Dugout to Deco: Building in West Texas, 1880-1930

This work is a 1994 Winner San Antonio Conservation Society Publications Award. It is a color photo study of the intriguing range of the architecture in West Texas. From the half-forgotten legacies of small country towns to the carefully preserved public buildings and historic homes of the cities, the architecture of West Texas tells the saga of a pioneering society and its rapid transformation. A color photo study as vast and surprising as the region itself, ""Dugout to Deco"" celebrates a heritage that proves worthy of reverence. Author Elizabeth Skidmore Sasser and her husband, Tom, traveled more than six thousand miles, took several thousand photographs, and talked to hundreds of people to capture the essence of that heritage. Sasser describes ""Dugout to Deco"" as 'a book in praise of West Texas, its people, and the buildings in which they lived, played, worked, and worshipped. It is a tribute to the nameless builders and the later architects whose vision was translated into three-dimensional structures that continue to give reality to the pioneering spirit, the indomitable will, and the sense of humor that colors almost every story told by those who were there in the beginning'.… (more)