James W. Latimer (Weck)

Dallas, TX

Designed by the prominent Dallas firm of Lang and Witchell, this building rose in stages between 1914 and 1923 to house the dry-goods manufacturing and distributing business of the Higginbotham-Bailey-Logan Company. Its simplified Renaissance Revival design, with geometrically detailed corner towers, reflected the confident commercial architecture of early-20th-century Dallas. The firm was known as Higginbotham-Bailey after 1945.

Dallas, TX

Dallas began in 1841 as a single cabin on the Trinity River, where pioneer John Neely Bryan hoped river navigation would build a city. Instead it was the railroads — the Houston and Texas Central in 1872 and the Texas and Pacific the next year — that turned the young county seat into a commercial powerhouse. By 1890 Dallas was the state's most populous city, its fortunes riding on cotton, wheat, banking, and later East Texas oil, and in 1936 it hosted the Texas Centennial Exposition.

Dallas, TX

In 1911–1912, Dallas businessmen convinced brewing magnate Adolphus Busch, co-founder of Anheuser-Busch, to build the first section of this hotel on the site of the old 1880s city hall. Designed by a St. Louis firm in Beaux Arts style with lavish French Renaissance detailing, the Adolphus long dominated the Dallas skyline. For decades it was the stage for the city's most important business and social occasions.

Dallas, TX

Built in 1921–22 for the Magnolia Petroleum Company—later Mobil Oil—this $4 million skyscraper was designed by the British architect Sir Alfred C. Bossom and reigned as the tallest building in Dallas for nearly two decades. In 1934 a revolving neon 'flying red horse,' Magnolia's trademark, was mounted atop the tower and swiftly became a beloved city landmark. The building announced Dallas's rise as a center of the booming Texas oil economy.