{"nrhp_refnum":"92000208","name":"Universal Manufacturing Company Building","other_names":["5410"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"150 Locust St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Abilene","county":"Taylor County","state":"TX","lat":32.44758346300006,"lon":-99.73017752599998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1992-03-23","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story reinforced concrete industrial warehouse with brick veneer at 150 Locust Street, at the corner of Locust and South Second streets in Abilene, Taylor County, Texas, built in 1927. Architect and builder are unknown.","why_significant":"The building is tied to Abilene's growth into a regional wholesale and distribution center served by its railroads (Criterion A, Commerce). It is also an excellent local example of an industrial building with Art Deco ornamentation (Criterion C, Architecture). Few local warehouses keep their integrity to such a high degree.","narrative":"Built in 1927 at the corner of Locust and South Second streets in Abilene, this two-story warehouse is made of reinforced concrete with a brick veneer. Its east facade is divided into six bays by buttress-like elements, each bay holding a double-door entrance, and smaller buttresses create a vertical rhythm for the multi-light windows. A wood canopy on metal poles covers the loading dock, and the crowning feature is the patterned brickwork and cast stone detailing in the parapet. The building reflects Abilene's rise as a wholesale and distribution center for West Texas, when merchants built warehouses near the city's three railroads. Most such warehouses date from the 1900s to the 1930s and stand in the eastern part of downtown. This one is simple in form, as its function suggests, but carries Art Deco decoration. Few comparable buildings remain so little altered, which led to its recognition for both commerce and architecture, with a period of significance of 1927 to 1939.","period_of_significance":"1927-1939","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Art Deco","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Historic and current use are both listed as commerce/trade warehouse; the form describes the building as virtually unaltered.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:21.658649-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/90/9700/40970090/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/92000208.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/92000208/d1228251b9-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/92000208/d1228251b9-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 4.0","author":"Larry D. Moore","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Universal_Manufacturing_Company_Building.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Larry D. Moore</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Universal_Manufacturing_Company_Building.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40970090","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q110001321"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/taylor-county/universal-manufacturing-company-building-92000208/"}