DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, El Paso in 1903 — that's a city still figuring out what it wants to be when it grows up. And right in the middle of all that ambition, a man named George E.
Wallace puts up an apartment building, slaps his name on it, and apparently decides that's enough legacy for one lifetime. The Wallace Apartments, they called them. Still do.
But here's the thing about this building — it wasn't just a place to hang your hat. It was a statement. And the man who made that statement architectural reality was Edward Kneezell, one of El Paso's earliest architects, born in 1855 and working in a town that was hungry for exactly what he had to offer.
Kneezell looked at that corner of El Paso and said, we're doing mission revival. And he meant it. What went up was a two-story stucco structure, and when you see it, you understand the ambition.
Five-room apartments — not cramped little boxes, but actual living spaces. Then there's the crown jewel: a large circular two-story arcaded veranda on one end of the building, wrapped in arches stacked on arches, the kind of thing that makes you stop and look twice. And if that weren't enough, Kneezell dressed the whole affair with small decorative mission parapets set over three-part arcaded entryways.
It's a building that has opinions about itself. Now Edward Kneezell lived until 1926, long enough to see El Paso grow into something remarkable. And through all of it, the Wallace Apartments stood — not as a relic, but as what the marker calls an interesting physical reminder of life in El Paso in the early twentieth century.
Some buildings just hold the memory of a place. This one holds it in stucco and arches and a veranda that still has something to say.
What the marker says
Built in 1903 and named for owner George E. Wallace, these apartments were designed by one of El Paso's earliest architects, Edward Kneezell (1855-1926). The two-story stucco structure, which originally housed five-room apartments, is of mission revival style, and features a large circular two-story arcaded veranda on one end and small decorative mission parapets set over three-part arcaded entry ways. The apartments are an interesting physical reminder of life in El Paso in the early twentieth century. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1985