Martin Building
El Paso, El Paso County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This seven-story commercial building was constructed in 1917 by businessmen M. D. Roberts and William Martin Banner, for whom it was named. Designed by the architectural firm of Brauhton and Leibert, it features Chicago style detailing in the use of decorative terra cotta and large windows. Early occupants included the El Paso Electric Railway Company, several doctors, and the El Paso Electric Company, later owner of the building. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1980
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Rising seven stories over downtown El Paso in 1917, the Martin Building announced the border city's confidence in the boom years of the early 20th century. Its Chicago-style design—broad windows and ornamental terra cotta—reflected the commercial architecture then sweeping American downtowns. Early tenants included the El Paso Electric Railway and Electric companies, tying the tower to the streetcar age that shaped the growing city.
Why it matters
The building captures how mid-sized American cities embraced the skyscraper form and electric transit, using architecture to signal that they, too, belonged to the modern urban age.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · M. D. Roberts
- · William Martin Banner
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
El Paso and Southwestern Railroad Building
El Paso, TX
The El Paso and Southwestern Railroad, begun in Arizona in 1888, reached El Paso in 1902 and made the border city the headquarters of its far-flung operations. This seven-story office building went up for the line in 1906, presiding over rail shops that served the Southwest. By the time the Southern Pacific absorbed the company in 1924, it was running more than 1,200 miles of track.
Felix Martinez
El Paso, TX
Felix Martinez rose from the frontier village of Peñasco, New Mexico, to become one of the most influential Hispanic leaders of the early-twentieth-century Southwest. He served in New Mexico's territorial legislature and published the leading Spanish-language newspaper, La Voz del Pueblo, before moving to El Paso in 1897. There he helped bring electric streetcars and power to the city, backed the Elephant Butte Dam that transformed Rio Grande agriculture, and was named a U.S. commissioner to South America by President Wilson before his death in 1916.
Hotel Paso Del Norte
El Paso, TX
El Paso booster Zach White arrived in 1881 and staked his faith on the border city's future, building an international bridge and streetcar line and bringing electric lights and natural gas to town. His grandest gesture was the ten-story Hotel Paso Del Norte, completed in 1912 and designed by the celebrated firm of Trost and Trost to be fireproof, inspired by buildings that had survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. For generations it hosted travelers, cattlemen, and dignitaries from both sides of the Rio Grande.
El Paso & Southwestern Railroad Locomotive Number One
El Paso, TX
Built in 1857 as a 4-4-0 "Classic American" locomotive, this engine began life hauling freight and passengers across the upper Midwest before a second career in the Southwest. By 1889 the line that became the El Paso & Southwestern Railroad had acquired it, converted it from wood to coal, and put it to work opening the mining country around Bisbee, Arizona. Dubbed "Old Number One," it served more than fifty years before retirement, later starring briefly on film and finding a permanent home in El Paso.