Historic Downtown Richardson, Texas Preview

1

Site of Interurban Electric Railway Depot

Here is where Richardson's Interurban electric railway depot stood from 1909, the year after service began, until it was demolished in 1966, to make way for a Firestone tire store and auto repair shop.

2

Site of 1873 Houston & Texas Central Railway Depot

Here is the spot where Richardson was "born" in 1873, when the Houston & Texas Central Railway built a small one-story wood frame depot adjacent to the tracks the railroad laid through its right-of-way, now owned by DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit). The depot served as both a passenger and freight station until 1907, when it was demolished and a new, slightly larger depot was constructed on the east side of the tracks. During the first decades of the town's existance, almost all the commercial buildings faced the railway tracks.

3

Site of 1907 Houston & Texas Central Railway depot

In 1907, the Houston & Texas Central Railway demolished its original 1873 Richardson depot and built a new, slightly larger one here. This depot, which also handled both passengers and freight, stood until November 1942, when it was torn down by the H.&T.C.'s successor, the Southern Pacific Railroad.For townspeople, the depot was more than just a train station. Not only did journeys to Dallas and other points begin and end here, but also this was where the U.S. Mail was dropped off and picked up by the town's postmaster, and where the old-timers gathered around a pot-bellied stove on cold winter days to play games like checkers or dominoes and swap gossip.

4

101-103 E. Main Street, Thompson's Dry Good Store/Ingram's Garage Building

Built about 1898, this brick building originally served as a dry goods store owned and operated by James N.Thompson and his son, R. E. "Bob" Thompson. Before that, a wood frame farm supply store, operated by the Patrons of Husbandry, better known as the "Grange," a farmers association, stood here. A century ago, in 1923, it became an auto repair shop operated by Milton Ingram, and it has been an auto repair shop ever since, although owned and operated by different individuals or companies throughout the years.

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103 East Main Street former hardward store/cafe site

During the early years of the twentieth century, this portion of the brick building at 101-103 East Main Street was a separate hardware store, then later a cafe.

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105 East Main Street/Crosby Building

This small brick ediface, known by early townspeople as the Crosby Building, was built in 1909. During the first Richardson Community Fair, in 1922, it was used for a display of antiques and home goods. Over the years, it has housed a variety of commercial enterprises, including the "Ritz" movie theater, which operated on this site from 1939, the year that "Gone with the Wind" and the "Wizard of Oz" were released, until 1961, when it was renamed the "Electra," which continued to offer movie entertainment until 1974.

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107 East Main Street/Simpson Building or Brick Garage Building

This unique brick building, which features an Alamo-like pediment, was constructed in 1916 as an auto repair garage and gas station. From 1887 to the early twentieth century, a wood frame hardware store with false front stood here. Over the years, it has been divided and then rejoined a number of times to house a variety of commerical businesses including more than one cafe, a grocery store, a photography store, an appliance store, and a barbecue restaurant, to name but a few!

8

Walton's Alley

This 25-foot wide space between 107 East Main and 111 E Main is called "Walton's Alley" because it once offered access to Walton's Lumberyard, which occupied the space behind these buildings where there is a parking lot today. Walton's Lumberyard was where a mass meeting of citizens was held in 1925, to discuss the possibility of incorporation so that Richardson could sell bonds to raise money for a municipal waterworks and sewer system. During early Richardson Community fairs, this space was occupied by civic organizations such as the American Red Cross, which, in 1924, helped World War One veterans apply for a wartime "bonus" recently approved by the United States Congress.

9

111 East Main Street/Odd Fellows-Citizens State Bank Building

Built in 1898, this two-story brick building is one of the most historic in downtown Richardson. Originally, the local "Eureka" chapter of the International Order of Odd Fellows operated a meeting hall on the second floor, which they allowed other clubs and groups, such as the Richardson Concert Band, to use for various purposes, while the downstairs was Stansell's grocery store until 1904, when it became the Citizens State Bank, which operated there until 1955, when it moved to a new building on West Main Street. In 1931, the City of Richardson bought the second floor and used it as a city hall until 1933, when it sold the space to the local Masonic Lodge. The Masons remodeled the building in 1938, replacing the year "1898," which had previously been prominent on the upper front of the building, with "1924," which is the year their lodge was founded. It is still visible beneath the stucco, along with a Masonic symbol. In November 1933, robbers broke into the bank's vault by cutting a hole in the door with an acetylene torch and stole $115 worth of pennies and some valuables from safe deposit boxes. The perpetrators of the "Penny Robbery" were soon caught, brought to trial, and sent to prison. After the bank moved out of the building, the lower floor was occupied by a dry cleaners, and then, from 1963 to 1972, by The Richardson Daily News. In 1965, the Odd Fellows returned when they bought the upper floor from the Masonic Lodge. Over the years since, the building has been used for a wide variety of commercial enterprises, including, most recently, a Hookah bar.

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115 East Main Street/Harben's Drug Store Building

This brick structure stands on the site of an earlier wood frame building, which was used as a drugstore, first by Dr. W. E. Rucker and then by the Harben family, who caused the present brick structure to be built in 1911. Dr. Rucker bought this lot on March 4, 1898 from the Houston & Texas Central Railway. Druggist and newspaper publisher Sam Harben purchased it from Rucker in December 1901. This building was occupied by Harben’s Drugstore, a Richardson institution, from 1911, when it was built, until October 1955, when James B. Nevins bought it and renamed the business “City Drug.” In October 1956, Nevins was bought out by John S. Leever. From 1901 to 1924, The Richardson Echo was printed in a rear room. Dr. Rucker and then Dr. Raymond P. Harbin had a medical office in a rear room. In the 1920s, Dr. W. N. Manning had his office here. In 1901, when the Richardson Telephone company was formed, Sam Harben, one of the principals, allowed the telephone exchange to operate in a rear room. Like a lot of the buildings on this block, this structure has also housed a wide variety of commerical enterprises. Currently, combined with the building next door, it is being operated as a bar.

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117 East Main Street/Harben-Spotts Printing Company Building

This building, which is currently part of the Tavern on Main Street, was constructed about 1924. Henry and Katie Pistole purchased this lot on March 26, 1906 from the Houston & Texas Central Railway. On November 29, 1906, Sam P. Harben purchased it from the Pistoles. For decades, the town's only newspaper, The Richardson Echo, was printed here by publisher and editor Sam Harben. The building was also used as the print shop of the Harben-Spotts Company, a partnership of Sam Harben and Sherwood Spotts, who in 1927 became the city's second mayor.

12

119 East Main Street/Richardson Professional Building

The rather non-descript modern building was constructed in 1965 on the site of an earlier wood frame building that housed a variety of commercial enterprises over the decades, including a cafeteria and a laundry.

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118 East Main Street

This non-descript modern building was constructed in 1955. It has housed a variety of commercial enterprises over the years.

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116 East Main Street

This rather unique building was constructed in 1939 to serve as a U.S. Post Office under the direction of local postmaster Clint Wallis. It was the town's first post office to be built especially for that purpose. All previous post offices operated out of general stores or in one case during the early twentieth century, the residence of the postmistress. After a new post office was built on East Polk Street by the U.S. government in 1956, this building was sold. It has been used for a variety of commercial enterprises ever since.

15

112 and 114 East Main Street

What appears to be two separate buildings is actually one structure divided into two businesses. Both occupy the site of Thomas Newton "Newt" Harris' barber shop, which was operated out of a wood frame building on this site from 1906, when Harris bought the property, until 1947, when he retired. In 1955, three years after Harris died, this building was constructed. As far as it is known, there has been a barber shop on this site continously since 1906.

16

110 East Main Street/Brack Lothridge Soft-Drink Stand-Mayor Tom Jackson Office Building

This tiny wood frame building, covered with brick, is the oldest commercial building in Richardson. It was constructed about 1895, apparently after early Richardson resident "Brack Lothridge bought the lot from J. M. Stratton. It could actually be older. In 1936, Lothridge's heirs sold the property to long-serving Richardson Mayor Tom Jackson, who in 1938 remodeled the building, covering it with brick, and then used it as a real estate office for quite a long time. Over the years, the building has housed a wide variety of commercial enterprises.

17

100-108 East Main Street/Reddick Double Brick Building

These two side-by-side brick buildings were constructed sometime between 1910 and 1920. The one that fronts Texas Street as well as East Main was the McKamy-Reddick Grocery Store on June 27, 1925, when the citizens of Richardson used it as a polling place and voted to incorporate and elected one of the store's two owners, Tom McKamy, the city's first mayor. In short, this building is the birthplace of the City of Richardson, which is apt because it stands on the site of an earlier two-story storehouse that was one of the town's earliest commerical structures. The adjacent building housed the local post office for a while in the early twentieth century.

18

Central Street (now Texas Street) Commercial Row

The side of the building that stands at 100 East Main Street marks the site of four of Richardson's earliest businesses, all wood frame buildings--two general stores, a grocery store, and a drugstore--that were constructed during the late 1870s and early 1880s alongside the H.&T.C. railroad tracks, and then burned in a catastrophic fire in 1892. They were rebuilt, only to be demolished sometime between 1910 and 1920, when the present brick building was constructed on the site.

19

Site of Sarah Allen's Post Office

This parking lot marks the site of one of Richardson's early post offices, operated by Mrs. Sarah Allen (formerly Howser) from 1902 to 1911, when her appointment expired. She also lived here. The post office occupied only the front part of the building, where townspeople and farmers came to collect their mail.

20

113 East Polk Street/Former U.S. Post Office

Built in 1956, this structure served as Richardson's United States Post Office until 1963, when a new one was built on the west side of Highway 75/Central Expressway, at Lockwood and Custer Road.