Combs-Worley Building

The Combs-Worley Building (1931) in Pampa, Texas, is named for Albert Combs and Phoebe Worley, Texas panhandle ranchers, and oil investors. The Art Deco landmark is the largest downtown commercial project of Pampa's oil boom era, constructed of the finest materials in a fashionable style for two of the city's oil-wealthy citizens. It remains one of Pampa's finest and most aesthetically pleasing structures, a local landmark in remarkably good condition. The Combs-Worley Building meets criterion A, in the area of Commerce, as a reminder of the city's prosperity during the oil boom, and criterion C, in the area of Architecture, as an outstanding example of an Art Deco skyscraper by Amarillo architect William Raymond Kaufman, both at the local level of significance.

Pampa lies in the northwest corner of Gray County, which was created in 1876, and named for Peter W. Gray, a soldier, attorney, Texas Supreme Court Justice, and member of the first Texas Legislature and the House of the Confederate Congress. The county is located in the southern portion of the Great Plains, partly situated on the caprock, a hardpan layer a few feet below the ground surface. The county lies within the Llano Estacado or "staked plains," a Spanish name that might have referred to stakes that were placed as markers because the lands were so vast and level. Army engineers began mapping the area beginning with J. W. Abert near Hoover and Lefors in 1845, followed by an expedition led by Randolph B. Marcy with George B. McClellan in 1852. These expeditions were followed by the arrival of buffalo hunters and traders. Native Americans were removed to Indian Territory after the Red River War of 1874. The federal government established Fort Elliott in 1875 in adjacent Wheeler County after the first cantonment settled in eastern Gray County earlier that year.

Ranchers settled the area as early as 1877 and were soon followed by land syndicates that established vast ranches. In 1882, the Francklyn Land and Cattle Co. purchased approximately 637,440 acres in Gray, Carson, Hutchinson, and Roberts Counties. In 1886, English bondholders foreclosed on the land, which became part of the newly organized White Deer Lands Co., which operated the Diamond F Ranch. In 1888, the Southern Kansas Railroad extended its line through the Panhandle toward Amarillo, through present-day Pampa. Thomas Lane, a telegraph operator, manned a section station at the rail switch and became the first postmaster when White Deer Lands manager George Tyng applied for a post office in 1892. The name of the station changed from Glasgow to Sutton, and finally to Pampa, so named because Tyng saw a similarity to the flat terrain of the Argentine pampas (plains) he had once visited.

In 1902, White Deer Lands began to sell its holdings, leading to a land rush in Gray County. Printed brochures and a display at the station house boasted of the produce raised in the county, in order to entice future land buyers traveling by train. That same year, Gray County was organized, and the first courthouse was constructed in Lefors, in the center of the county. That same year, Pampa was laid out north of the railroad, encompassing 38 blocks, bordered on the north by Browning, east by Wynne, south by Atchison, and west by West. As a farming and ranching center, the population of Pampa remained under 1,000 until the discovery of oil in 1926 transformed Pampa into a boom town. Godfrey Cabot, head of Cabot Carbon in Boston, established a carbon black plant in 1927. The city improved downtown streets with brick, churches expanded, and many downtown business owners tore down their frame buildings and erected permanent buildings.

The Combs-Worley building reflects the history of the Phoebe Worley family, business partner Albert Combs, and the discovery of oil in Gray County, which made many of Pampa's old-line pioneer landowners extremely wealthy. The Worley family established a ranch between Wildorado and Hereford (in the western panhandle) in 1892, with partner Albert Combs. After Henry Worley was killed as the result of a fall from a horse while driving cattle from their former home of Henrietta, Clay Co., Texas, Combs and the cowboys continued the cattle drive to the new ranch, operated by Henry's widow Phoebe. Phoebe, son-in-law Earnest Reynolds, and Albert Combs bought 13 sections of land from White Deer Land Co. for about $2.50 an acre in 1913 and moved to the area, four miles west of Lefors in Gray County. Combs had nine sections in the partnership, with Worley and Reynolds sharing an interest in four sections.2 This property lay atop some of the region's richest oil pools.

The discovery of Gray County's first oil in 1925 brought rapid growth to nearby Pampa. The industrial development and move of the county seat to Pampa prompted the necessity for new government and office buildings. Combs and Worley retained William R. Kaufman and Son to design their office building, with the C. L. Boyington Company, of Pampa, serving as contractor. Completed in early 1931, the Combs-Worley building was among the most substantial and attractive properties in the city, immediately becoming a local landmark, both visually, and by serving as the hub of the local oil and gas industry. Six businesses operated on the first floor, while the four floors of offices housed not only the financial managers of Albert Combs' and Phoebe Worley's holdings, but dozens of independent and corporate oil and gas executives, attorneys, an insurance agency, and building contractor Boyington. John R. Roby, building manager, occupied a suite of rooms, which was also used by Combs and Worley when they came to town to read their mail. It was furnished with easy armchairs, a red-leather divan, an expensive Persian rug, and framed pictures of prize cattle. Kaufman's architectural firm occupied part of the fifth floor.

Kaufman (1881-1948) was the son of Amarillo architect Davis Paul Kaufman (1852-1915). Working together in the firm of D.P. Kaufman & Son, they designed many buildings in the Texas Panhandle and nearby New Mexico, including the Elks Club, Old Grand Theater, St. Mary's Academy (1913-14), and Lowrey's Academy, all in Amarillo, the Union County Courthouse (1909) in Clayton, NM, and the Cochran County Courthouse (1926, remodeled 1968) in Morton, TX. Kaufman also designed Elizabeth Nixon Jr. High School, in Amarillo, and the Sam Houston Elementary School (1930) in Pampa, but his most significant projects are those on Pampa's "Million Dollar Row," including the Gray County Courthouse, Pampa City Hall, and Central Fire Station, all designed within a few years of the Combs-Worley building. In 1939, Kaufman moved to San Antonio to work in the Army Engineer's office at Fort Sam Houston. After his death in San Antonio in 1948, Kaufman's son, W.R. Kaufman, Jr., an architect trained at Texas Tech, took over the family firm.

The Combs-Worley Building made a great contribution to the Pampa skyline, becoming an instant landmark. Kaufman used terra cotta to give depth and expression to exterior walls, employing cubes, cones and other geometric shapes that, combined with the light brick, resulted in a bright, airy effect. Upon the opening of the new building, a local newspaper gushed:

bright, graceful, and mildly modernistic edifice that is the five-story Combs- Worley Building... represents $165,000 worth of liquid gold that flowed from the oil wells on the builders' ranch southeast of Pampa. Part of what Gray County earth yielded in crude oil was put back on the good and beloved soil in the shape of Pampa's tallest and largest structure. With this true, Mrs. Phoebe A. Worley and Albert Combs regarded it fitting that their cattle brands, the 'Rafter T-Bar' which is burnt into the hide of all Combs cattle, and the '0-40' brand on Mrs. Worley's cattle, are carved above each of the two entrances to the building. In such a manner they memorialized the ranch and extolled the beneficence and kindness of the earth which gave life to their cattle and to themselves long before the driller's bit probed its depths.

The Combs-Worley Building is nominated under Criterion C, in the Area of Architecture, as an excellent example of the Art Deco style, featuring glazed brick, a "zigzag" motif, strong vertical elements, and decorative sculpture, most notably the metal "tulip" atop the large tower. Art Deco in the United States was inspired by the exotic designs popularized by the 1925 Paris Exposition des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes. Early examples of Art Deco architecture in America feature geometric designs, dominant vertical lines, and an emphasis on the sculptural ornament often applied to classically-derived forms. According to architectural historian David Gebhard, Art Deco originated as a sophisticated urban style in major cities, spreading to smaller communities throughout the country by the late 1920s. Considered a high style, Art Deco most often manifested itself in large commercial and public buildings, such as the Combs-Worley Building. The building is also nominated under Criterion A, in the Area of Commerce, as a lasting symbol of the oil boom which changed the face of Pampa beginning in the late 1920s.