Goodbye to the Kress Building
An empty lot is all that is left at 116 W. Broad St. downtown, where the Kress Building stood until its demolition by the city of Texarkana, Texas.
The long-derelict building had become little more than a dangerous pile of rubble when the city decided to demolish it rather than attempting a much more expensive restoration.
Gator Industrial of Joplin, Mo., submitted the winning bid for the project at more than $629,000.
Demolition began May 15, 2017, closing westbound traffic on West Broad Street in front of the building until work ended four and a half months later. Wet weather in August and some unexpectedly painstaking manual tasks along the way slowed progress at times.
Workers salvaged many of the glazed terra cotta tiles from the building’s facade, as well as enough of the building’s canopy that it could be accurately restored. The city is storing the salvaged materials, and how they will be used remains to be seen.
The city accepted the building as a donation in 2009.
It was a former S.H. Kress and Co. department store, notable for its art deco architecture.
Samuel Henry Kress was born in Pennsylvania in 1863. He established a stationery and novelty shop in Harrisburg, Penn., after teaching for seven years. The opening of that store led him to the concept of “5 and 10 cent” stores, or “notions” stores. He could make a good income simply by providing small, necessity items such as thread, bobby pins, and candy. He opened his first 5 and 10 cent store in Memphis, Tenn., in 1896, and his second store in Nashville, Tenn., one year later.
By the time Texarkana got its first Kress store, built to Kress standards around 1920, Samuel Kress had a staff of architects who turned out unique designs for each new Kress store, and had significantly honed his business strategy to fit each region of the country. This brand new store located at 116-118 W. Broad Street was about 50 feet wide and 140 feet deep. It was a two-story brick building with six windows on the second floor and large display windows on the ground floor with transom windows over them that could be opened to help ventilate the building. The building had interesting detailing around each window and an overhanging cornice near the top of the building. The large Kress sign was hung from the second story and read, “Kress’ 5 —10 —15 Cent—Store.”
The original building burned in 1933 and was rebuilt. Mr. Kress was an avid patron of the arts and had truly taken a fancy to the art deco style of this era. Thus, his team of architects came up with the designs for the local building in this mode. The building was condemned in 1979.
(From staff reports and historical accounts provided by Dr. Beverly Rowe.)