Restoring a piece of history

In historic downtown Waxahachie, a two-story building sits down the street from the Rogers Hotel. Originally built in 1894, the building, located at 115 N. College St., is the only one in downtown with a balcony.

Tom Smalley, an attorney in Ellis County and building owner, is restoring the building. The restoration project is twofold: tuck pointing plus brick painting and restoring the balcony. While Smalley had been wanting to fix up his historic building, he began the project when he learned about the city’s downtown building improvement grant, which is a 50/50 match reimbursement grant up to $50,000 per applicant for building owners within the TIRZ and Downtown District.

The city’s Historical Preservation Commission gave Smalley an article outlining how to tuck point brick on historic buildings. Tuck pointing, or repointing, is the process of removing the old mortar and replacing it with new mortar. Smalley has already completed this portion of the project and will begin restoring the balcony.

Currently, the balcony’s wood is rotted and cracked in certain areas. Smalley said the steel bars holding up the balcony are the same ones from when it was first built. The project will replace the wooden portions of the balcony that are deteriorating with new panels and columns.

“You can see the (balcony),” Smalley said. “It’s seen better days.”

When his kids were in high school, they would go out on the balcony with their friends and watch the parade go by every year. After they graduated, he closed the door and blocked it from being opened. The reason for its restoration isn’t to bring people back out onto the historic balcony. It’s to bring a piece of history back to life.

“The preservation of a way of life that existed at a time of the turn of the century,” Smalley said.

Smalley said many believe the balcony was used by the first business to occupy the building.

When Trinity University, now located in San Antonio, came to Waxahachie around 1906, all the brothels and bars were shut down. Then a Mrs. Knight purchased the building and opened a sewing machine company. She lived and worked there until she died. The building was then owned by several people before landing in Smalley’s hands in 1991.

After his purchase, Smalley set out to restore the building. He recalls it needing substantial work, and, interestingly, he found the second floor had remained a time capsule to the building’s original days. A hallway ran down the middle of the building, with rooms on each side. Wallpaper was falling off the walls. Each room was about 8 feet long and held one thing – a steel-framed bed.

Smalley changed the layout of the building to fit his law office’s needs and restored the balcony at the time, but the building’s history can still be seen in small details in every room – from the doorway trim to the brick walls to the ceiling to an upstairs sink.

Originally published August 21, 2023 - https://www.waxahachiesun.com/business/restoring-a-piece-of-history/article_29bbfc60-4056-11ee-9e74-ff8cfd68ee64.html