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    Trost Residence
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El Paso Military Institute Main Building
El Paso, Texas

 

Description: El Paso Military Institute Main Building
Other Names: Texas State School of Mines and Metallurgy (1914-1916)
Address: east side of El Paso, El Paso County, Texas
Type: educational
Original Client:
Date: 1906
Condition: destroyed by fire, 1916.

Architect or Firm: Henry C. Trost
Associated Architect or Firm: Trost & Trost
Contractors: Otto P. Kroeger & Co.
Dimensions and Orientation: two stories with elevated basement
Budget/Cost:

Foundation: probably concrete
Wall Materials: plastered
Roofing Materials: shingle
Other Materials Used: apparently wood window frames, concrete entry stairs, plaster ornament
Remodeling and Additions:

Location of Drawings: none known to exist
Location of Documentary Photographs: El Paso Public Library: Ponsford 585, general view; Ponsford 586, view of front with cadets on parade; Aultman A3436, A1115B; University of Texas at El Paso

Bibliography: (1) Wallace H. Brucker, The University of Texas at El Paso: A Brief History, Chapter VI in Harriot Howze Jones, editor, El Paso, a Centennial Portrait, El Paso: El Paso County Historical Society, 1972, pages 110-115, description of the early use of the property by the School of Mines, page 114 (top) photograph (Ponsford 585)
(2) Nancy Hamilton, UTEP: a Pictorial History of the University of Texas at El Paso (El Paso: Texas Western Press, the University of Texas at El Paso; Norfolk: The Donning Company, 1988), page 20, exterior photographs of campus and Main Building. (3) Leon C. Metz, Fort Bliss – An Illustrated History (El Paso: Mangan Books, undated), illustration of Institute buildings with cadets

Remarks: The Main Building was very large in scale, as the photograph of it with the cadets (Ponsford 586) makes apparent. Brucker (cited above) states that this building housed classrooms, offices, laboratories for the sciences, and an auditorium seating 300 people. The Military Institute buildings were among Henry C. Trost’s most important commissions during his early El Paso career.

The two buildings (dormitory and main) were acquired from the U.S. government by the state of Texas.

Prepared for the El Paso Public Library by Lloyd C. and June F. Engelbrecht under a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, 1990