Interstate Forwarding Company Warehouse
Dallas, Dallas County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Designed and built as a fireproof warehouse in 1913, this building was erected by businessmen B. D. Milam and E. C. Connor. Dallas was an official U.S. Port of Entry in 1913. This structure initially served as the first bonded customs warehouse in Dallas. Exhibiting Chicago School-style influences, the reinforced concrete structure features metal casement window walls with brick infill. A rear bay served as an entry for rail cars. RTHL - 1991
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Businessmen B. D. Milam and E. C. Connor raised this reinforced-concrete warehouse in 1913, the same year Dallas became an official U.S. Port of Entry, and it served as the city's first bonded customs warehouse. Its Chicago School lines — metal casement window walls with brick infill — and a rear bay built to admit rail cars mark it as a product of early-20th-century industrial design. It carries a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark designation from 1991.
Why it matters
It documents Dallas's emergence as an inland shipping and customs hub, where rail and commerce turned a prairie town into a national trade center.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In 1913, Dallas was a city in a hurry. It sat hundreds of miles from the nearest seaport, yet it had made itself a crossroads of railroads, and those rails carried cotton, grain, and manufactured goods in every direction. Wholesalers and distributors had turned the city into a trading center for a huge stretch of the Southwest.
That same year Dallas became an official U.S. Port of Entry. An inland city could now receive imported goods and clear them through customs locally, instead of having everything processed at a coastal port like Galveston or New Orleans. For merchants, that meant faster deliveries and simpler paperwork.
These were also the years of the Progressive Era, when American cities were growing fast and building for the future. After many destructive urban fires, builders increasingly turned to reinforced concrete and "fireproof" construction, especially for buildings meant to hold valuable goods.
People & events
The warehouse was the work of two Dallas businessmen, B. D. Milam and E. C. Connor, who built it in 1913. They designed it as a fireproof building from the start. That was a smart business choice, because a warehouse full of other people's goods was only as valuable as its ability to protect them.
The building's first job was an important one. It served as the first bonded customs warehouse in Dallas. In a bonded warehouse, imported goods could be stored under government supervision before the import duties on them were paid. Merchants paid the duties only when their goods were released. The practice let businesses manage their cash and their inventory, and it made the new Port of Entry work in everyday practice.
The building also reveals how closely trade and the railroads were linked. A bay at the rear let rail cars roll right up to the warehouse, so freight could move between train and storeroom with as little handling as possible. For a city whose fortunes rode on the rails, that door at the back was the building's lifeline.
Its place in the American story
The Interstate Forwarding Company Warehouse tells a larger story about how railroads redrew the map of American commerce. Before them, trade clustered at coasts and navigable rivers. Once rail lines crisscrossed the country, inland cities like Dallas could become distribution hubs, and eventually even customs ports, without a harbor in sight.
The building also reflects a national shift in how Americans built. The Chicago School grew up in the Midwest in the late 1800s and favored structural frames, big windows, and clean, practical lines over fancy decoration. Seeing its influence on a Texas warehouse in 1913 shows how quickly those ideas spread along the same rail lines that carried the freight.
Today, buildings like this are reminders of a working city that is easy to overlook. The glamour of a downtown skyline often gets the attention, but warehouses like this one did the actual work of moving the country's goods. Its designation as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1991 recognizes that everyday industrial history counts too.
If you visit
Look at the building as its builders meant it to be seen: as a practical, sturdy machine for storing freight. Notice the reinforced concrete frame and the way the metal casement windows fill the walls between brick infill. That grid of structure and glass is the Chicago School influence the marker describes.
If you can see the back of the building, look for signs of the rear bay where rail cars once pulled in. Then imagine the rail traffic that once served this part of Dallas, and the imported goods waiting inside under customs seal.
This stop fits well into a walk or drive through Dallas's older commercial districts, where brick and concrete warehouses from the railroad era survive among newer buildings. Be respectful of any current tenants, and enjoy the building from public areas unless it is open to visitors.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · B. D. Milam
- · E. C. Connor
Themes & tags
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