Street were devastated by a fire on July 19, 1911. The Williams Adams Building at number 222 (1912) is a two-part brick commercial block by Jules Leffland that reflects the rapid rebuilding campaign after the fire. Across the street at number 223, the original 1912 design of the Texas State Bank, part of the Parr family empire, included the familiar round-arched window bands, corner tower, and decorative brickwork associated with Leffland. The two-story, rectangular-plan structure was radically altered in the 1940s into an elegant, yet minimalist version of Art Deco. Its new granite base, limestone surface, glass block–covered openings, and crisp linear parapet provide no clue of its Leffland origins, or to its historic use, as it is now subdivided into apartments. In the next block at number 319, the Rialto Theater (1940) is an Art Deco rendition with boarded windows and a missing cylindrical vertical element that once towered above its center.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Gerald Moorhead et al.
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Data

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Citation

Gerald Moorhead et al., "East Main Street", [Alice, Texas], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/TX-01-KA33.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Texas

Buildings of Texas: Central, South, and Gulf Coast, Gerald Moorhead and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2013, 267-267.

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