Old Cotton Exchange Building Mast Office -- Nacogdoches TX - Signs of History on Waymarking.com

The Old Cotton Exchange is located at the corner of North Freedonia Street and Commerce Street in downtown Nacogdoches.

A handsome quite sign on the side of the building identifies this brick building is the former cotton exchange. Sign reads as follows:

"THE OLD COTTON EXCHANGE
MAST OFFICE

In 1854, records refer to this building as a "storehouse" serving firms located on Main Street. In the 1880s, the owners agreed with the city to dedicate the alley, first as Progress Street and later as Commerce. In 1896 the building was still one story, but around 1898 the firm Mayer and Schmidt enlarged and added a second story.

With Schmidt in charge of local operations, the firm's agents priced and bought cotton and filled orders from Mayer in the New York office. In 1938 after the Great Depression ruined the Mayer & Schmidt firm, H.R. and A.T. Mast purchased the building. A.T. Mast and A.T. Mast Jr. made their offices here and preserved the building as it stands today.

While utilitarian building from the start, architect D. Rulfs gave unity to the Cotton Exchange Building when he added the second story and expanded the east end in the 1890s. To support the new upper story, he inserted huge columns hewn from single logs. The east side on Commerce Street, a model of Rulfs' unifying elements, has two-story pilasters, core build strings of bricks over the windows on the second floor, double-header courses of bricks between the floors, and three arched windows on the west, this pattern could only be approximated.

Along the cornice of the building, Rulfs used inset panels around the entire façade and turrets to punctuate the segments, much like on the old Wettermark Bank Building. While the building has undergone many interior renovations, it remains an outstanding example of practical commercial architecture.

Sponsored by the Heritage Club of Nacogdoches.
Purchased in part by a grant from the Texas Historical commission's Texas Heritage Trails Regional Program. Matching grant funds provided by Plaza Principal."

Group that erected the marker: Heritage Club of Nacogdoches Address of where the marker is located. Approximate if necessary: Commerce Street at N Fredonia St Nacogdoches, TX URL of a web site with more information about the history mentioned on the sign: Not listed

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Date Logged Log   12/29/2017 Benchmark Blasterz visited it