Kress Building, Moderne architecture building in Fort Worth, Texas.

The Kress Building is a five-story Classical Moderne Art Deco structure in downtown Fort Worth, designed by New York architect Edward F. Sibbert. Its upper windows carry stylized Mayan caps, and inside, an Italian marble floor and a suspended second-story ceiling create a pillar-less ground floor.

The building was constructed in 1936 during the Great Depression as a commercial space for the S.H. Kress Company, which operated it as a five-and-dime store until 1960. This construction timing shows how the company remained active in establishing retail locations even as the economy struggled.

Above the upper windows, architect Edward F. Sibbert placed stylized Mayan caps, a Meso-American accent then popular in Fort Worth's Art Deco buildings. Sibbert's design echoed the Kress flagship store in New York while adapting it to local taste. The store's suspended second-story ceiling left the ground floor free of pillars.

The upper floors became loft housing after renovations finished in 2006, and the building was sold as part of a bankruptcy settlement before its 2007 listing. The street-level space has held bars and clubs, including the Fox and Hound sports bar from 2001. The facade and Mayan-style window caps are visible from the sidewalk on Houston Street.

During the 2005 loft conversion, a contractor sealed an incinerator shaft and trapped thousands of Mexican free-tailed bats between the walls. Local papers called it the "Kress Mess"; 1,800 bats died, hundreds flooded the Hyena Comedy Club and Fox and Hound restaurant, and volunteers released survivors at Mineral Wells.