Beaumont Commercial District (Boundary Increase)

Downtown Beaumont's commercial core gained ten more buildings through this boundary expansion, which also lengthens the district's timeline to 1958 and adds a second period, 1962-1963. The additions fall in three areas next to the original district and include shops, a department store, a parking garage and a church. Among them are the 1940 White House, a Streamline Moderne former department store, the Coale Building of about 1927, and the 1923 Antioch Baptist Church, which broaden the district's link to the city's African-American businesses and congregations. The centerpiece of the later period is the 1963 First Security National Bank, a five-story modernist building by Beaumont architects Pitts, Mebane & Phelps, with a sculptural concrete screen and glass walls. A 2005-2006 resurvey also revised the status of many earlier properties, counting buildings once judged too young or altered as contributing. The district reflects the city's timber, rice and oil-boom prosperity.