‘Own a piece of history’: An iconic Art Deco building in Fort Worth listed for $2.9M
.jpg "An ad in 1938 in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram for the newly built Dr. Pepper bottling plant at 1401 Henderson St.")
A historic example of Fort Worth’s Art Deco architecture (with a sweet twist) is on the market for $2.9 million.
A buyer can “own a piece of history” with the old Dr Pepper bottling plant at 1401 Henderson St., according to the real estate listing. The two-story building, which today sits in the shadow of Interstate 30’s elevated ramps, was a notable jewel of Fort Worth’s industrial landscape when it opened with fanfare in 1938.
In its heyday, the facility could turn out 2,500 cases, or 60,000 bottles, each day of Dr Pepper, which was invented in the 1880s by a Waco pharmacist.
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The 12,776-square-feet white concrete structure is considered “striking” modern design by Fort Worth architect Hubert Hammond Crane, the city’s “most outstanding and enduring example of the new, European style known as the International Style,” according to the Texas State Historical Association.
At the time, it was also the city’s tallest monolithic concrete structure, with the popular ziggurat feature of the era.
“This forward-looking composition showed the influence of European Functionalist architects, whose simply massed, rhythmic designs featured white stucco or concrete surfaces, flat roofs and large expanses of glass,” according to the historical association.
A clock with the Dr Pepper logo was at the top of the tower, with 10, 2 and 4 numerals that were part of its slogan. The numerals were also part of the tile floors. The clock’s chimes at those hours were heard a mile away, the Star-Telegram reported in 1938, playing a Dr Pepper theme song.
Dr Pepper moved to larger digs in 1965, and the building has been home to a variety of businesses since, according to the Fort Worth Architecture website.
In 1995, the architecture firm KVG Gideon Toal purchased the building from BT Office Products International, which moved its sales office after using the Dr Pepper plant since 1982.
Gideon Toal remodeled the interior and restored the exterior to be closer to its original appearance and landscaping, then sold the building in 2001 to TNF Realty for use by Trinity Pain Medicine Associates.
Murals that graced the outside of the building remained after the sale. Gideon Toal began sponsoring a juried program that allows artists to paint works that were visible from the freeway. Each mural appeared for about six months.
Crane, the building’s architect, in the 1930s remodeled historic residences and designed traditional ones in Ridglea, Monticello, Crestwood, River Crest and Westover Hills, according to the Texas State Historical Association.
The Dr Pepper building, which is listed by League Real Estate, is sandwiched between the interstate, its on-ramps and Henderson Street. It is across Henderson from the old Public Market building of the same architectural era, which is being restored into senior housing.
This story was originally published March 9, 2023 at 12:57 PM.
