Zapp Building

Records indicate a store at this location as early as 1865. The property originally belonged to Phillip J. Shaver, who laid out the town of Fayetteville and sold this corner to Andrew Crier. W.H. and Elizabeth Donathan sold the shop to Zapp. The mercantile operation Zapp operated in the building sold yard goods, shoes and clothing which were displayed in the upper gallery. The site served many functions with hotel rooms, an undertakers parlor and a dentist's office housed upstairs while the cool basement was used to store milk brought by local farmers awaiting shipment by train to a creamery.[3]

In addition to his mercantile business, Hugo Zapp speculated in land and was involved in the commercial activity of the town. He died in 1912 and Hugo Zapp Jr. continued operating the mercantile business and rental space in the building. Tenants have included a hospital, a school, a boarding house and during Prohibition a speakeasy in the basement. As of 1983 the building was in continued commercial operation with an architects office, an antique store and a restaurant on the first floor. The upstairs is operated as an inn.[3]

One of five masonry buildings facing the town square it is the only one with traditional masonry construction.[3][4] It is not known if the builders Stidham and Kurtz had plans prepared by an architect or designed the building themselves. It is a fine and well preserved example of Romanesque Revival style architecture. It is a rectangular two story red and yellow brick building on the eastern corner of Fayette and Washington streets with the entry at 45 degrees opening directly onto the street corner at the sidewalk.[3]

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Fayette County, Texas
• List of Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks (Eastland-Gray)

Media related to Zapp Building at Wikimedia Commons