104-108 SW Barnard St - Glen Rose Downtown Historic District - Glen Rose, TX - NRHP Historic Districts - Contributing Buildings on Waymarking.com

The National Register's Registration Form has some extensive reading about this Texas-style Russian doll:

The Miles Building, due to its construction in multiple phases, is one of the most complex buildings in the Glen Rose business district. In addition to having been erected in four stages, the initial part of the structure was placed atop concrete piers that straddled the intermittent water flow of Connell Branch. Before the first phase of the Miles Building could be started about 1935, the reinforced concrete culvert (Property #35) carrying the waters of Connell Branch beneath Southwest Barnard Street had to be extended northwestward. The pre-existing 1922 arch concrete culvert was only 18 feet long, considerably shorter than the width of the street, so in order to construct a building over the stream on the northwest side of the street, the culvert was extended an additional 40 feet 4 inches to its present position and length. This extension placed the below-ground-surface inlet to the culvert a few feet into the privately owned construction site.

After the culvert was extended, workmen set about digging footings for several massive square concrete piers to support a concrete ice house that the property owner wanted to build. Once the reinforced concrete piers were poured, the crew began setting wooden forms for the concrete floor and walls of the ice house. As initially built ca. 1935, this ice house measured 24 feet 11 inches across the front and 30 feet long. Some of its walls were concrete poured into wooden forms, while other walls were constructed from hollow concrete blocks that were filled with concrete. The roof structure in the ice house was also made from poured concrete, with the exception of a front sales area where the roof was wooden. The roof sloped slightly to the rear for drainage. Concrete was chosen as the construction material because of the insulating qualities that it offered in keeping ice cold to prevent melting. The placement of the building over Connell Branch meant that any water that melted from the ice could drain directly into the branch for convenient disposal. A historic wallpainted sign with old ice prices survives on the front exterior of the building.

About 1945 an addition was made to the ice house, which by this time had become the property of Obie Jackson "Pop" Miles, giving it the Miles Building name that it has had ever since. The next stage added to the northeast was a 10-foot wide grocery store. O.J. Miles and his son-in-law, John Goldsmith, undertook this construction. They built the walls from concrete blocks filled with concrete and constructed the floor and flat roof from concrete poured into wooden forms. A portion of this section also was supported on concrete piers over the side of the Connell Branch.

A third addition followed, probably taking place in the late 1940s. Using similar methods of constructing walls from hollow concrete blocks filled with concrete and pouring concrete into wooden forms for the floor and flat roof, the building was extended an additional 15 feet 2 inches to the northeast and back 44 feet 11 inches from the street. At some unknown date, possibly at this time, a unified vernacular Art Deco concrete cornice was added across the front of the entire building that featured three steps up to a raised decorative center and rectangles placed atop each end of the façade.

A fourth and final phase of construction came probably sometime in the 1950s. A small frame addition measuring 3 feet 8 inches across by 14 feet 11 inches deep was made at the rear of the old store area. Covered with stucco, it had a flat roof slightly lower than the earlier concrete roof on the structure. Adjacent to this addition was added a small open concrete porch measuring 9 feet 10 inches across by 14 feet 11 inches deep.

The four construction projects resulted in the creation of a single commercial building that was divided into parts to serve a variety of tenants over the years. As completed, the L-shaped building measured 49 feet 11 inches across, 30 feet deep on the southwest end, and 44 feet 11 inches deep on the northeast end. Covered with stucco and currently painted grey, it gives the superficial impression of being a unified single structure. This appearance of unity is furthered by a wooden canopy across the front supported on seven 2x4 lumber posts and covered by a "V"-crimp metal roofing. The complexity of the structure becomes apparent when one observes its inconsistent arrangement. From southwest to northeast, the front has the following openings: (1) double-door entry up three steps from the sidewalk into the historic ice sales area with each door having 15 fixed panes of glass, (2) rectangular fixed plate glass display window, (3) rectangular fixed plate glass display window, (4) single fixed wooden entry door with no windows, (5) rectangular fixed plate glass display window, (6) single entry door with one fixed pane of glass, and (7) rectangular fixed plate glass display window. The northeast side of the building has one fixed glass display window near the sidewalk. On the rear of the building, the frame addition has one narrow windowless single wooden door leading onto the open porch. The rear of the former ice house has two openings, one for an air conditioner and one being a small one-over-one sash window with a metal frame. Both of these openings postdate use of this part of the building for ice storage. Two metal downspouts mounted near the center of the rear take away some of the run-off moisture from precipitation.

It is believed that the construction of the ice house ca. 1935, the first phase of the Miles Building, was undertaken in association with T.A. Russell, one of the owners of the Glen Rose Hotel. The building never had any ice manufacturing machinery, but rather was a vending outlet for ice produced elsewhere. Trucks delivered the ice in large 300-pound blocks, workers sliding them on heavy timbers from the vehicle into the storage vaults. Employees on site later divided the blocks into smaller 100, 50, and 25-pound squares and crushed ice for sale in large double-thickness paper bags. In time O.B. "Pop" Miles purchased the ice house, and he and his son-in-law, John Goldsmith, then added a 10-foot-wide grocery store onto the northeast side of the ice vending facility. Miles reputedly joked with others that he built the diminutive store, where he purchased his goods wholesale, just so that he could buy his tobacco more cheaply. When Miles added the third phase of building construction in the late 1940s, he created a space that for many of the next years housed a series of cafes. Among the operators of these eating places were Miles himself, Samuel Odel Graham, the Rives family, a man named Gartrell, John Rodman, and Linda Laramore. Later occupants of this end of the building included the LDL Foundation, TXU electric utilities, and optometrist Dr. Bob Yeaman. The "store" portion of the building, and later the old ice house area as well, housed additional businesses including for a time a jewelry store run among others by H.A. Hunter and a series of ladies' dress shops operated by Ima Firestone, Frances Bruce, and Gloria Crisp. From the days of dress shop use, the walls in part of this area still bear stylized murals painted by artist L.A. Vada in 1959. Ownership of the property in time passed to Brenda Ransom, who currently uses the entire building to operate the Country Peddler Antiques and Collectibles.

Name of Historic District (as listed on the NRHP): Glen Rose Downtown Historic District Link to nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com page with the Historic District: [Web Link] Address: 104-108 SW Barnard St, Glen Rose, TX 76043 How did you determine the building to be a contributing structure?: Narrative found on the internet (Link provided below) Optional link to narrative or database: [Web Link] NRHP Historic District Waymark (Optional): Not listed

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