Williams Medical Clinic Building

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Williams Medical Clinic Building in Mineola, Wood County. Now, every good story in Texas starts somewhere, and this one starts with a man coming home. Dr.

James W. Williams was a native of Mineola, born and raised right there in Wood County. He served in World War II, and when that service was done, he came back to the town that made him.

In 1946, he opened his medical practice. Home soil, home people, and a doctor ready to get to work. And get to work he did.

The patients kept coming. More and more of them, until the numbers told Dr. Williams something plain as a Texas summer: he needed a bigger place.

So he built one. Not just a bigger place, mind you. A state of the art medical facility.

Right there in Mineola. Now here is where the story gets a little bit interesting, because Dr. Williams did not build just any building.

He built a California-style building, which, if you've spent time in East Texas, you know that is not something you see on every corner. Red brick exterior, a wrap-around window on one corner turning heads from the street. The place had a contemporary modern architectural style that stood apart from everything around it.

But the real show-stopper, the thing that made folks stop and take notice, was what was running inside those walls. Central heat and air conditioning. A full system, doing the work quietly behind that red brick facade.

In the 1950s, that was not something you often found. Most folks in that era were still making peace with the seasons the hard way. Dr.

Williams, he had other ideas. Buildings, like stories, change hands over time. The clinic has been passed from owner to owner down through the years.

And yet, through every one of those transitions, something held. The building never stopped being what Dr. Williams built it to be: a place serving the Mineola community.

The purpose outlasted every deed of sale. That, right there, is the quiet power of a well-built thing. A man comes home from the war, opens a practice, grows with his patients, and raises up a building so ahead of its time that decades later it still stands as an impressive example of 1950s architecture in the heart of Mineola.

The doctor is gone from the door, other hands hold the keys, but the community is still walking through that same entrance. Some buildings just know what they are for.

What the marker says

WILLIAMS MEDICAL CLINIC BUILDING DR. JAMES W. WILLIAMS, A NATIVE OF MINEOLA, OPENED HIS MEDICAL PRACTICE IN 1946 AFTER HIS SERVICE IN WORLD WAR II. BECAUSE OF THE INCREASE IN THE NUMBER OF HIS PATIENTS, HE BUILT A NEW STATE OF THE ART MEDICAL FACILITY. THE CALIFORNIA-STYLE BUILDING HAS A RED BRICK EXTERIOR WITH A WRAP AROUND WINDOW ON ONE CORNER. ONE OF ITS MOST UNIQUE TRAITS IS THAT IT HAD CENTRAL HEAT AND AIR CONDITIONING, A SYSTEM NOT OFTEN FOUND IN THE 1950s. THE CLINIC IS AN IMPRESSIVE EXAMPLE OF A BUILDING FROM THE 1950s WITH A CONTEMPORARY MODERN ARCHITECTURAL STYLE IN MINEOLA. THOUGH THE BUILDING HAS BEEN PASSED FROM OWNER TO OWNER IT HAS STILL RETAINED THE SAME PURPOSE OF SERVING THE MINEOLA COMMUNITY. RECORDED TEXAS HISTORIC LANDMARK - 2012