1934 Pampa Post Office Building

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm passing it straight along to you. Way out in Gray County, the story of Pampa starts simply enough. A post office gets established in 1892, just a quiet little operation out on the Texas plain.

Ten years later, in 1902, the town of Pampa gets formally platted, laid out proper, like somebody finally decided this place was worth putting on a map. And for a while, that modest post office was enough. For a while.

Then 1926 rolls around, and they find oil. Now, the marker doesn't editorialize much on what that meant, but you already know. A population boom hit Pampa, and when the people come flooding in, the old post office just couldn't hold the weight of all that living anymore.

So they built a new one. Nineteen thirty-three into thirty-four, the Works Progress Administration put up a building that had no business being as beautiful as it is sitting out there on the Texas Panhandle. Spanish Renaissance Revival, the marker calls it, and it means every word.

Elongated rounded windows reaching up like they're listening for something. A tile roof. An arcaded loggia.

Decorative modillions and stonework dressed up just so. The WPA didn't just build a place to mail letters. They built something that said, we were here, and we did not cut corners.

That building still stands, and now you know the whole story behind it.

What the marker says

A post office was established here in 1892, and in 1902 the town of Pampa was formally platted. Following the discovery of oil in the area in 1926 Pampa experienced a population boom which created a need for a larger post office. Built in 1933-34 by the Works Progress Administration, this structure exhibits Spanish Renaissance Revival architectural influences in its elongated rounded windows, tile roof, arcaded loggia, and decorative modillions and stone work. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1992