Terrell Times Star Building

The Terrell Time Star Building is a small, but handsome, commercial building built in downtown Terrell, Texas, in 1895, when the city was an important and influential commercial center. One of the up-and-coming leaders in the town was Oscar Branch Colquitt, the editor and publisher of the Terrell Times Star, the newspaper the building was built to house. Colquitt used his editorship to further his political goals, becoming State Senator from the area and later Governor of Texas. The newspaper office is the only extant building in Terrell that is associated with Colquitt. The site of his home, now demolished, bears a State Historical Marker. The Times Star Building is one of eight downtown buildings of substantial architectural and historical significance to Terrell, as identified in a re- source survey prepared in 1981.

Terrell experienced phenomenal growth in the 1890s, following the establishment of the State Hospital and Col. E. H. R. Green's development of the Texas Central Railroad. During this decade, Terrell was the largest city in the county and the principal trade center for a five-county area. The Times Star Building is one of the very few structures that survive this period and has not been substantially altered. Architecturally it is typical of many small commercial buildings, although it stands out above the rest because of the unusual brick motifs. The architecture in Terrell has never included many "high-style" buildings, and thus a building like the Times Star is of particular note within the local context.

O.B. Colquitt (1861-1940) commissioned the building in 1895. Having moved to Texas in 1878, he served his apprenticeship as a newspaperman and founded the Gazette at Pittsburg, Texas, in 1884. In 1890, Colquitt consolidated the Star of Kaufman, Texas, and the Times of Terrell into the Terrell Times Star, of which he served as editor and publisher. His editorship gave him a forum for his ideas and philosophies and he was undoubtedly influential in his election as state senator in 1895.

In the December 27, 1895, newspaper he wrote, "We have had many spirited canvasses and election of different kinds, and in all of them and through all of them the paper has candidly and fearlessly given expression to the convictions of its proprietor without the fear of threats often made against it...". Colquitt sold his interest in the newspaper in 1897. He was admitted to the bar in 1900 and sat on the State Railroad Commission from 1903 to 1911. He was elected Governor of Texas in 1910 on an anti-prohibitionist platform and held office in 1915.

The Terrell Times Star Building was leased from 1916 to 1926 to the Croft Drug Partnership, a company operating in an adjacent building. The Times Star Building housed the law office of Ed R. Bumpass and several retail businesses over the years, the most recent being a fish market and real estate office which closed years ago. After standing vacant and al- lowed to deteriorate, the structure was purchased in 1984 by the current owners who rehabilitated it for retail use.

Construction of the building is attributed to local brick masons McGraw and Drumgold. The 1900 census listed John McGraw as born in Pennsylvania in 1853 to Irish parents. R.J. Drumgold was born in Ireland in 1846 and lived in Pennsylvania before moving to Texas.

The character of the building contributes a great deal to the character of Terrell. Although not large in scale, its location in the center of downtown, its historical associations, and its simple yet handsome facades make it historically significant.