Highway Garage

The 1924 Highway Garage was one of the earlier buildings constructed in Waxahachie specifically to house an automotive business. Located near the intersection of two highways, it was built in response to the rising importance of automobile travel and housed automobile-related businesses for several decades. As a representative example of an automotive business developed along Waxahachie's highways, it is nominated in the area of Commerce. The building itself, however, represents a typical commercial design from the period, with a little exterior indication of its automotive association. A good example of an early automobile-related building, in which the new use requirements were added to a traditional building type.

As discussed in the "Historic Resources of Waxahachie" National Register multiple property context, the town of Waxahachie was established in 1850 and formally incorporated in 1870. The town flourished economically between roughly 1890 and 1920 as an important center of cotton processing and distribution in North Texas. The majority of Waxahachie's commercial and residential building stock dates to that period of development, and the town's central core probably looks much like it would have in the 1930s. The multiple property context associates the few intrusions into Waxahachie's historic downtown with the post-World War II expansion of automobile infrastructure, specifically with the town's location at the intersection of U.S. Highway 77 and 287. "Although the highways proved an economic asset to the community, they also affected adversely the historic character of the old neighborhoods and the architectural integrity of the commercial buildings downtown."

As the building's name suggests, the 1924 Highway Garage was itself associated with those highways, lying just west of the two roads' intersections. As the proximity of the highways to the center of the town indicates, they represent the earliest automobile routes through Waxahachie. Long before it became a part of the federal highway system, Highway 77 was included as part of the "King of Trails," an automobile route established in 1917. Attorney W.W. Brown of Kansas City had conceived the idea of the trail, which he envisioned extending from Winnipeg, Canada to Mexico City. Like most automobile trails of its era, the King of Trails was developed by an association that mapped and marked existing roads, promoting businesses in towns along the way. Official signage, in this case, a yellow band around a pole with the letters K and T stenciled in black, ensured consistent identification and united the various sections of the trail. Although Brown's vision of a three-nation route apparently never materialized, the King of Trails did stretch from Winnipeg to the U.S./Mexican border at Brownsville, Texas.

According to a 1923 Texas road map, the King of Trails had by then been designated State Highway 6 in Texas. A major north-south thoroughfare, the road was most likely one of the first to be adopted into Texas's state highway system. The Texas Highway Department was reluctantly established in 1917, following the 1916 Federal Highway Bill, which limited federal funding for roads to states with a centralized highway agency. Texas's legislature had previously resisted all efforts to centralize control of road construction and maintenance, leaving it in the hands of each county, but it could not ignore the federal government's ultimatum. Further centralization of road construction and financing was mandated through a 1921 amendment to the Federal Aid Road Act, which required that each state designate a state road system by 1925. The designation of State Highway 6 and was most likely in response to that amendment.

Although a less significant route than the King of Trails, Highway 287 was also an early addition to Texas's state highway system. It appears on the 1923 road map as State Highway 34, a smaller road that served more as a connection between larger thoroughfares. Although a bypass of Waxahachie was built for U.S. 287, the earlier route undoubtedly followed Main Street through the center of town, along what is now the 287 Business Route.

In the 1920s, as automobile travel became increasingly common, Waxahachie's highways would have generated a new economic niche in the town as auto-related services became a necessity. Automobile dealerships, service stations, garages and gas stations were all new industries for which demand was rapidly increasing. New buildings were needed to house these businesses, and the Highway Garage was likely one of several buildings constructed in response to the demand.

There is little documentation of the original construction of the Highway Garage. The county's deed records indicate that O.H. Chapman and Homer N. Chapman purchased each lot in Block 7 during the 1910s before deeding the entire block to Roxie A. Chapman (Homer's wife) in 1928, so it is likely that the Chapman family initiated the block's development. Built on Lot 4 and part of Lot 3, the 1924 construction date for the Highway Garage is based on the business's listing in Waxahachie's 1924-25 city directory (the first year with an entry at this address) and the building's inclusion on the 1925 Sanborn Map.

The building was apparently constructed as a rental property, with the Highway Garage listed as a tenant as opposed to an owner. Although much of the building was dedicated to garage space, it did house other uses as well. The 1925 Sanborn Map indicates a store and a municipal gas office in the building, and other businesses appear in the directory periodically. The Highway Garage was the only consistent tenant, however, listed in the directory through 1942. Judging by the garage's corner location and an overwhelming majority of space, it was also the building's most significant occupant during its first two decades of use.

Beginning in 1939, automobile dealers realized the appropriateness of the building's location and layout to their own interests. Harbin Motor Co., the first dealer to occupy the building, opened a small showroom next to the Highway Garage, most likely sharing the building's abundant space for automobile service and storage. A historic photo of the Harbin storefront indicates that they provided sales and service for DeSoto and Plymouth. It also shows a third business, "Moore Timing Instruments," in another of the building's small commercial spaces, near the east end of the building.

By 1948, both the Highway Garage and Harbin Motor Co. had vacated the building. That year's directory indicates that the building was owned and used by a clothing manufacturer, Zweig-Olian Co., with its only other occupant being a Hudson dealership called Daniel Motor Co. By 1952, it was listed solely as an automobile dealership, Ray Griswold Motors. Although it did change hands, becoming Sawyer-Graham Motor Co. in 1955 and Groner-Morton Motor Co. in 1965 (both of which owned the building themselves), the building remained an automobile dealership for decades. A historic photo from the late 1950s shows the building in use as a single dealership, during its years as Sawyer-Graham Oldsmobile-Cadillac.

In February 1999, when Waxahachie Restoration Group purchased the property, it had fallen into disrepair. The first floor was being used by a wrecker company as an automobile storage lot, and the second floor contained used car parts and debris. In June 1999 restoration and renovation of the improvements began after approval of plans by the State Historical Commission and the National Park Service. The project was certified by the National Park Service in November 2000.

The architectural significance of the 1924 Highway Garage lies in its representation of early automotive buildings. While the rise of the automobile would eventually have a substantial influence on building design, earlier designs like that of the Highway Garage merely altered existing building types to accommodate a new type of use. Thus with its storefront arrangement and brick detailing, the Highway Garage resembles most other downtown commercial blocks built during its era, following a pattern established for auto showrooms and garages in the early 20th century. Like any other business, there was a storage space behind the storefront, but a much larger space was allotted in the back of the building to allow for automobile storage and repair. Automobile entrances were accommodated through open bays or large overhead doors. Upper floors were most often used for additional storage, accessed by a large freight elevator. With relatively minor changes, then, a business catering to automobiles could be housed within an established and compatible building type.

Sited near a highway intersection and serving as the location for several automobile-related businesses, the 1924 Highway Garage reflects the commercial impact of the automobile in Waxahachie. It is therefore nominated to the National Register under Criterion A in the area of Commerce at the local level of significance.

The building also represents a transitional period in the development of new building types geared toward the automobile. While the automobile entrances and much larger allotment of open interior space were distinctly new accommodations, the building's overall form and detailing remained consistent with downtown Waxahachie's existing commercial blocks. As an important record of this stage in the development of automotive buildings, the Highway Garage is also nominated under Criterion C in the area of Architecture, also at the local level of significance.