The Wilson Building Under Construction — 1902
by Paula Bosse
Slowly but surely…. (DeGolyer Library/SMU)
by Paula Bosse
The Wilson Building is one of Dallas’ most beautiful buildings. Designed by the immensely influential Fort Worth firm of Sanguinet & Staats, the building opened in 1904, with its most notable tenant being the Titche-Goettinger department store, which occupied the basement and first two floors.
From the Dallas Public Library’s website:
“J. B, Wilson, a wealthy Dallas cattleman, built this French Renaissance/Second Empire (Beaux Arts) style building, modeled after the Paris Grand Opera House. Craftsman from all over the country came to contribute to the building finish, exterior and interior, with a mahogany and marble interior finish. It was the first eight-story building in Texas. The building originally housed the Titche-Goettinger department store on the bottom floor, with the upper floors used as office space. In 1911, Sanguinet & Staats built a twelve-story annex to the building, which was raised five floors in 1957.”
It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
The photo above is part of the incredible George W. Cook Dallas/Texas Image Collection at SMU’s wonderful DeGolyer Library (see note below). Below are a few enlargements of parts of the original photo to see more details. (Click for larger images.)
Here it is today. Beautiful. Click photo for an image so colossally large that you can easily check out all the fabulous intricate architectural details. (Photo by Joe Mabel.)
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Sources & Notes
This photo (titled “Building Construction at the Intersection of North Ervay and Elm Street”) is from the incredible George W. Cook Dallas/Texas Image Collection, housed at the DeGolyer Library, Central University Libraries, Southern Methodist University; it can be viewed here. It is not currently identified as being the Wilson Building. (UPDATE: The photo is now titled “Wilson Building Construction, Intersection of North Ervay and Elm Street.” And this post is actually cited in the description! Thank you, DeGolyer Library!) (I have altered the color of these images as they were appearing harshly yellow in my photo editor — please see DeGolyer page for correct color of the original gelatin silver photograph.)
The DeGolyer Library is one of Dallas’ very best repositories of important historical images and papers, and just knowing that they are scanning this fantastic collection of Dallas ephemera is making me a little dizzy. So many incredible images!! An exhibit of selected items from the collection opens TOMORROW (Jan. 30, 2015) — details are here.
Credit and photo info for the gigantic present-day photo by Joe Mabel is here.
Read about Sanguinet & Staats here.
More on the Wilson Building from the Dallas Public Library, here. Check out the photo of the excavation of the site before construction began at the top of the page.
And what does Wikipedia say? See here.
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Copyright © 2015 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
Flashback : Dallas 
This is a very rare shot I have not seen and that is how Dallas came up in that early sued o steel and faced brick from St Louis, note the bill boards and that same buildings they tore down last month had that same kind of stone and brick….these are very good images that tell of how that intersection came too exist around the late 1880’s too 1920 period.
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closer inspection of the photo suggests that it was shot from the Main st. side
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That is an excellent shot, place and time with the right light…and that is how it looked with the old live Oak Grocer who was on that lot across from the Wilson building….which is where the bank now stands…….in 1910 this was the center of the city……and would remain such even with the Akard Street competetion, on up too the 1960’s….you are on too some great stories here, please keep it up…..
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[…] My previous post — “The Wilson Building Under Construction — 1902″ — can be found here. […]
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I wish I could read the entire ad on the lower left of the construction view–It reads in part ”cures any disease on earth–“. I need what ever that is.
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That’s quite an advertising promise!
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this is such a great story and yet it was in the paper this last week kind of ironic that someone wants to build on the side obstructing the view from the old lady landmark……Paul you have done great work here, when are you going to create you book the 100 best new view points on Dallas History never before done…..ok take care and watch the heat…..
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[…] Bosse, The Wilson Building Under Construction – 1902, Flashback: Dallas, January 29, 2015, flashbackdallas.com/2015/01/29/wilson-bldg-under-construc… Visible, just beyond the construction site, are the offices of noted surgeon, Dr. Henry K. Leake. […]
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[…] Building posts, see the previously posted “The Wilson Building Under Construction — 1902,” here, and “The Wilson Building & Its Tenants — 1908/1909,” […]
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[…] 9. “The Wilson Building Under Construction — 1902.” […]
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I like the posters for the vaudeville play, “The Burglar and The Waif,” a comedy-drama written by Charles Turner Dazey which was playing all over the country in 1902.
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[…] founded the Titche-Goettinger department store in Dallas in 1902, and in 1904 they moved into the new Wilson Building. In the late 1920s they built their own George Dahl-designed building at Main and St. Paul, which […]
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[…] building so unlike anything else in Dallas. (See what it looked like under construction in 1902 here.) Thank you, Sanguinet & Staats, for building us such a lovely architectural […]
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[…] See photos of the original building under construction in the Flashback Dallas post “The Wilson Building Under Construction — 1902.” […]
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[…] there’s no question that Moneyed Resident Wilson — who, let’s not forget, was building the very large Wilson Building downtown at this time — had a lot of sway amongst the city […]
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