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Edna Police and Fire Building (Edna City Hall)

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Edna City Hall
1947, Williams, MacKie and Kamrath. 105 N. Allen St.

The former Edna City Hall, like the Methodist church diagonally across Main Street, is energetic rather than refined; whether this indicates something about the division of responsibility between MacKie and Kamrath of Houston and Williams is unclear. The building's one-story administration section and the fire department's truck bays are organized to either side of a planar, story-and-a-half pylon incorporating integral wall lights faced with glass-block diffusers and the name “Edna” spelled out in large-scale, skinny black brick letters. While the design of the building is similar to other MacKie and Kamrath post– World War II buildings, this possesses residual modernistic touches, such as the pylon and the reverse taper concrete frame that wreaths the garage doors. The anti-monumentality of the city hall and fire station and its setting, on the equivalent of a domestic lawn, are attributes that ally it with the courthouse ( BE35), enabling Edna to present as consistent an image of mid-twentieth-century suburban modern public buildings as its main street does of turn-of-the-twentieth-century retail architecture.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Gerald Moorhead et al.

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