McDermott Motors Building- Waco Downtown Historic District - Waco, TX - NRHP Historic Districts - Contributing Buildings on Waymarking.com

The building is rectangular in plan, and cubic in massing. It is constructed of reinforced concrete and structural steel, and is clad in buff brick. The construction system and detailing are typical of the era, though the building exhibits an expert handling of proportions and details that characterizes all of Milton Scott's architectural works.

The front facade, facing on Washington Avenue, is divided into three bays. The exterior is clad in brick, detailed with cut stone and terra cotta. Though this building features delicate architectural detailing, it incorporates industrial components such as the rolled-steel window frames. The fenestration pattern is regular, and showroom windows are indicated by their large size and transom windows. Details on the second story recall a classical colonnade. This level features decorative corbels, foliated ornament, and abstracted relief patterns imbedded in decorative panels. The building is capped with a fiat roof, clad in red tile suggestive of Spanish Colonial Revival architecture; this choice of material was common for commercial buildings completed in Waco during this same period.

Wilford Dees McDermott commissioned Waco archhect Milton W. Scott to design a new home for his automobile dealership, which he had opened on Austin Avenue in 1926. Milton Scott, a dedicated and diligent designer, had a reputation for insisting on quality and perfection. He was often sympathetic to the aesthetic taste of his clients, though preferred to inject his own sense of reserve and refinement, as exhibited in this building and others he designed in Waco. Scott personally oversaw the constmction of his projects, and was likely an attractive fit for McDermott's own refined tastes.