This six-story white terra-cotta-faced dry goods store was Henry Trost’s strongest iteration of the Chicago Style, with widely spaced vertical piers, recessed spandrels, and triple Chicago windows in each bay. The building is clearly articulated with a tall base of display windows, a four-story shaft, and a one-story attic topped by a bold cornice over modillions. The curved corner, similar to Trost and Trost’s earlier Mills Building (EP2) and White House Department Store (EP3), accommodates the angled street intersection and gives the store an impressive street presence. A four-story addition of 1946 was rehabilitated as apartments (c. 2005, Wright and Dalbin Architects).
The Popular, El Paso’s foremost specialty store, was opened in 1904 by Adolph Schwartz, a Hungarian Jewish immigrant, his nephew Maurice Schwartz, and their cousin Ignatz Weiss. The partners moved their store to this corner in 1907 and The Popular operated here until it closed in 1995.