From the brick Herring Hotel to the all-glass second plaza of Amarillo National Bank, Amarillo has always had a history of high rises that stand as peaks of the region. While development in the city has died down in recent times, one does not need to look far back to see a city filled with towers rising closer and closer to the stars.
Amarillo’s first high rise, the Herring Hotel, finished construction in 1926. One of many oil boom hotels that arose in the 1920s, the 14-story building stays one of few left standing. Cattleman, banker and oil baron, Cornelius Taylor Herring built the hotel. Herring owned many buildings in Amarillo as well as 98,000 acres of the LS ranch north of town. The hotel closed in 1968, though its top eight floors converted into offices the next year. The office spaces stayed through the 70s, eventually closing in the early 80s. Now the building sits vacant, facing issues with restoration. Still, its classic brick facade holds an iconic place in the city, standing as an artifact from a time long gone.
Built a year after the Herring, the Barfield hotel remains another iconic hotel of the era. Amarillo financier and philanthropist, Melissa Dora Oliver-Eakle, constructed the 10-story building. Originally known as the Oliver-Eakle building, the hotel had a name change in the 70s to that of her great-grandson, Gordan Barfield. The hotel closed in the early 90s, staying vacant for thirty years, until a remodeling and reopening in 2021 that converted the building into a Marriott hotel. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, alongside the Herring Hotel, SPS Tower, The Fisk Building and The Santa Fe Building.
One of the most stunning buildings in the city, the Fisk Medical Arts Building, opened in 1928. City commissioner Charles Fisk built the gothic structure as an office for his growing bank. The bank occupied the bottom floor, with doctors, dentists and other professional’s offices staying in the upper levels. Fisk’s bank later merged with First National Bank, which stayed in the building until 1950. The building exchanged hands many times in the following decades until it finally landed as a Courtyard by Marriott hotel. The building has stayed a hotel since, being one of the most popular places to stay in the city, known for its rich history and gorgeous exterior.
Finishing construction in 1930, the Santa Fe building stayed the tallest in Amarillo until the 70s. Santa Fe Railroad architect Edward Alfred Harrison constructed the building in the gothic revival style. The building’s unique style and impressive 14-stories make it a remarkable silhouette on the city’s skyline. Originally the divisional headquarters of the Santa Fe Railroad, the building now houses Potter County governmental offices.
In the decades that followed, downtown continued to grow. Nothing better showcases this than SPS Tower, the tallest building in Amarillo and the entirety of West Texas. A collaboration between the TransAmerica Group, the Southwestern Public Service Company, the original namesake and the Amarillo Club constructed the building in 1971. The building’s new formalist style put it in good company, sharing a style with the twin World Trade Centers which finished around the same time as SPS. At 374 feet, SPS Tower reaches abnormal heights,with most cities of a similar size having top heights less than that of SPS. For comparison, Lubbock has a population of 270,000: 70,000 more than Amarillo. Still, Lubbock’s tallest building, Metro Tower, tops out at 274 feet. This vertical dominance has cemented SPS Tower as an icon of the region, its glass facade forever reflecting the economic prosperity that created it.
The completion of SPS Tower signaled that high density developments had viability in Amarillo. Nothing better shows that opening than the creation of the Amarillo National Bank later that year. The 16–story home for Amarillo National Bank rose a few blocks northeast of SPS Tower, leaving the Barfield between the two. The building’s all black facade gave it strong contrast to the rest of the city, especially after the construction of its sister building. That building, Amarillo National Bank Plaza Two, joined the first a decade later in 1984. Its all-glass walls exist vastly different from Plaza One and anything else in the city, leaving it more reminiscent of the contemporary modernist buildings built in world cities. Now the two plazas stand as a sort of yin and yang, two sides of the same coin that had made them.
One would think that downtown development would only increase from here, but much the opposite occurred. Over the following decades downtown lost demand for new high density development, new population instead moving into suburban areas in the southwest of town. As poverty and crime grew in the north of town, interest in downtown continued to lower. Now downtown stays in a perpetual state of purgatory. After revitalization plans fell through in 2015, the area has had a mix of openings and abandonments. Looking to the future, it seems doubtful that SPS Tower will ever lose its throne as the tallest in the city. Still, one can only hope that someday, Amarillo will find its footing in urban environments, and downtown will once again flourish. Until then, the city still boasts an impressive, if stagnant, skyline.
