{"nrhp_refnum":"12000350","name":"Dallas Coffin Company","other_names":["Sears Catalog Complex Annex"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1325 S. Lamar","address_restricted":false,"city":"Dallas","county":"Dallas County","state":"TX","lat":32.76952687600004,"lon":-96.79641955599999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2012-06-15","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Industry"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A five-story reinforced-concrete and brick industrial building at 1325 South Lamar in Dallas, Texas, built in 1911 as the manufacturing facility, warehouse and office of the Dallas Coffin Company, designed by C.W. Bulger and Son.","why_significant":"It is nominated at the local level under Criterion A for Industry, as an early contributor to Dallas's emerging wholesale and manufacturing economy and the coffin trade. It is nominated under Criterion C for Architecture as an excellent example of the functional 1910s Commercial Style. It also reflects the shift of the Cedars neighborhood from fashionable residential to industrial use.","narrative":"Built in 1911 at 1325 South Lamar in Dallas, this five-story building was the manufacturing plant, warehouse and office of the Dallas Coffin Company. Its reinforced concrete frame, mushroom-capped columns and brick-over-tile walls reflect early twentieth-century industrial construction, with modest decoration limited to parapets, corbelled brickwork and the main entrance. Designed by the Dallas firm C.W. Bulger and Son, it once anchored a complex of woodworking sheds, a power plant and lumber yards beside the Cotton Belt rail line; those structures are gone. The company operated here until 1950, followed by an insurance company and then Sears, which bought the building in 1960 and used it as an annex. The property is significant for its role in Dallas's growth as a wholesale and distribution center, for the growth of the American funeral industry, and as a clear example of Commercial Style design. Restoration work was underway to convert it into a hotel.","period_of_significance":"1911 - 1950","architect_builder":"C.W. Bulger and Son, Architect","architectural_style":"Late 19th and Early 20th Century American Movements: Commercial Style","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Undergoing restoration and conversion to a boutique hotel at the time of nomination; formerly used by Sears as an annex.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:23.335269-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/87/9716/40971687/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/12000350.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/12000350/71ac91225a-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/12000350/71ac91225a-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Renelibrary","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DallasCoffin1.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Renelibrary</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DallasCoffin1.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40971687","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q110002726"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/dallas-county/dallas-coffin-company-12000350/"}