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Texas: East, North Central, Panhandle and South Plains and West » North Central Texas » Gatesville to Hillsboro » Hillsboro (Hill County) » City Department of Economic Development (Hillsboro City Hall and Fire Department)

City Department of Economic Development (Hillsboro City Hall and Fire Department)

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1910, Tom Sowell, Builder. 127 E. Franklin St.

The two-story, red brick, Prairie Style–inspired building was Hillsboro’s first free-standing civic building, incorporating city offices on the second floor and police and fire departments on the first. The large second-floor windows extend up to the broad soffits of the red tile hipped roof. Making these windows nearly as large as the garage doors on the first floor reduced the visual dominance of the fire station over the city hall. All openings have flat lintels, further emphasizing the horizontality of the roof line.

Nearby at 119 E. Franklin, the two-story buff brick Page Building (former Gebhardt Bakery) of c. 1905 has corner parapet buttresses that give it a Romanesque affinity. The bakery had a large brick oven in the rear of the building.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Gerald Moorhead et al.
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Data

What's Nearby

Grimes Garage
Hill County Cell Block Museum (Hill County Jail)
Hill County Courthouse
Courthouse Square Commercial Buildings
Texas Theater (Palace Theater)

Citation

Gerald Moorhead et al., "City Department of Economic Development (Hillsboro City Hall and Fire Department)", [Hillsboro, Texas], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/TX-02-GH23.

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, 266-267.

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