The first Texas and Pacific train arrived in Fort Worth in 1876, and the first Texas and Pacific Terminal (1900) stood near this tall, slender, thirteen-story slab. The Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce lobbied for twenty years to obtain a larger and more modern terminal and related support and storage spaces. The terminal, designed by Hedrick’s chief designer Herman P. Koeppe, is noted for its rich detailing that is suffused with an encyclopedic collection of Art Deco motifs, from chevrons and ziggurats to floral, geometric, and abstract elements formed in plaster, bronze, aluminum, wood, marble, and other materials.
Eagles adorn the main north entrance and roof frieze. The three-story-high base visually supports the upper ten floors of office space. The main waiting room and two adjacent waiting rooms for “White Women” and “Negroes” speak to both the social and gender distinctions in Fort Worth, a southern city, during the 1930s and the grandiosity of civic pride at its zenith. At 60 x 90 feet, the main waiting room with its marble floors and Tennessee marble wainscoting is truly an urban-scaled hall. The three-story-high glazed north facade affords views of downtown, while the south doorways lead to the concourse. The lobby for the upper office floors is in the west end of the building, and the elevator waiting space is lined in yellow and black marble. The terminal continues to be used as a passenger station, with trains for the “T” shuttle to Dallas and intervening cities arriving and departing on a regular daily schedule.
The Texas and Pacific Warehouse, two blocks to the west, is eight stories high and measures 611 x 100 feet in area. Although the ornamentation is less elaborate than that of the terminal, its mixed-use program and 488,000-square-foot volume allowed direct access from rail to storage for all kinds of shipped goods, including those requiring refrigeration. Structurally, the building has a reinforced-concrete frame with clay tile backup and partition walls. The exterior facades are cream brick and cut limestone. There are triangular blue tile details punctuating the facade, and American Indian motifs are depicted in brickwork. Shifts in the economy caused closure of the warehouse in 1967. To date the configuration of its floor plates has stymied developers intent on reinvigorating this handsome building.