Information on Building #1 from the GSA website: (
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Architectural Description
The Federal Building (formerly known at the Santa Fe Building) is a 402,500 SF Art Deco style structure located at 1114 Commerce Street at the southwest side of the Central Business District of Dallas on a 30,000 square foot site. It is an early skyscraper type structure with a 10 story office base and a 19 story office tower rising on the front, (North), side. This arrangement gives the appearance of a 19 story skyscraper with a 10 story office wing extending to the rear....
Exterior walls are brown brick veneer with cast concrete trim. The building sits on a granite base at the north elevation. The granite base supports heavy concrete-clad columns which divide the window bays at the first floor level. At the north (main) elevation there are five two-story arches accenting recessed windows in the central bays. The remainder of the facade, floors 4 - 15, is divided into slightly recessed bays reflecting the position of the five arches. At each of the east and west sides of the facade is a simple bay of single windows. Floors 16-18 are set back and ornamented by buttresses. The 19th floor is set back farther still. The windows are contemporary bronze anodized aluminum, separated vertically by painted steel spandrel panels. The doors are bronze anodized storefront doors. Only one original steel arched window remains, at the base of the east tower elevation.
The east elevation is adjacent to a closed alleyway/loading area and is virtually obscured by a parking deck structure. The only remaining original window is at the northeast corner of the building at the mezzanine through third floor levels. This window is steel with 16 lights at each level culminating in an arched top. It is surrounded by a cast concrete arch with keystone. An elaborate cast concrete spandrel ornamented by cast concrete urns and swags divides the
window between the mezzanine and second floor levels. Other decorative cast concrete spandrels are below the second floor windows at the extreme northeast corner. It is presumed the original arched windows on the north elevation matched this window since they bear the same arched tops and ornamentation. There is a cast concrete belt course which ornaments the building above the first floor level of the tower elevations. The belt course consists of cast concrete medallions set in a simple course. The medallions, alternating American eagles and heads of the Roman god Mercury, are separated by a lotus motif.
The south elevation, while of the same materials, is secondary, and is simpler in detail. At the first floor level there are three entry doors - one in the center and one at each of the corners (east and west). The doors are ornamented by a brick-framed eye window at the top. The remaining windows bays, two on either side of the center door, culminate in brick arches. The windows at the first through ninth floors are slightly recessed within the brick and are expressed in bays of three windows except where they are single windows over the center, east and west doors. The south elevation of the tower, floors 10-19, is dominated by an arched brick elevator tower in the center. Windows at the east and west are single. Double window bays flanking the elevator tower contain paired windows separated by steel spandrels. The building is slightly set back at the 16th-18th floors and accented by concrete buttresses. The 19th floor is set back even farther.
The west elevation of the building was totally obscured when the Earle Cabell Federal Building was built in 1968. In fact, the Cabell building shares its east wall with the west wall of the Santa Fe Building and there are pass-throughs on the interior at levels 1, 4, 5, and 6. The loading dock for both buildings is in the common area and is accessed from the south.The elevations had been recently restored at the time of inspection.
There are two levels of roof. The roof atop the 10th floor level is built-up roofing with a granular cap heet. This level contains roof-top HVAC units. A decorative copper gambrel roof with copper-clad dormers adorns the top of the building. Both roofs were being replaced at the time of inspection.
The main (north) elevation entry opens into the lobby of the building. The lobby was completely re-built at the time of construction of the Cabell Federal Building (1968) and shares a connecting corridor and the same finishes as the Cabell Building lobby. The remainder of the interior was demolished in 1978; all finishes date from 1978 or later. ... There is minimal original material remaining in the elevator lobbies here. Some terrazzo floors within the elevator lobbies and original corridors remain. The marble wainscot at the elevator walls has been covered over with panelling or gypsum board. The tower is used for agency storage on some levels. The brick and terra cotta block walls, and ceilings are exposed, as are the concrete floors. The materials throughout the tower are deteriorated.
Significance
The Federal Building at 1114 Commerce Street in the Central Business District of Dallas is significant as a representative of the Art Deco style in the downtown area; and for its contribution to, and continuing presence in, the downtown area. The building was planned and built as the first of a group of four buildings for the Santa Fe Railroad. The site was originally acquired in 1882 (forty years after the founding of Dallas) by the Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe Railroad Company at a cost of approximately $5000. Shortly after acquisition, a passenger station, freight depot and tracks were built on the site. The area became a focal point of downtown and included a popular restaurant located in the terminal. Due to the growth of the railroad,
and of Dallas, the railroad erected a new freight depot on Young Street and, in January of 1923, the railroad sold the property to the Terminal Building Corporation of Dallas for $700,000. The Terminal Building Corporation was a wholly owned subsidiary of the Atchison System, parent company of the original owner of the property.
The idea for a Santa Fe Building group came from a bank teller-turned-promoter, who persuaded an architect to prepare drawings of his ideas, formed a syndicate of a group of businessmen, and went on to complete four buildings with total area of 14,000,000 square feet. The railroad assisted in the promotion and received 40% of the common stock in the holding corporation. By 1925, the railroad's holding increased to 50% of the common stock and, finally, in 1929 the railroad acquired all of the stock in the Terminal Building Corporation through a payment of $550,000 to the developers.
TX0058DA is building number 1 of the group. It is currently owned by the U.S. Government and is used as a Federal office building. It was designed by Lloyd R. Whitson and F. Cowderoidale, Architects, and was constructed by Watson Company Builders. Then known as the "Santa Fe Building", it was completed in 1925. It was constructed as a combination office and loft building which the planners visualized as similar to the Merchandise Mart in Chicago. When the Merchandise Mart concept failed, it became necessary to offer office and warehouse (loft) space in competition with buildings located in more "desirable" areas of the Central Business District. One method of attracting tenants was to cut the price of rental space in the building. Another method was to air-condition the building in 1938. Lining the north/south corridor of the first floor were retail showrooms. Still, the owners had a difficult time maintaining a reasonable occupancy until 1941.
In 1942 during an effort to house the Eighth Service Command, condemnation proceedings were filed in the U.S. District Court and possession of the building passed from the railroad to the U.S. Government for a compensation of $1,200,000. The Army Corp of Engineers assumed occupancy of the building in 1942 and passed it on to GSA in 1948. GSA remains the owner the building." [end]
Deep underground the streets of Downtown Dallas, a forgotten part of the city’s railroad history remains in the basements and sub-basements of three buildings (out of 4) that used to be part of the massive Gulf, Colorado, & Santa Fe Railroad complex. The waymark coordinates lead you to the parking garage of the SoCo Lofts, formerly Santa Fe Bldg. #2, where find all that remains of the long-abandoned tunnels.
The tunnels were an odd footnote to history until September of 2000, when a rupture in an old 30-inch high-pressure water main in the abandoned rail tunnels sent water geysering out of manholes all over downtown Dallas. The flooding shut down the central Dallas business district for days and did millions of dollars in damage to Santa Fe #1, home to various Federal offices downtown.
In 2005, the US Government settled its lawsuit against the contractors who caused the flood, recovering $2.3M in damages for US taxpayers: (
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A Dallas Morning News story after the flood revealed more about the history of these tunnels, why they were built, and the ingeniousness of the locomotives that ran in them:
1924: Santa Fe tunnels
System fed downtown's fashion industry, transported troops
07/03/2002
By BRIAN ANDERSON / Dallas Web Staff
Buried beneath the bustling streets of downtown Dallas, a labyrinth of hidden history lies in the darkness.
Constructed in 1924, the railroad tunnels beneath the former Santa Fe Freight Terminal carried merchandise to a fledgling fashion district and soldiers to their duty in World War II.
It’s rumored that a river of bootlegged booze once flowed through the caverns during the days of prohibition.
“I wouldn’t doubt it,” laughed Bob LaPrelle, executive director of the Age of Steam Railroad Museum at Fair Park. “I do know the Santa Fe Railroad in those days was known for parties.”
The tunnels have long been silent. The rusty rails have mostly disappeared behind brick walls and ribbons of concrete. But the lore surrounding the former train complex still packs a full head of steam.
“They are kind of intriguing and interesting,” Mr. LaPrelle said, noting that the tunnels still prompt occasional inquiries from local railroad buffs.
Four buildings on three adjacent city blocks - bound by Young, Commerce, Griffin and Field streets - made up the original complex that centralized the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railroad’s transfer and warehousing operations in downtown Dallas.
Only three buildings remain today: Santa Fe Building I now houses offices for the federal government; Santa Fe Lofts, formerly known as the Garment Center, now contains about 200 apartment units; and a single abandoned warehouse at the complex’s southernmost point lies across from the Dallas City Hall.
The Ingram Freezer Building, the third in the north-south building chain, was demolished in 1988. A parking lot has taken its place.
The complex buildings were linked by a subterranean rail tunnel meant to relieve downtown train congestion.
“The tunnels and the Santa Fe facility resulted from the restrictions for building downtown,” Mr. LaPrelle said, explaining that a web of tracks had come to choke pedestrian and auto traffic in the downtown area. “It was a way to get things in and out.”
Three sets of underground tracks served the complex, branching from a central subsurface line, which emerged from the ground to the south.
“The tunnels are still there, under the buildings,” said Dan Monaghan, a Garland optometrist who helped found the Age of Steam Museum and currently serves on the board of directors for Dallas Area Rapid Transit.
Smokeless, miniature engines moved rail cars through the Santa Fe underground.
“It was a small steam locomotive. It just had four wheels on it and a huge steam boiler – but no fire box,” Mr. Monaghan said.
The engines, sometimes referred to as “fireless cookers,” “thermos bottle” or “hot water bottle” engines, could operate for about half a day before having to recharge at a central boiler.
“They couldn’t have combustion down in the tunnel, so that’s why you needed an external steam source,” Mr. Monaghan said.
Traditional steam engines would have spelled disaster for the crews working below ground, according to Mr. LaPrelle.
“You would have eventually been asphyxiated in addition to the fire hazard,” he said.
In its prime, the Santa Fe tunnel complex was one of the most important arteries serving the heart of Dallas. The buildings, described in an ACME Brick advertisement from the period as “one of the outstanding construction projects in the world,” formed one of the Southwest’s largest merchandising centers.
The steel wheels below carried goods into the buildings, with 21 freight elevators lifting merchandise to the upper-level showrooms or first-floor trucking platforms.
The University Club, located in a posh clubhouse atop the Garment Center, provided an elegant crown for the complex and a high-rise playground for the Dallas elite. A sky bridge carried prominent businessmen to the club from the roof of the adjacent Santa Fe Building I.
“I’m sure all manner of things went on up there,” Mr. LaPrelle said.
In later years, studios for WFAA-AM radio, the forerunner to today’s WFAA-TV, would occupy the top of the Garment Center.
In 1942, soldiers became the primary cargo passing through the Santa Fe tunnels. The U.S. government converted a portion of the complex into a recruitment center for the Army. The “thermos bottles” towed thousands of fresh troops away from home, setting them on their way to boot camps across the country.
Today, the scarred floor of the Santa Fe Lofts’ parking garage offers a glimpse of what used to be. Poured concrete has encased the three channels through which as many as 40 railroad cars at a time used to pass.
The two-tone concrete slab and remnants of the loading docks’ metal lip are the only signs of the building’s former use. Mismatched bricks at each end block the former entrance and exit to the rail line.
“When they built the convention center, it severed the connection to the Santa Fe main line,” Mr. Monaghan said.
For the Santa Fe tunnels, as in the case of many historical properties, progress has marked the end of the line." [end]
Rail fans in Dallas have blogged that the old hot-water bottle locomotive is still there, walled-up inside the abandoned tunnels, a relic of the lines’ abandonment.
Wikipedia has a great general article on the entire Santa Fe Complex: (
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