Exit views of the old Farmers and Mechanics National Building at 14th and Main Street, Fort Worth, Texas

Creator

Preview

Identifier

20038838

Description

Exit views of the old Farmers and Mechanics National Building at 14th and Main Street, Fort Worth, Texas, now owned by Frank Anderson. The building was built in 1889 and was once the city's skyscraper. When Col. John R. Hoxie, wealthy business man who established the Fort Worth Stockyards Company and the Fort Worth Packing House, came here from Chicago the southern end of Main Street was flourishing. To situate the bank he founded in an up-and-coming section, he bought property on what then was South Main and constructed the most modern building the town had seen. He remained in Fort Worth as the bank's president until 1894, when J. W. Spencer succeeded him. About 1900 the Farmers and Mechanics Bank moved to Seventh and Main. It remained there until 1918, when it merged with the American National Bank and moved, still as the Farmers and Mechanics National to the American National temporary headquarters at Fifth and Main. Shortly afterward, the Union Gospel Mission purchase the original Farmers and Mechanics building and used it until 1941, when Anderson bought it. During the years the old building was in use by the mission, all the rescue work of the organization was carried on there. It served as a combination dormitory, soup kitchen, old clothes dispensary and chapel for mission services. The Farmers and Mechanics Bank moved back to Seventh and Main after it had completed construction fot he present 24-story building in 1920. Six years later the Farmers and Mechanics and the Fort Worth National were consolidated as the Fort Worth National. In this picture, the corner of the building is the United Recreation Club. Next to it is the Poulos Cafe. There are cars parked on the curb next to the building and people on the sidewalk. Published in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram evening edition, November 9, 1944.

Archival Date

1944-11-06

Collection Name

Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collection

Collection Number

AR406-6-643

Original Format

Negatives, Black & White

File Format

JPG

Rights

Rights held by The University of Texas at Arlington Libraries, Special Collections. Any use of content downloaded or printed from this page is limited to non-commercial personal or educational use, including fair use as directed by U.S. copyright laws. For more information or for reproduction requests, please contact UTA Special Collections by emailing spcoref@uta.edu.

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Subjects

Buildings; Farmers and Mechanics National Building; Business districts