W.T. Grant Building
The W.T. Grant Building is located at 302 Pine Street in historic downtown Abilene. The building was built in 1925 by the W. T. Grant Co. 25 Cent Stores which at one time operated more than 1,200 five and dime stores around the nation. William Thomas Grant formed the William T. Grant Foundation in the 1930's which has a short description of the Grant Stores history.
West Texas Utilities (WTU) utilized the building as its corporate headquarters for many years after WT Grant closed the local store. WTU modernized the building by replacing windows on the second and third floors and building a concrete phasod on the front and back of the building. Many WTU patrons remember entering the Pine Street WTU entrance and paying their electricity bill at a large counter spanning across most of the first floor. The folded staircaseup to the mezzanine in the middle behind the counter was a prominent feature as well as cubicles lining the walls. The folded staricase still exists. At one time more than 300 WTU personnel worked in the building, many sharing over 200 cubicles constructed in every nook and cranny of the building.
Electricity deregulation caused WTU to abondon the building and donate it to the City of Abilene in the late 1990's. The Downtown Corporation of Abilene took control ofthe building in 2002 in order to renovate it for Texas Tech University Center for Exellence in Engineering Graduate Studies and Research. Rick Wetheral and Associates Archictecture supervised historic restorations including removing the concrete phasod from the front of the building and restoring the awnings making the building appear much as it did during the 1930's. WTU donated more than $175,000 worth of cubicles to the Center for Exellence by leaving them in the building. The cubicles are currently occupied by many of the graduate Computer Science students conducting research in the building.
Texas Tech Computer Science - Abilene, 302 Pine Street, Abilene, Texas 79601
325.677.1112