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  • Trost Residence – El Paso, Texas

    Trost Residence
  • Albuquerque High School – Albuquerque, New Mexico

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  • University of Texas El Paso – El Paso, Texas

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Turney Residence and Garage
El Paso, Texas

 

Description: Turney residence and garage
Other Names: International Museum; El Paso Museum of Art
Address: 1211 Montana Avenue, El Paso, El Paso County, Texas
Type: domestic: single family home
Original Client: William Ward and Iva Turney
Historic Inventory: on El Paso Register of Historic Places
Date: 1906-1909; occupied in April 1910
Condition: extant; remodeled and additions made for museum use in 1960, by Carroll & Daeuble & Associates

Architect or Firm: Henry C. Trost
Associated Architect or Firm: Trost & Trost
Contractors: Harry T. Ponsford (carpentry) and James T. Hewitt of Hewitt & Son (general contractor)
Dimensions and Orientation: two stories and attic, with a separate building for garage and servants’ quarters; 55 feet across without side porches; faces south
Budget/Cost: $50,000

Foundation: faced with marble
Wall Materials: cream colored brick
Roofing Materials:
Other Materials Used: leaded and stained glass, probably by Mitchel & Halbach, Chicago
Remodeling and Additions: side porch on west, and porte cocksure on east, have been removed

Present Owner: The City of El Paso
Location of Drawings: none known to exist, except as reproduced in item 1 in the Bibliography, below
Location of Documentary Photographs: El Paso Public Library: Aultman A5552; Bradt 109 [Aultman A5552], privately printed postcard

Bibliography: (1) Trost & Trost, Architects. (El Paso: Trost & Trost, 1907), page 45 (drawings of south and east elevations)
(2) El Paso Herald, September 26, 1906, section 1, page 8 (budget)
(3) El Paso Herald, July 28, 1909, page 11 (New Houses about Town Hewitt& Son, contractors, are working on the interior finish of the W. W. Turney residence on Montana Street. It will be several months yet before this residence is completed.)
(4) El Paso Chamber of Commerce, El Paso, the Story of a City, 1883-1910 (El Paso: El Paso Chamber of Commerce, [1910]), unpaged (photograph of exterior [Aultman A5552])
(5) El Paso Chamber of Commerce, Prosperity and Opportunities in El Paso and El Paso’s Territory the 1911 Report of the El Paso Chamber of Commerce (El Paso: Chamber of Commerce, 1911), page 59 (photograph of exterior [Aultman A5552]
(6) Cleofas Calleros, El Paso…Then and Now, (El Paso: American Printing Company, 1954), Volume VII, pages 113-117 (five photographs of the interior made during the period when the Turney house served as the International Museum; key features of the interior are seen as backgrounds for models dressed in costumes from the Museum’s Pioneer Room; each photograph is credited: Engraving courtesy The El Paso Times)
(7) Harriot Howze Jones, editor, El Paso, a Centennial Portrait (El Paso, El Paso County Historical Society, 1972), page 52 (exterior photograph [Aultman A5552] and brief description)
(8) Harriot Howze Jones, Heritage Homes of El Paso: the Turney Home– Museum of Art, Password, volume XVIII, number 2 (Summer, 1973), pages 75-82 (description and history of the house and of the collection of the El Paso Museum of Art); page 75 (exterior photograph of the original house [Aultman A5552]); page 76 (exterior photograph of the house as converted into the El Paso Museum of Art)
(9) Department of Planning, Research and Development, City of El Paso, El Paso’s Forgotten Past; Historic Preservation (El Paso: author, 1977), page 10 (color exterior photographs)
(10) Lloyd C. and June F. Engelbrecht, Henry C. Trost: Architect of the Southwest (El Paso: El Paso Public Library Association, 1981), pages 38-40 (discussed); page 38 (exterior photograph [Aultman A5552]); page 125 (bibliographic notes)
(11) Laura Hlavach, Trost’s Style Survives Years in Landmarks, El Paso Times, December 29, 1980, page 1B (brief discussion and photograph of exterior)
(12) Myrna Zantell, Turneys Celebrate Completion of Trost Home with Gala, Viva El Paso, no date, summer, 1993, quotes from April 10, 1910 newspaper account (source not given)

Remarks: This is the largest home designed by architect Henry C. Trost in El Paso, but it is surpassed in size by Henry C. Trost’s Loma Linda in Bisbee, Arizona. The article by Jones, cited in Bibliography item 8, above, includes an especially good description of the interior, as well as a note about a garage with rooms above, used for servants, behind the house.

The Turney’s home was used for civic functions and visiting dignitaries. It was the center of civic,cultural and social activities in El Paso. During the Pancho Villa events in Juarez,friends of the Turneys would stay at the house. The basement was well stocked with ammunition and food.

Mr. Turney passed away in 1939. Mrs. Turney then moved to the Del Norte Hotel. Today the house serves as the El Paso Museum of Art. The interior ahas been preserved, including the grand wooden staircase with a stained glass art nouveau window at the landing.

Prepared for the El Paso Public Library by Lloyd C. and June F. Engelbrecht under a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, 1993