HAYMON KRUPP & CO. BUILDING, ERECTED BY TROST & TROST, 1916. Located at 119 W. Overland Ave., at the northeast corned of South Santa Fe St., the Haymon Krupp & Co. Bldg. has been an El Paso landmark for 98 years. Haymon Krupp (1874-1949) was a Jewish merchant and investor from Lithuania who came to our city in 1890, just as the population reached 10,000 inhabitants. He was a pioneer of the American outdoor clothing industry and a co-founder of the Texan Oil and Land Co., established in 1919. The company drilled the first successful oil well in the Permian Basin; and in 1928, after overcoming technological barriers, Texon broke the world record and drilled the deepest oil well on the planet (8,525 feet)! Krupp was also known for distributing thousands of dollars worth of coal to the poor in El Paso and throughout West Texas every Christmas for 40 years. He once was once honored as the most distinguished citizen of El Paso and the Most Useful Citizen in Texas. The edifice on W. Overland is four stories tall and was erected at a cost of $75,000. Like most of Henry C. Trosts other downtown commercial buildings, the structure consists almost entirely of reinforced conrete (only the rear wall is made of brick). The architectural plans called for a fifth-floor machinery penthouse and copper awnings at ground level. It was here where Haymon Krupp & Co. manufactured clothing and sold dry goods to wholesalers. Pancho Villa purchased uniforms for his soldiers from the ground-level office. Today the venerable edifice, which is ranked 7th on the El Paso County Historical Commissions list of the 12 Most Endangered Buildings in Downtown El Paso, stands abandoned and neglected, a ghost of what it once was. SOURCES: Building photos courtesy of the Texas Trost Society: texastrost.org/gallery/haymon-krupp-&-co/. Map of the 12 Most Endangered Buildings in Downtown El Paso: texastrost.org/images/map5.jpg. Main informational sources: henrytrost.org/buildings/haymon-krupp-company/; isjl.org/texas-el-paso-encyclopedia.html
Posted on: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 18:53:47 +0000
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