Singer Building

🏛️The era

In the 1920s, El Paso was a busy, growing city at the far western tip of Texas, sitting right on the Mexican border across the Rio Grande from Ciudad Juárez. Railroads had made it a crossroads for the whole Southwest, and its downtown was filling with new commercial buildings that showed off the city's confidence.

Much of that downtown was designed by one firm. Henry Trost and his practice, Trost & Trost, designed a remarkable number of El Paso's landmark buildings in the early 1900s. Trost worked in many styles, but he is especially known for buildings suited to the desert Southwest, drawing on its Spanish and Mexican heritage and its sun.

Spanish Colonial Revival architecture was very popular across the Southwest and California in the 1920s. Tile roofs, stucco walls, ironwork and towers gave commercial buildings a look rooted in the region's history. For a city that had been part of the Spanish colonial world, the style made a lot of sense.

👥People & events

The Singer company, which had become world-famous for its sewing machines, had this building finished in 1928. Henry Trost designed it, and even a store for selling sewing machines got his careful attention: a corner tower with a red tile roof, iron grillwork, and the Singer crest set above the eastern upper-story window like a signature.

The building had two floors, and each had its own role. For more than 50 years, the ground floor was Singer's retail store, where customers came to see, buy and service sewing machines. Upstairs, the second story held a school for seamstresses, where students learned the skills that turned a machine into a way to make clothing, a household's needs or a living.

That pairing was very much Singer's approach. The company did not just sell machines; it made sure people knew how to use them, which in turn sold more machines. A store below and a classroom above is a neat picture of that business model in brick and concrete. In fact, the building's frame is reinforced concrete, a modern material of the time wrapped in an old-world style.

The Texas Historical Commission recognized the building as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1983.

🇺🇸Its place in the American story

Singer was one of America's first truly global brands. From the mid-1800s on, the company spread sewing machines around the world, and it is widely credited with helping make installment buying, paying over time, a normal part of American shopping. A Singer storefront in El Paso put this border city on the map of a huge national and international business.

The seamstress school on the second floor connects to a bigger shift in American life. Sewing machines changed how clothing was made at home and in shops, and they changed women's work in particular. For many women, knowing how to sew well meant saving money for their family, or earning money through dressmaking, alterations or factory work. A school like this one is a small part of that story.

The building is also a good example of how national companies adapted to local places. Instead of a generic storefront, Singer's El Paso building took on the Spanish Colonial Revival character of the Southwest, designed by the region's best-known architect. It shows national commerce and regional identity meeting on a single street corner.

🧭If you visit

Look up. The best features of this building are above street level: the corner tower with its red tile roof, the iron grillwork, and especially the Singer crest above the eastern upper-story window. Spotting the crest is a fun little treasure hunt, particularly for kids.

As you stand there, picture the building in its working years, with customers trying out sewing machines in the downstairs showroom and, upstairs, rows of students learning to sew. Knowing that the building kept those two roles for more than half a century helps it feel alive, not just decorative.

Downtown El Paso has many more buildings by Henry Trost, so this makes a great starting point for an architecture walk. Take your time and compare his styles from building to building. Keep in mind that current uses of the building may differ from its Singer days, so enjoy the exterior and check locally before planning to go inside.