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Burk Burnett Building (State National Bank)

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1914, Sanguinet and Staats; 1953 facade remodeled, Preston M. Geren; 1980 renovated, Geren and Associates; 1984 rehabilitated, Weeter and Associates. 500–502 Main St.

This thirteen-story building functioned for one year as the State National Bank before being purchased in 1915 by cattleman and oilman Samuel Burk Burnett of the 6666 Ranch. Burnett, founder of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, renamed the Classical Revival building for himself. Four enormous Corinthian columns of polished gray granite provide considerable stature for the slender, slab-shaped building and support an entablature that defines the two-story banking lobby, which runs the length of the building’s W. 4th Street elevation. Cream-colored terra-cotta tiles define the banking hall, and terra-cotta stringcourses separate each floor, standing out against the red brick curtain walls. The building’s elaborate terracotta cornice provides a tripartite classical summation at the top of the top-middle-and-base compositional formula.

Robert Bass was instrumental in restoring the Burk Burnett Building, the first formal historic restoration downtown. Work in 1980 by Geren and Associates removed the firm’s stylistic sheathing added in 1953 and also appended an elevator tower. Work in 1984 restored the banking lobby to its grandeur. Robert Bass made space available in the building for the first field office of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Gerald Moorhead et al.
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Data

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Citation

Gerald Moorhead et al., "Burk Burnett Building (State National Bank)", [Fort Worth, Texas], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/TX-02-FW10.

Print Source

Buildings of Texas

Buildings of Texas: East, North Central, Panhandle and South Plains, and West, Gerald Moorhead and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2019, 204-204.

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