Zapp Building

With its elegant style and fine detail, the Zapp Building of 1900 testifies to the aspirations and methods of merchants and builders at the turn of the century in this small, traditionally agricultural central Texas community. Research indicates that the Zapp Building has played a considerable and diverse role in the town's commercial and architectural development. As an unusually fine and well-preserved example of the Romanesque Revival style, the Zapp Building contributes to the historical integrity of Fayetteville's town square. Moreover, in a behavioral sense, the building has served many and varied commercial purposes throughout its history, demonstrating within the community context the versatility and longevity of its design.

Among the turn-of-the-century commercial buildings that surround Fayetteville's picturesque town square, the Zapp Building's architectural integrity is rivaled only by that of the century-old wood precinct courthouse. An unusually fine example of the Romanesque Revival style, the Zapp Building is also distinguished as the sole edifice displaying traditional masonry construction. The other vintage commercial buildings on the square are of wood, and those which no longer remain were also of wood, hence their easy destruction by fire. Not only is the Zapp Building significant as the sole brick structure of its age, but it also remains far truer to its original appearance than do its remaining contemporaries, with the exception of the precint courthouse.

The Zapp Building stands on land originally owned by Phillip J. Shaver, who in 1842 laid out the Town of Fayetteville around a central town square. Shaver sold the square's northwest corner lot to Andrew Crier, a veteran of the Battle of San Jacinto and the son of John Crier, who was among the region's first Yankee settlers, being among Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred. The deed records mention a shop on the present northwest corner site as early as 1865. In 1876, W. H. and Elizabeth Donathan. sold a shop building at this location to Hugo Zapp; that structure, of wood, later burned. The present Zapp Building was constructed in 1900. On its cornerstone, Kurtz and Stidham are cited as builders. Whether they drew up the building's plans themselves or commissioned outside architectural services, is not known.

From 1865, Hugo Zapp was active in Fayetteville's commercial life. He possessed extensive land holdings in the área; other records show that he bought and sold land on speculation. The records of probate in Fayette County show that in excess of $17,000 was owed Zapp's estate when he died, mostly in the form of loans to farmers. In the present Zapp Building, he developed his mercantile business, selling an inventory of yard goods, shoes, and clothing displayed in the upper gallery. Also located on the second floor were a dentist's office, an undertaker's parlor, and hotel rooms let to drummers who arrived by train and were met by Zapp's carriage at the depot. At the building's south entrance farmers delivered fresh milk to be placed on the elevator and transferred to the cool basement, where it awaited transport to the creamery by train.

For years after Hugo Zapp's death, in 1912, Hugo Zapp, Jr., continued to operate the mercantile building and emporium, as did other family members after Hugo, Jr.'s death. Other sections of the building not occupied by the mercantile business continued to be let to a diversity of tenants which included, at various times, a hospital, a school, a cafe, a boarding house, and, in the basement during Prohibition, a speakeasy.

The present owners continue the Zapp Building's commercial tradition. An architect's office occupies the main ground-level room. A restaurant and antique shop fill the other ground-floor sections, while the upstairs rooms offer hotel guests the same hospitality enjoyed by travelers and boarders since the building's construction.

The functional versatility of the building is matched by its architectural integrity. It is a tribute to the original builders and owners that to this day the Zapp Building enhances Fayetteville's architectural environment with its design and detail while providing functional work space to the town's professionals and merchants, as well as traditional hospitality to restaurant clientele and out-of-town visitors.