Five stories of Classical Moderne Art Deco rise in front of you: the Kress Building, also known as the S.H. Kress and Co. Building, in downtown Fort Worth. Designed by New York architect Edward F. Sibbert, this is the building the chain needed when its growing business in Cowtown required a new structure in 1936. Sibbert’s plan echoes the flagship New York store while welcoming local tastes: Meso‑American accents appear throughout, most strikingly in the stylized Mayan caps above the upper windows.
Inside, original touches reported in its heyday included an Italian marble floor and a suspended second‑story ceiling. The Kress store served Fort Worth as a five‑and‑dime from 1936 through 1960, and it was notable for being one of the only major construction projects here built with private money during the hardships of the Great Depression. The S.H. Kress company itself had roots in Fort Worth back to 1905 and had moved into a third space by 1924 before this building rose.
Later recognition came with listing on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007 and a conversion into downtown housing in 2016. Up above, Sibbert's stylized Mayan caps still crown the upper windows, facing the downtown Fort Worth streetscape.