Sears Roebuck and Company opened the first branch outside of its Chicago mail-order business in 1906 in Dallas. The office received orders, which were then shipped from Chicago. The Dallas branch was expanded in 1910 with a mail-order plant here with direct access to the Houston and Texas Central Railway. The first phase of this nine-story warehouse contained 850,000 square feet, with additions in 1915 and 1916 that expanded the facility to 1.5 million square feet. The exposed floor slabs form long horizontal lines, with red brick walls between the triple, vertically stacked windows implying pilasters, although all these elements are flush to the wall plane. The severe regimentation is softened with Prairie Style ornament on the end towers and Sullivanesque foliated pier capitals at the entrance. These touches may indicate the involvement of Charles E. Barglebaugh.
Sears vacated the property in 1993 due to consolidation. Matthews Southwest Corporation bought the building in 1997 and developed 457 loft apartments, retail space, and restaurants, along with offices for the Dallas County Community College District. In order to revitalize the image of this area of the city and promote a sense of security for new residents, the developer donated land for the Jack Evans Police Headquarters (2000, Phillips Swager Associates) at 1400 S. Lamar.