Magnolia Petroleum Company City Sales and Warehouse

Three miles north-northwest of downtown Dallas, on a chalk escarpment above the Trinity River, sits a former oil distribution complex built by Magnolia Petroleum Company between 1911 and 1918. Six brick and reinforced concrete buildings, a corrugated metal building, a retaining wall and two tank cradle compounds occupy about 5.1 acres. The buildings were scattered to limit the spread of fire, and their layout follows the company's process for receiving oil and gasoline by rail, storing it, and sending it out by truck and barrel. Functions included a warehouse, barrel repair shop, truck repair shop, pump house, garage and a former office converted into a document vault. Shared details include stone-capped parapets and square stone medallions set in brick patterns. The complex served Magnolia's Northern Division. Developers rehabilitated it in 1993-94 as rental housing, and the district keeps a high degree of integrity despite the changes.