Del Rio St, Ozona, Texas, November 2014
Oil was first discovered in the United States on 10 January 1901 in the town of Beaumont, Texas, where the ground was so pregnant that gas was frequently seen bubbling at the surface. The Spindletop rig, which brought in the strike, unearthed a geyser so powerful it yielded 100,000 barrels of crude oil per day. Naturally, this power and wealth manifested itself architecturally as the Beaumont Commercial District, whose twentieth- century and Art Deco buildings are now listed on the National Historic Register of Places.
In the early 1960s the First Security Bank, which had profited from investments in the petrochemical industry, expanded its operations into the First City Building, designed by local architect Llewellyn W ‘Skeek’ Pitts. The sculptor Matchett Herring Coe designed the white cast- concrete panels that cover the building’s facade to shield the harsh Texas sun and provide ventilation. Over the years, the district passed into decline (in terms of occupation, if not underlying finances). These white panels, inset with marble chips and glinting marble dust, offer a stark contrast to the boarded up buildings of downtown. During the oil bust of the 1980s the First Security Bank declared bankruptcy. The First City Building has been available to lease since 2006.
Parking Lot, Fannin Street, Beaumont, Texas, November 2014
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