DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna do it justice. You know, some buildings just stand there. And then some buildings make a statement.
The Santa Fe Building in Amarillo — well, that one was always in the statement-making business. It went up between 1928 and 1930, and whoever signed the checks knew they weren't cutting corners, because the price tag came in at one and a half million dollars. That's 1928 dollars, friend.
Let that settle for a second. The man behind the design was E. A.
Harrison, the architect for the Santa Fe Railroad itself, and Harrison did not come to play. He gave Amarillo fourteen stories of skyscraper dressed up in Gothic revival detailing — pointed arches, ornamental stonework, the whole cathedral-in-a-business-suit treatment. From the day it was finished until sometime in the 1970s, nothing in Amarillo stood taller.
Decades, just standing there, king of the skyline, housing the offices and division headquarters of the Santa Fe Railroad. And here's the thing that makes it worth slowing down for — buildings like this one, a true skyscraper wearing Gothic revival like a Sunday coat, they are rare. Not just rare in Amarillo, rare in the whole state of Texas.
Most of them are gone. This one is still here. Fourteen stories, a million and a half dollars, one railroad architect with something to prove, and the better part of a century later, it's still making its statement.
What the marker says
Built in 1928-30 at a cost of $1,500,000, this structure was designed by Santa Fe Railroad Architect E.A. Harrison. The 14-story building was the tallest in Amarillo until the 1970's, and housed the offices and division headquarters of the Santa Fe Railroad. A significant local example of the skyscraper form ornamented with Gothic revival style detailing, this edifice is among the few remaining such buildings in the state. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1996