Wichita Falls Women's Forum

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll give it to you straight from the text. Somewhere in Wichita Falls, there's a building that carries a story worth slowing down for. It starts in 1925, when the women of Wichita Falls organized their Forum.

Not a passing social club, mind you. The kind of organization that decides, after a few years of serious work, that it needs a serious home. So they set about building one.

The Hamilton-Martin Investment Company donated the land. That's the kind of detail that tends to get buried in plaques, but think about it. Donated.

The land was given. That's a foundation, in more ways than one. An architect named T.

L. Sorey took the commission, and what he drew up leaned hard into the Mediterranean. Arches.

Light brick. And up on top, a roof of multicolored clay tile that must have caught the West Texas sun in a way you don't forget. By 1927, the building was complete.

It stood as designed, as donated, as built. Then, decades later, in 1960, the women added a major addition to the east side of the original structure. The place had grown into what it needed to be.

Some buildings are just buildings. This one was built on purpose, by people with one, and it's still standing to prove it.

What the marker says

This building was constructed for members of the Wichita Falls Woman's Forum, organized in 1925. Designed by T. L. Sorey, it was completed in 1927 on land donated by the Hamilton-Martin Investment Company. Mediterranean influences include the use of arches, light brick, and a roof of multicolored clay tile. A major addition to the east side of the original structure was completed in 1960. (Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1980.)