Union Trading Company Complex, Fort Davis, Jeff Davis County, TX

1997 Charles E. Peterson Prize, First Place
Significance: In 1874 Whittaker Keesey authorized his brother, Otis M., to build a house and corral near Fort Davis for trading in general merchandise and liquor. In 1876 Louis Cardis leased a 200 foot square plot for a stagecoach station. After Cardis' death in the 1877 Salt Wars the Keeseys operated a mercantile business in the total complex. In 1906 A.F. Peschke was hired to replace the "main portion" of the adobe structure with a stone building "to have a basement, hand-operated freight elevator and a coal shute." The business became the Union Trading Company in 1908, and by 1913 the south entrance of the store had been closed with a veneer of matching stone...
Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N470
Survey number: HABS TX-3470
Building/structure dates: 1874 Initial Construction
Building/structure dates: 1876 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1877 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1906 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1908 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1913 Subsequent Work