Ceilings We Have Seen on High

The Texas & Pacific passenger terminal and the central post office are massive, stand side by side on Lancaster Avenue, were constructed almost concurrently (1931 and 1933, respectively), and were designed by architect Wyatt Hedrick. And they share something else. Step inside their lobbies. Listen as your footsteps echo off the tile and marble and metal. Try to wrap your arms around the columns. Now look up at the ceilings. These are ceilings worthy of our cathedral of transportation and our cathedral of communication.

The art deco ceiling is literally the crowning touch of the T&P lobby and the building itself a legacy of a railroad that had chugged into town fifty-five years earlier on hastily laid tracks that Fort Worth Democrat editor B. B. Paddock had described as “crooked as the proverbial ram’s horn.”

T&P.

Post office. This is the ceiling of the house that pennies built. When this building opened, first-class postage was three cents. And remained so until 1958, when it bloated to four cents.

Post office.

This entry was posted in Architecture, Art Decow, Downtown, Downtown, All Around, Public Buildings. Bookmark the permalink.

2 Responses to Ceilings We Have Seen on High

  1. Steve A says:

    Note to self – go IN some of these buildings!

    • hometown says:

      Steve, I have to keep after myself about that. It’s easy to see the exterior. But that’s just half the story. It takes more gumption to get inside, especially in these days of increased security. Sometimes I am turned away, sometimes I am invited on a guided tour.

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