California, San Bernardino County, Trona
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Austin Hall, the much loved focal point of the Trona community, once stood on this site. Built in 1912 the unique structure, with its one-foot thick concrete walls, boasted 45 arches on three sides, the building provided a cooling shelter from the blazing heat with its patio center and oleander trees. Early employees were housed and fed in its spacious rooms and eventually all the town’s businesses were housed here. The patio became an open-air theatre with adjoining pool hall, a barber shop, post office, library, grocery and department store and a telegraph office with a switchboard for the single phone line into Trona.
The building was named for Stafford W. Austin, the court appointed receiver for the troubled California Trona Company. Austin guided the company through its evolution from the John Searles owned San Bernardino Borax Mining Company to the eventually successful American Potash and Chemical Corporation. The building was removed in 1965.
(Agriculture • Entertainment • Industry & Commerce • Settlements & Settlers) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
Austin Hall, the much loved focal point of the Trona community, once stood on this site. Built in 1912 the unique structure, with its one-foot thick concrete walls, boasted 45 arches on three sides, the building provided a cooling shelter from the blazing heat with its patio center and oleander trees. Early employees were housed and fed in its spacious rooms and eventually all the town’s businesses were housed here. The patio became an open-air theatre with adjoining pool hall, a barber shop, post office, library, grocery and department store and a telegraph office with a switchboard for the single phone line into Trona.
The building was named for Stafford W. Austin, the court appointed receiver for the troubled California Trona Company. Austin guided the company through its evolution from the John Searles owned San Bernardino Borax Mining Company to the eventually successful American Potash and Chemical Corporation. The building was removed in 1965.
(Agriculture • Entertainment • Industry & Commerce • Settlements & Settlers) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
