DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker's the source here, and I'm just the one doing the talking. Now settle in, because this one comes out of Fort Worth, Tarrant County, and it's about a building with a name fancier than most folks around here were expecting. Around 1905, a developer by the name of Thomas S.
Weaver had this structure built. Brick and mortar, solid as you'd want, and crowned with two chimneys dressed up in terra cotta ornamentation. Right from the start, somebody had style in mind.
They called it the Atelier Building. Now if your French is a little rusty — and out here on a Texas road trip, that's no sin — Atelier is the French word for an artist's studio. And that name wasn't just window dressing.
Over the years, this building has been home to architects and contractors, a restaurant, and more than one financial institution, including the banking firm of W. R. Edrington, a noted Fort Worth benefactor.
That's a lot of lives for one brick building to contain. But here's the detail I want you to sit with. In 1936, when Fort Worth needed a temporary home for the Carnegie Library, they looked at their options and they chose this one.
The Atelier Building stepped up and held the books. Artist's studio in name, a whole city's worth of business in practice. Not a bad run for a place built about 1905 and still standing tall enough to have a marker on it.
What the marker says
Developer Thomas S. Weaver had this structure built about 1905. Named "Atelier", the French word for an artist's studio, it has housed the offices of architects and contractors, a restaurant, and financial institutions, including the banking firm of W.R. Edrington, a noted Fort Worth benefactor. In 1936 the building served as the temporary location of the Carnegie Library. Built of brick, it features two chimneys with terra cotta ornamentation. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark-1980.