Plainview Commercial Historic District

With the Hale County Courthouse as its focal point, the Plainview Commercial Historic District consists largely of low-rise, early-twentieth-century commercial buildings that retain much of their original fabric and integrity. The Plainview Commercial Historic District, as a whole, is a good example of the type of commercial development that took place in towns throughout the Texas Panhandle region during the early 1900s.

Plainview was founded in 1887, but it was the arrival of the railroad in 1906 and the construction of the county courthouse in 1910 that ushered in an era of phenomenal growth that lasted until 1930. The area around the courthouse and within the district boundaries developed into the retail center for the entire county. To a great extent, this area still exhibits a strong sense of time and place: since the beginning of the Great Depression the people of Plainview have maintained and adopted existing structures, and very few entirely new, intrusive structures are to be found within the district.

Plainview's early position as the governmental, economic, and cultural center of Hale County and the Texas South Plains is reflected in its downtown district. Most of the 109 buildings in the district were built in the period between 1907 when the first railroad entered Plainview, and 1930 when the Great Depression brought the area's economy to a standstill. For much of this period, Plainview was the largest town between Amarillo and Big Spring. This position led to the early development of a downtown area of substantial, well-planned brick and concrete buildings that reflected the town's preeminent position in the region. Most of the buildings built during this period of dominance still stand. The district retains much of the character of this era, as most of the buildings are only superficially altered. Downtown Plainview is still an active commercial and governmental district.

Z. T. Maxwell and E. L. Lowe, two of the earliest settlers in Hale County, organized the townsite of Plainview. In the spring of 1887, they preempted the land for the town out of their adjoining claims, and in the fall they had R. P. Smythe survey and plat the site. They chose the name Plainview for the town because they could stand on the townsite and look in every direction as far as the eye could see with nothing to break the view.
In August 1887, Hale County was organized as a separate governmental unit, and Plain- view became the county seat. The town grew rapidly over the next few years. It was in the middle of the quarter sections designated the "Homestead Strip," and the area soon filled with farmers and small stock raisers demanding goods and services. These demands, along with the regular functions of county government, were the basis for rapid economic growth in Plainview.

By 1900, Plainview had a population of about 750 and was a small but thriving community of frame business buildings and residences surrounding the courthouse square. The two-story, frame courthouse had been built in 1889. The citizens of Plainview soon realized that good rail connections were necessary for their city to reach its fullest economic promise. Therefore, they launched an effort to secure a contract for the building of a railroad into Plainview.

A contract was signed with the Panhandle and Santa Fe Railway in 1906. The terms of the contract included a $75,000 bonus, mostly in options on land. The railroad reached Plainview from Amarillo on January 1, 1907, and regular passenger service began on February 18.

As the southern terminus of the railroad, Plainview's sphere of influence widened to the south into the counties that had previously relied on Big Spring for goods and services. Plainview soon became the cultural and commercial center of the South Plains. After the railroad arrived, brick could be shipped into town at a reasonable price and substantial buildings were built to house the financial and commercial institutions necessary to serve a wider trade area. Among these early structures were the First National Bank Building, built in 1909; the Third National Bank/Ansley Building, 1910; and most of the brick business structures on the north side of the courthouse square (100 block E. 6th).

As the town grew, the county commissioners decided a new, more substantial courthouse was needed to replace the frame structure built in 1889. In 1909 a bond election was held to provide funds for a new courthouse, and a contract was let for construction in November of that year. The three-story, reinforced-concrete, metal-domed, brick-veneered Hale County Courthouse was dedicated in 1910.

In response to the growth and needs of the town, a group of businessmen asked J. N. Donohoo and R. C. Ware to build a hotel instead of a block of brick business buildings they were planning. The three-story Ware Hotel was completed in 1910. This building was enlarged to four stories in 1924. The hotel and its dining and meeting rooms served both travelers and local residents for many years.

The cultural needs of the region were met by touring companies and local talent that performed in the 1909 Schick Opera House. Fraternal organizations appeared in Plainview quite early, and lodge halls, like those built in 1912 by the Masons and the Elks, were centers of influence and social activity. The Plainview Daily Herald, which began publication in the 1890s, expanded its influence during this period. In 1909, the paper built the building that, with modifications and enlargements, would remain its home for over sixty years.

By 1910, Plainview had a population of 2,829. The town's economy thrived on the region's expanding agricultural base. In 1910, 57 percent of Hale County land was being farmed, and the average value of farmland per acre, which had been $1.35 in 1900, had increased to $23.60. Phenomenal as this growth was, progress in the next ten years was to be even greater, as the large-scale land promotion began in Hale County.

As the farming base grew, agriculture-related businesses developed in Plainview. Livery stables and wagon yards were numerous, including Shepard's Wagon Yard, built in 1909. Most people who came to Plainview from the surrounding countryside preferred to stay with their wagons and livestock rather than in a hotel; thus, the wagon yard was not only a place for livestock but a meeting place for farmers and their neighbors.
In 1910, promoters in Plainview began to experiment with the idea of using gasoline-powered pumps to power wells for large-scale crop irrigation. In January 1911, the first irrigation well in Hale County was brought in on the J. H. Slaton farm. By November 1912, there were twenty wells operating in Hale County.

News of the active irrigation wells boosted the price of Hale County land and attracted buyers and investors. The largest of the speculative investors was the Texas Land and Development Company, which built a building strategically located on Broadway between the Panhandle and Santa Fe depot and the Hale County Courthouse. This company was formed to market developed and improved irrigation farms rather than unimproved land. The company used modern marketing techniques to sell its farms, including extensive publicity and special excursion trains from the Midwest to Plainview. The company pumped water from an irrigation well into a playa lake north of the Santa Fe depot and named it Lake Plainview. The lake was then featured prominently in the company's advertising. As a result of the speculative boom, Plainview was home to more than forty real estate agencies by the end of 1912.

Plainview benefited from the growing and profitable agricultural economy. More brick buildings were built in the downtown area throughout the 1910s. In 1913, the city council passed an ordinance making it illegal for anyone "to erect, construct, build or place, or relocate any wooden buildings" in a ten-block area of downtown. All new construction had to be of fireproof material such as brick, stone, or concrete. Soon the blocks closest to the courthouse were lined with structures built of brick, clay tile, and reinforced concrete, many with second-story office space for the growing medical and professional population of Plainview.

In March 1917, a bond election was held for street improvements. The proposal was approved overwhelmingly, and $40,000 worth of bonds were issued for pavement in downtown Plainview. The project included paving on Broadway from 4th Street to the Santa Fe depot, on Ash from 4th to 7th, on Austin from 5th to 7th, and on 5th, 6th, and 7th Streets. The pavement and curbs were laid by J. N. Jordan and Company using brick from the Thurber Brick Company of Thurber, Texas. Specifications were for 3-inch, vertical-fiber brick on a 5-inch Portland-cement concrete base. The cost of the paving was borne by the property owners (who paid two-thirds of the cost) and the City of Plainview.

By 1920, Plainview was home to 3,989 people. The agricultural economy of the area was reflected in the businesses found in the downtown area. These included feed and seed stores, blacksmith shops, and wagon yards. Then, in that year, a nationwide agricultural depression began. Hale County, which had 87 percent of its land in farms by this time, was hard hit. From 1920 to 1925 the average value of Hale County farms declined from $25,151 to $13,692. Over the same period, the average acreage per farm had decreased by less than 10 percent.

In 1923, Plainview lost its bid for Texas Technological College, which was established in Lubbock. The establishment of the college hastened Lubbock's already phenomenal growth, and by 1930 it had preempted Plainview's position as the commercial and economic center of the South Plains. Despite these setbacks, Plainview continued to grow during the 1920s, and several prominent buildings were erected. In 1928, the Hilton Hotel and the Skaggs Building were erected, and in 1929 the Granada Theater was opened as the first phase of a planned hotel-entertainment complex. Unfortunately, the 1929 Crash ended all major building projects in Plainview, and only the theater was built. After 1929, the Hale County economy ground to a halt. All of Plainview's banks failed during the first years of the depression. The area's already ailing agricultural economy was affected both by the financial crisis and the Dust Bowl drought conditions of the 1920s. As a result, Plainview was never able to regain the regional prominence it had once enjoyed. Like other stricken areas, Hale County received aid from New Deal work programs. In Plainview, both the United States Post Office and the Hale County Agriculture Building were built with federal assistance.

After financial conditions improved, Plainview achieved a slow but steady growth rate throughout the next few decades. As the city grew, newer commercial areas appeared outside the downtown area. By the early 1970s, major shopping centers had been built in the western part of Plainview, and the downtown area began to decline. Recently, however, a new interest in the downtown area has emerged, and some efforts have been made to revitalize its retail activity. The Plainview Downtown Association is exploring new marketing and promotion techniques and is actively seeking new businesses to fill vacant downtown buildings. In the fall of 1980, the National Trust for Historic Preservation announced the selection of Texas as a participant in the National Main Street Program for the preservation and revitalization of downtown areas in small towns. Plainview is one of the first five Texas cities chosen by the Texas Historical Commission to participate in this program. Thus the 1980s will be a turning point in downtown Plainview's history.