Historic Bob Simpson Building in Downtown Fort Worth Readying for New Purpose
December 29,2023
See full Fort Worth Magazine article by FWTX Staff here.
The Bob R. Simpson Building, an 11-story office tower at West Seventh and Houston streets downtown, will be converted into a Residence Inn extended stay hotel, according to documents filed last week with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.
The $33 million conversion of the 120,000-square foot building will begin in March and be completed a year later, according to estimates.
The architect of record is Bennett Partners.
The property will be part of a cluster of hotels, including the Kimpton Harper Hotel, which opened in 2021, and the newly-opened Sandman Signature Hotel in the Waggoner Building, all of the properties formerly owned by XTO Energy. XTO sold to Mobil Exxon in 2010.
William Miller Sons and Co. of Pittsburgh built the original structure for the First National Bank of Fort Worth in 1910, according to architect John Roberts, who has documented the buildings of downtown on his website, www.fortwortharchitecture.com.
Sanguinet & Staats designed the original 11-story building, one of the city’s early skyscrapers, the first steel construction in Fort Worth, according to reporting. It featured a colonnade entrance on Houston Street. The building is a classical Beaux Arts design.
In 1926, the bank took over property on the north that had housed Phillips’ Egypt Movie Theater. The bank doubled its size by adding 50 more feet to the Houston Street frontage.
Architect Wyatt C. Hedrick designed the addition. Harry B. Friedman was the contractor on the expansion, according to Roberts.
When the First National Bank moved its base of operations to 500 W. Seventh St. in 1961, the property was sold to Edward L. Baker, who renamed it the Baker Building.
That was the same site, coincidentally, that Baker’s father and uncle used for the family nursery business in the late 1800s.
Baker called the site in the mid-1960s “the best office location in Fort Worth.”
Baker and his partners completed the northeast corner, adding eight floors. The building was stripped to its original steel framework and reconstructed in modern design. The architect on the redesign, which included removing the entire base of the building and installing pre-cast concrete panels, was Hueppelsheuser & White of Fort Worth. Butcher & Sweeney served as the contractor.
The first street floor tenant of the Baker Building was Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner, and Smith.
XTO, founded in 1986, bought the tower in 2003. The company named it after its CEO and one of its co-founders, Bob Simpson, after restoration to the building’s original intent — as closely as possible — in 2005.
Exxon Mobil acquired XTO in 2010, fully moving all of its workforce and operations out in 2017.
Simpson and Ray Davis bought Major League Baseball’s Texas Rangers in 2010.
Since that time, the Rangers have won three American League pennants and this year won the franchise’s first World Series.
Location Mentioned: The Kimpton Harper Hotel