Merimax Building
521 22nd St., Galveston, TXBuilt by, and used as Southwestern Telegraph and Telephone Company building from 1896 until 1938. Referred to as the "Telephone Building" for many years. Architect Alfred Muller was a major architect in Galveston; this is his sole surviving commercial building there. Claimed to be the "finest telephone building in the west." Listed by its present name, Merimax Professional Building, for the first time in the 1947 directory. Galveston was the home of the first telephone exchange in Texas. By 1896, there were approximately 500 telephones in Galveston. Prominent site with relationship to mall and 22nd Street.
Local significance of the building:Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1985.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.