The Santa Fe Building is one of the oldest structures in downtown Amarillo. It took the Brennan Construction Company two years of work and 1.5 million dollars to finish it in 1930. It was a serious piece of heavy lifting for its time, reaching a height of 57 metres.
While it looks like a standard piece of history now, it used to be the regional headquarters for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. From this specific spot on South Polk Street, railroad officials supervised more than 5,800 miles of track.
The building eventually hit a slump, sitting vacant for more than a decade during the 1990s. Potter County decided to intervene in 1995, purchasing the property for 426,000 dollars. They didn't just do a quick coat of paint - they spent about 14.1 million dollars to renovate the place.
It reopened in 2000. Now it serves as office space, having survived both the transition from rail dominance to the modern era and a very expensive renovation.
Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons
Written by Kyle McLonely
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