Land Title Building

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Land Title Building in Tarrant County. Now, every town worth its salt's got a building that makes you stop and look twice — and Fort Worth found theirs in 1889, when pioneer architects Haggart and Sanguinet sat down and drew something this region hadn't quite seen before. Brick, sandstone, and cast iron all working together, rounded arched windows climbing the facade, ornate details everywhere you rest your eye.

That style was rare out here — the marker says so plain — which means when this building went up, folks walking past had reason to slow their step. And slow it they did. Because tucked into that stonework was something Fort Worth had never had before: the first known stone carving in the entire city.

An owl. Just sitting there, watching. Now an owl doesn't miss much, and neither did the lawyers on the second floor — Ross, Head and Ross, whose initials the building displayed right up where you couldn't miss them, above the title firm that gave the whole structure its name.

Haggart and Sanguinet built something architecturally important here, and the record agrees — this one earned its designation as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1977. That owl's been keeping watch over Fort Worth for well over a hundred years. Something tells me it ain't planning to stop.

What the marker says

Pioneer architects Haggart and Sanguinet designed this brick, sandstone and cast iron building with rounded arched windows and other ornate details. It featured the first known stone carving in Fort Worth, the figure of an owl, and displayed the initials of the lawyers Ross, Head and Ross, who occupied the second floor, above the title firm. The structure is architecturally important because its style was rare in this region when it was built in 1889. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark-1977.