Henry Trost: What El Paso Could Have Been

Greatness amongst us

Henry Trost

What El Paso could have been

By Stephen L. Wilmeth

             In the 1880s an idea was bandied about that makes more sense every day. It was the concept of combining a defined number of southern New Mexico, southeastern Arizona, and far west Texas counties into a new state. The new state would be a marriage of cultural alliances tied to a geographic demarcation that was united by trade routes, customs, and industrial and commodity symbiosis. The state would be named Sacramento, and the capital would be … El Paso.

            Trost cometh

            Henry Charles Trost was born in Toledo, Ohio in 1860. He was the son of German immigrants. His father, Ernst, was a journeyman carpenter and contractor. His mother, Wilhelmina, was a strong matron who worked as hard as her husband. In all references, she was a task master.

            Henry and his twin brothers, Adolphus Gustavus and Gustavus Adolphus (!) grew up working with their father in the building trade. Later, as a team, they became not just superb craftsmen, but men of vision and cogs in a dynamic engineering and architectural business. It was older brother Henry, though, who was the creative genius.

            Trost’s training placed him in the sphere of influence of several historically significant designers. He was in Chicago from 1888 through 1896 to be near designer and instructor, Louis Sullivan of the Chicago School of Architecture. It appears he was a draftsman for Sullivan’s private business. He was also influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright. It was Wright who came later to El Paso to observe and study Trost’s work.

            Henry never married. Rather, he embarked on a series stops that took him on a journey that ended with permanent residence in El Paso in 1903. One of the stops concentrated on ornamental iron work. There is reason to believe he did that to understand the processes and form his own opinion of craft design.   

Henry Charles Trost, 1860-1933

    His fame commenced at age 43 in a setting that most folks would dismiss when asked of lasting impressions and geographic preferences. Brother Gustavus Adolphus was in El Paso on a construction job and he urged Henry to join him. They started Trost and Trost the year Henry arrived.

In 1908, brother Adolphus Gustavus arrived. He was a structural engineer and served the company in the capacity of engineer and construction liaison. Brother Gustavus Adolphus filled the role of business manager. Their roles were distinct and the company thrived.

    Another milestone occurred in 1908. That year Trost designed the residence that would serve as his home, office, and creative enclave. That residence, completed in 1909, still stands at 1013 West Yandell. It is occupied by a long time El Paso family. It remains number four on the list of 10 most significant structures in Texas.

Trost genius

    The Yandell home altered the landscape of design. It was decades if not generations ahead of its time. Henry Trost designed it with a double roof. That design created an insulating barrier. That barrier complimented recessed window designs that disallowed direct sun in the summer but abundant sun impact in the winter. The unique, extended eaves also added protection from direct sun. As a result, the house was noted for its temperature comfort long before air conditioning or sophisticated heating was available.

    The house set the course for what Trost termed his “Arid America” style.

    As for styles, Trost moved across several including Mission Revival and Art Deco, but all evolved to fill the pursuit of his Arid America infatuation. References suggest a most profound early impression on him was in Arizona before he arrived in El Paso. It was there he saw the Spanish colonial mission, San Xavier del Bac.

    The company’s success spiraled upward quickly. One of the landmark projects was the famous El Paso del Norte Hotel that stands within a short distance from Mexico in downtown El Paso. Trost traveled to San Francisco to study the buildings that withstood the 1906 quake that demolished the greater part of that city’s downtown area. He applied those techniques and ideas to the Del Norte. At a cost of $1.5 million it was completed in 1912 in plenty of time to watch the Mexicans fight the battle of what was to become Juarez across the river to the south. El Paso residents drank whiskey, dodged bullets, and cheered from the terrace on top of the structure as the battle raged. At night downstairs in the bar under the incredible glass dome designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany, they drank more whiskey as businessmen continued to ply their trade with Mexican counterparts.

"The unification of the state of Sacramento, its capital El Paso, and the Trost architectural genius was a formula for regional identity, relative advantage, and strength. Never has the area melded into the priorities or politics of Santa Fe or Austin. From a cultural, geographic, and economic model, the idea has more merit today than it did 125 years ago. "

    More than 20 Trost structures can still be found in downtown El Paso including Bassett Tower and the Mills Building. Those buildings and others made El Paso one of the most sophisticated cities in the nation by the mid ‘20s. It rivaled and arguably exceeded San Francisco in terms of elegance and structural significance. It was the western underscore version of New York City and Chicago. It truly was the Pass of the North and the grand entrance to the United States from the south.

    Henry Trost’s body of work is astounding.

    In his career, he designed more than 650 structures across Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and northern Mexico. His use of reinforced concrete with his inset windows and protected balconies blended beauty with strength and energy efficiencies before energy efficiency was even a phrase.

    Visualize a historically significant structure in the Southwest and chances are it is a Trost. Starting in the east in Austin is the Driskill Hotel. The San Angelo City Hall is Trost genius. The Hotel El Capitan in Van Horn is one of the Trost grand hotels. The Hotel Paisano in Marfa is yet another. Their lobbies of European tiling, 14’ exposed viga ceilings and Trost inspired wrought iron banisters would be nearly impossible to duplicate today.

    The Palace Theater and the Cortez Building in El Paso are two more incredible structures. On the west coast, the Union Pacific Railroad terminal in Riverside, California is another Trost brainchild.

    And, the list of Trost masterpieces goes on and on …

Trost disregarded

    As El Paso is approached today by freeway, a completely different ambiance is projected from the sophistication of the days when the mega cow buyers tended bar and held court at the del Norte under the Tiffany dome. Depending on the wind and the atmospheric conditions, the air can be downright nasty. The impression is made more dispirited by the disarray of any consistency in El Paso modern building standards. It is an eclectic conglomeration of styles that border on steel, glass, rock, and … cardboard poverty. The sprawl and grime of Juarez in full view across the river only deepens the gloom.

    At the point disgust is about to set in, the campus of the University of Texas, El Paso (UTEP) erupts into view. A completely different image emerges. The dreary landscape of the western front of the Franklin Mountains is suddenly united with one of the country’s most appealing university architectural themes.

    A second look promotes the realization that El Paso has lost a gargantuan opportunity that will never be recaptured. If the city had maintained a disciplined conformity to the building style of the UTEP campus, the dreary landscape, united through the genius of Henry Trost, would have become a visual partnership with that city that would render it a world marvel.

    Henry Trost did not invent the Bhutanese skyline of the UTEP theme, but he married it to his Arid America concepts. The idea of the architectural theme at the school came from the wife of a long past dean, Stephen Howard Worrell. Kathleen Worrell first saw the style in pictures and the idea was taken to Trost. It was Trost who grasp the significance and incorporated it into the construction.

    Old Main, Graham Hall, Vowell Hall, and Quinn Hall formed the genesis. To the credit of its leadership, the campus has maintained a strict discipline to the consistency of the Trost-Bhutanese style. The campus is a gem in the midst of the Trost structures of old El Paso and unique in the nation. The loss of the style in the modern city, though, is profound. As a result, the genius of Henry Trost has been diluted, and, perhaps lost to the ages.

    If the Trost architecture could have been permanently united into a rigorous theme of the State of Sacramento, its capital, El Paso, would have been as unique as Santa Fe …in a much more dynamic setting.

Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico. “The unification of the state of Sacramento, its capital El Paso, and the Trost architectural genius was a formula for regional identity, relative advantage, and strength. Never has the area melded into the priorities or politics of Santa Fe or Austin. From a cultural, geographic, and economic model, the idea has more merit today than it did 125 years ago.”

There is an NMSU connection too. Trost & Trost designed Goddard Hall, named after NM radio pioneer Ralph Willis Goddard. Goddard started KOB radio on the campus of NMSU and NMSU's current station honors him with their call letters KRWG. In the 20's, KOB was the largest college radio station in the world and on October 22, 1922 broadcast the first play-by-play program in college athletics (NMSU football Game).  Goddard's ghost is rumored to still haunt the halls of the building.  

You can read more about Trost's 1907 contract with NMSU (NMA&M) and his design for a horseshoe shaped campus by going here.