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City Hall and Municipal Building (Memorial Auditorium)

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1928, Lang and Witchell, with Voelcker and Dixon. 1300 7th St.

This public building combines a three thousand-seat auditorium with the offices of city government, which occupy the wings flanking the entrance bays and are set partially below grade level on the sloping site. Voelcker and Dixon in association with Dallas architects Lang and Witchell won the commission in a limited competition with a design derived from the latter’s Fair Park Auditorium of 1925 at the Texas State Fair (DS91) in Dallas. The buff brick walls and beige terra-cotta trim, fabricated by the Atlantic Terra Cotta Company, give the building a monotone appearance. The three portals of the entrance bay, configured as a gentle convex curve in front of the auditorium block, have elaborate Spanish baroque surrounds contrasting with the planar simplicity of the building masses. Two short towers framing the auditorium have octagonal caps with rich detailing.

Linked stylistically and completed the same year is the Wichita Falls Clinic-Hospital by Voelcker and Dixon at 1300 8th Street. The four-story building’s central entrance bay is marked by a stone Spanish Renaissance–styled portal.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Gerald Moorhead et al.
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Citation

Gerald Moorhead et al., "City Hall and Municipal Building (Memorial Auditorium)", [Wichita Falls, Texas], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/TX-02-AQ18.

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, 320-321.

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