DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about this place. Now, Claude, Texas has had its share of buildings come and go, but few left a mark quite like the one that stood right here. The Warner Building.
Erected in 1909 by two civic leaders the town was lucky to have, Dr. William A. Warner, born in 1864, and his wife Phebe K.
Warner, born in 1866. These two didn't just build a building. They built something closer to a small city under one roof.
The design came from an Amarillo architectural firm by the name of Heckman and Hartley, and whatever they drew up on paper, the Warners made it real. Now let me tell you what they packed into that one structure, because this is where the story gets impressive. Dr.
Warner ran his medical office out of it. The Warners operated their Gate City Drugstore inside. There were public rest rooms, a barber shop, the office of the Claude News newspaper, a public reading room, a lodge hall, and rental office space for whoever else needed a corner of Claude to conduct their business.
That is not a building. That is practically a whole block standing on one foundation. For six years, it served this town.
And then, in 1915, fire destroyed it. Just like that, gone. But William and Phebe Warner were not the kind of people who folded.
After the fire, they reopened their drugstore at another location and kept right on going. He passed in 1934, she in 1935, and the building they raised was long gone by then. But Claude remembered, and now, standing at this site, so do we.
What the marker says
Erected at this site in 1909 by civic leaders Dr. William A. (1864-1934) and Phebe K. (1866-1935) Warner, the Warner Building played an important role in Claude's development. Designed by the Amarillo architectural firm of Heckman and Hartley, the building housed Dr. Warner's medical office, the Warners' Gate City Drugstore, public rest rooms, a barber shop, the "Claude News" newspaper office, a public reading room, a lodge hall, and rental office space. After a fire destroyed the building in 1915, the Warners reopened their drugstore at another location.