{"nrhp_refnum":"85000121","name":"Merimax Building","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"521 22nd St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Galveston","county":"Galveston County","state":"TX","lat":29.313192268000023,"lon":-94.78230527799997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1985-01-24","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A four-story stuccoed masonry commercial building at 521 22nd Street in Galveston, Texas, built in 1895-96 to designs by architect Alfred Muller as a telephone exchange.","why_significant":"It was built by and used as the Southwestern Telegraph and Telephone Company building from 1896 until 1938 and was long called the \"Telephone Building.\" It is the only surviving commercial building in Galveston by architect Alfred Muller, a major local architect. It was claimed to be the \"finest telephone building in the west,\" and Galveston was home to the first telephone exchange in Texas.","narrative":"Rising four stories at the southeast corner of its block in downtown Galveston, this stuccoed masonry building was constructed in 1895-96 as a telephone exchange for the Southwestern Telegraph and Telephone Company, which used it until 1938. Architect Alfred Muller designed it in a Romanesque Revival commercial manner, with round arches, stucco pilasters and grouped one-over-one windows. The entrance bay on 22nd Street rises above the cornice line to emphasize the main doorway. Originally brick, the exterior was stuccoed in the twentieth century, and some details were lost; rehabilitation plans call for restoring them, including fibreglass versions of the cornice panels. Locals long called it the Telephone Building, and it was praised as the finest telephone building in the west. It is Muller's only surviving commercial work in Galveston, a city that had the first telephone exchange in Texas and about 500 telephones by 1896. It now serves as commercial offices.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Alfred Muller","architectural_style":"Romanesque Revival/Commercial","criteria":[],"status_note":"Under rehabilitation, in good condition; present use is commercial office.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:20.889405-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/91/9691/40969191/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/85000121.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85000121/87329aea7d-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85000121/87329aea7d-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Jim Evans","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Merimax_Building_--_Galveston.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Jim Evans</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Merimax_Building_--_Galveston.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40969191","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q110002050"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/galveston-county/merimax-building-85000121/"}