Farmers Cooperative Building

Farmers Cooperative Building. . , "Ancient Greeks celebrated the grape harvest with Bacchus and some Texas cities still celebrate King Cotton, but in Grapevine we celebrate the harvest season with one of the biggest cantaloupe festivals in the World...150 growers are expected to bring in $250,000 of cantaloupes and tomatoes are expected to bring in even more"., - Mayor B. R. Wall, May 24, 1939 , From 1844 to 1970, Grapevine truck farmers grew tomatoes, cantaloupes, watermelons, squash and cucumbers and Grape Vine prairie farmers grew cotton, wheat, oats, milo and peanuts. Locally-grown produce was sold here and taken by truck to markets as far away as Oklahoma City and Joplin, Missouri. , From 1935 to 1941 Grapevine held cantaloupe festivals on Main Street to celebrate the area's plentiful cantaloupe crop. Grapevine became known as the "Cantaloupe Center of the U.S.A.” Today, we have many festivals in Grapevine. GrapeFest®, held in September, honors Grapevine's agricultural heritage. , Grape Vine Prairie farmers could never have dreamed of the changes that would happen here and that all their fertile In the 1940s, the Grapevine Dam and Reservoir built by the U.S. Army Corps of farmland would have other uses. Engineers took 2,334 acres of Grapevine's rich farmland inside the city limits to provide drinking water for the growing city of Dallas. Many farmers moved from the north side to the south side of town so they could keep farming. Then, in the early 1970s, the development of the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport took 7,872 acres of Grapevine's farmland inside the city limits. This ended Grapevine's agricultural-based economy. Twice, Grapevine was called upon to give up its farmland for the greater good of Texas. , Today, if you look closely you might see the spirit of Grapevine Farmers in bakers, chefs, restaurants, wine pourers, farmers market vendors, feed store purveyors and other agricultural merchants. You can see many farm tools displayed in the Grapevine Historical Museum located on the west side of this building and farming exhibits at historic Nash Farm. , The base of this building features granite and "iron spot” brick which blends color from purple to black. The building has metal store front windows with a sign band and a recessed vestibule with leaded glass transoms. The running band of brick features a diagonal pattern and supports a cast stone sill. The second floor features two sections. To the left, the projecting cast stone pediment tops the wall area containing five wood windows with stained glass gabled transoms separated by a cast stone band. Above the windows and under the pediment is a band of grapevine bas relief of cast stone., To the right, the circular turret features the running band pattern brick base with the cast stone sill. Tall, narrow wood windows are topped with cast stone arched transoms separated by the cast stone band. The cast stone bas relief grapevine continues around the turret which is topped with a conical standing seam metal roof. , A standing seam metal hip roof tops the Farmers Cooperative Building. On the north side of this building, the brick portion of the wall features a cast stone cap and the wall is segmented by four rows of soldier coursing iron spot brick. The metal portion of the façade is galvanized corrugated siding placed in a vertical pattern with a galvanized metal cornice. , This building honors the Grape Vine truck and prairie farmers who sacrificed their land and way of life for the greater good of North Texas. . This historical marker was erected in 2012. It is in Grapevine in Tarrant County Texas