Pioneer Plaza is an irregular space at the north end of El Paso Street, the road that leads to the Paso del Norte International Bridge over the Rio Grande to Ciudad Juárez. Today S. El Paso Street is the focal point of retail activity in downtown El Paso. The seven-story White House Department Store, sheathed in white terra-cotta, continues the major/secondary pier composition of the adjacent Mills Building (EP2), but with a different treatment of the top. Segmental arches span between the primary structural piers, and a deep cornice projects over closely spaced modillions. Like the Mills Building, the former store’s facade is folded around the angled Mills Avenue—El Paso Street intersection to terminate the northward vista up El Paso Street.
The White House Department Store, founded in the 1880s in Juárez by immigrant Felix Brunschwig, relocated to El Paso in 1900. Brunschwig’s nephews and successors, Myrtil and Gaston Coblentz, had the building constructed in three phases, eventually expanding into the hotel above and to the adjacent Mills Building. The store closed in 1977. Paul Foster bought the building along with the Mills Building in 2008, transforming it into a mixed retail and office complex. A new central atrium rises to the roof, dramatically exposing the columns and beams of Adolphus Trost’s concrete frame. The Centre Building connects internally with the Mills Building.