Ochiltree County Historical Markers
Ochiltree County Historical Markers
Page 3
Plainview Hardware Company Building,
Perryton
(National Register Listing)
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Plainview Hardware
Company Building, Perryton
Address: 210 S. Main St.
Architect: Berry,Joseph Champ
Architectural Style: ART DECO
Historic Function: COMMERCE/TRADE
Narrative: The 1930 Plainview Hardware Company Building is a 2-
story, masonry Art Deco commercial building with a rectangular
plan and a flat metal-covered roof. Constructed of reinforced
concrete frame and floors, the building has a steel trussed roof.
A veneer of dressed limestone on the front and common-bond brick
on the sides and rear finish the exterior of 25 by 140 feet
enclosing more than 10,000 square feet of floor space. The
building fronts east onto South Main Street in the central
business district of Perryton, Texas.
The area surrounding the Plainview Hardware Company Building
exhibits topographical features characteristic of High Plains
settlements. Incorporated in 1919, Perryton has a strict
rectilinear street plan and is generally flat with little
variation. The commercial district juts south from the railroad,
which is on a 45 degree northeast to southwest angle, and roughly
forms a T-plan town. Two blocks south of the railroad, the
Plainview Hardware Company Building is centered in a commercial
block. Directly to its north is the 1-story Perryton Furniture
Company Building, built in 1919.
The Plainview Hardware Company Building's Art Deco style is
emphasized with a shallow stepped front facade that has carved
limestone with teas relief detailing. The facade's carved motifs
and patterns create angular geometric forms, some squares and
some floral motifs, that highlight verticality. These stylized
sculptures relieve the simple cubic forms and flat surfaces on
the building.
The central front entrance features an Art Deco styled terrazzo
floor that identifies the property as the "Plainview
Hardware - Furniture Co." The basement originally extended
10 feet under the sidewalk, and glass blocks set into the
sidewalk allowed natural light into the front part of the under
structure; this front portion was covered with a new sidewalk in
the late 1970's, eliminating the glass lights. Exterior display
windows on both sides of the front entrance are elevated 18
inches off the ground with Belgian black marble bases inset with
four bronze grates, adding to the Art Deco embellishments. The
display windows have copper frames. A small awning projects above
the display windows. Copper flashing and four frosted glass
transoms with copper fittings are above the awning. Originally
small, square, frosted glass tiles filled the transom area above
the display windows. Four 1/1 double-hung frosted glass windows
define the second story.
The oak front door and its hardware are original. The transom
immediately above the door and the sidelights is glazed with
original leaded glass. Metal glazing within the window forms a
low relief angular design, another typical Art Deco element.
Glass in the door itself, the transom, and two of the sidelights
has been replaced with replica pane.
A neon Plainview Hardware Company sign at the center of the
facade was probably added in 1939 to mark and visually separate
the newly divided hardware store and furniture store, when the
latter moved next door. The sign was removed from the building in
the early 1970's. In the early 1940's an advertisement for
victory bonds was painted on the upper portion of the north
facade. This sign was restored in the 1970's.
The north and south brick sides of the building each have seven
4/4 double-hung windows on the second story. The west (rear)
brick facade has three entrances on the first level, one of which
is to the freight elevator. Above these entrances fenestration is
varied: small 2/2 double-hung windows, 4/4 double-hung windows,
and 1/1 double-hung windows. The 4-story elevator shaft is at the
back of the building. The roof is cleared with sheet metal and
terra cotta coping covers the roof's parapet walls.
The rear interior of the Plainview Hardware Company Building has
stairs and a freight elevator that connect each of four levels: a
full basement, a main display floor, a mezzanine, and a second
full floor. Wrought iron railings with oak banisters line the
stairs and mezzanine. The original electric Otis freight elevator
continues to service all levels of the building and the alley.
An interior stairway accesses the basement, which is unfinished
storage space with exposed brick walls. In the basement a large
boiler, coal chute, and two radiators denote the original steam
heating system that Howard Holt, a local plumbing and heating
contractor, installed.
The interior masonry walls and 16-foot ceiling of the main level
and mezzanine are sand plastered. On the main level, the front
display window areas have oak parquet flooring divided by oak
veneer and glass partitions. The back walls retain a delicate,
decorative hand painted design that enhances the building's Art
Deco architecture as do two decorative metal strips, that
resemble picture molds, running around the walls of the main
level. The display window areas ceilings have Arts and Crafts
styled oak plywood paneling and original light fixtures of glass
reflectors that hold regular incandescent bulbs.
The mezzanine, at the rear of the building, has oak veneer and
glass partitions separating two offices. The offices have their
original oak doors with hardware intact; one door has frosted
glass, the other clear glass. A mezzanine-level bathroom has its
original fixtures intact. "Battleship" linoleum covers
the mezzanine floor.
The second level, accessed by both stairs and the elevator, is
unfinished storage space with exposed brick walls.
During the 1988 rehabilitation, necessary exterior work was
minimal, although interior work was extensive. Exterior
replacements were made for the leaded glass in the front door,
two sidelights, and the transom immediately over the door; for
the jambs and sills on the transom windows; and for the back
doors. Exterior and interior metal elements were cleaned, and
copper was lacquered to preserve its finish. All interior wood
was stripped and varnished, including rails and banisters on the
mezzanine and stairs, the office partition's veneer, and the
front door. Plaster was repaired and walls were repainted.
Removal of false walls in the display windows revealed the hand
painted back walls. Removal of a mezzanine level wall revealed
the staircase to the top floor.
The 1930 Plainview Hardware Company Building is an Art Deco
masonry building, an unusual style for Perryton, a small town in
the Texas Panhandle. Regionally prominent architect Joseph Champ
Berry, of the Amarillo firm Berry and Hatch, designed the
building. It represented not only a bold commercial investment at
the onset of the Depression but also denoted a major expansion
for an important early Perryton business and partnership. The
building merits nomination to the National Register of Historic:
Places under Criteria A and C for its historical and
architectural significance.
Jacob Henry Neufeld and John Just founded the Plainview Hardware
and Furniture Company in 1910 in Plainview, Oklahoma,
approximately 120 miles northeast of Perryton. Two other men
joined the partnership later. Neufeld's half brother, Sam
Hergert, purchased a five percent interest in 1911 and B.B. Kent
acquired a transfer of property in 1913. The four partners moved
the business in 1913 to Gray, Oklahoma, 16 miles north of
Plainview, where hardware, farming implements, and furniture were
freighted overland from Liberal, Kansas until 1919.
The towns of Gray, Oklahoma, and Ochiltree, Texas, joined
together to form Perryton on August 22, 1919, as the result of
the Santa Fe Railroad's western expansion from Oklahoma across
the northern Texas plains that year. Eight miles south of the
Oklahoma line, Perryton became a railroad town along the Spearman
branch of the Panhandle and Santa Fe line, and the seat of
Ochiltree County. This development prompted the partners to move
the company to Perryton where the rail system could deliver
merchandise with less expense and greater expediency. The
Plainview Hardware and Furniture Company, two blocks south of the
rail line on Main Street was the first new business recorded at
the Ochiltree County Courthouse.
In the fall of 1919 the company built a 50 by 100 foot 1-story
building with an interior mezzanine on South Main Street in
Perryton. A later brick addition to the back of this building
measured 40 by 50 feet. Also in 1919, a corrugated 50 by 140-foot
metal warehouse was erected across the back alley. Another later
addition was a 75 by 140 foot machinery lot. The metal warehouse
was recently demolished.
As the company grew so did the need for more space, resulting in
the 1930 construction of a new Plainview Hardware Company
Building. Combined with the company's three other structures, the
retail store grew to a total of 28,000 square feet. Plans for the
lot to the south of the 1919 store called for removal of a
100-foot frame structure that two 2-story buildings would
replace. The new Plainview Hardware Company Building was the
first of the two buildings; the second building was never
constructed.
Joseph Champ Berry, of the Amarillo architectural firm Berry and
Hatch, designed the building. Berry was a prominent Texas
Panhandle architect from 1910 until his death in April 1952,
designing both conventional eclectic and modern styles. In
Amarillo Berry designed the 1930 Firestone Building at 1000 South
Tyler, combining Art Deco and Spanish Colonial Revival details,
and the 1917 O.P. Jones House at 1620 South Tyler, with a mixture
of Prairie and Mediterranean influences. The front of the
Plainview Hardware Company Building, according to the December 4,
1930, Ochiltree County Herald, "...shows the handiwork and
planning of the master designer. The lines are a gem of modern
architecture." The newspapers estimated the building's cost
at $35,000 and local records show that the builder received cash
payments of $28,185.10.
The building displays typical Art Deco details. The front facade
has detailed limestone with carved teas relief. The motifs and
patterns create angular geometric forms, mostly a grid pattern,
that highlight verticality. The central front entrance features
an Art Deco styled terrazzo floor and an oak front entrance door
with a glazed transom and sidelights and original leaded glass.
The new Plainview Hardware Company Building celebrated its formal
opening on Wednesday, December 10, 1930, "...from early
morning until late in the evening," according to the local
newspaper. The company was one of Perryton's largest businesses
employing at least 10 people: Kent as general manager, Hergert as
assistant manager and repair department manager, Neufeld as
manager of farm implements and power machinery that included
McCormick-Deering equipment, Neufeld's son Clarence as office
manager, C.F. Jones as furniture department manager, Harry Nickel
as furniture department assistant manager, Charley Kent as
hardware manager, Lake Patton as warehouse manager, a shop
mechanic and a field salesman.
John Just moved to Reedley, California, in 1932 and assumed sole
ownership of property that he and Neufeld had purchased there in
the 1920's. Neufeld assumed sole ownership of their Perryton
property. In 1939 Neufeld's son- in-law became manager of the
furniture portion of the company. As a result, the 1919 building
became the Perryton Furniture Company Building while the newer
building retained its identity as the Plainview Hardware Company
Building. The Plainview Hardware and Furniture Company remained
the parent organization owning and operating the 1-story 1919
Perryton Furniture Company Building, the 1919 metal warehouse,
the machinery lot, five Amherst Street lots behind the buildings,
and this 2-story building.
The partners' heirs assumed ownership of the company following
their deaths: Kent in 1948, Hergert in 1962, and Neufeld in 1964.
In October 1986 the heirs sold the company's inventory after 76
continuous years of business. The partnership officially ended in
May 1988 and divided the property among 11 heirs.
The 2-story Art Deco Plainview Hardware Company Building remains
an imposing structure in Perryton's central business district.
The main floor of the building is now a gift shop and the
mezzanine is a tea room. The copper trimmed Art Deco building
retains its structural assets and maintains an unusual degree of
architectural integrity. The building is a well preserved
reminder of Perryton's early 20th century development.
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Page last updated on April 9, 2000