| |
| | The
1916 Federal Post Office Building
Photo by John Troesser, 5-03 |
The
now vacant Federal Building / Post Office in Port
Arthur remains a formidable building. Built to impress, it's massive weight
must've lowered downtown Port Arthur another foot toward sea level when it was
built around the turn of the (20th) century.
When Port Arthur streets
were flooded during the hurricane that struck the upper gulf coast of Texas in
1915 - the building suddenly became more than just a place to buy stamps or mail
postcards. It became salvation.
Several hundred people (most of them
without an invitation) took shelter in the all-night facility - two of them being
Mr. Wright and his pregnant wife. The falling of barometric pressure during a
hurricane often hastens labor and that was the case here. Mrs. Wright gave birth
inside the Port Arthur Federal Building - uncomfortable, but dry.
Evidently
the delivery was without benefit of a physician - or else the boy might've been
named after the doctor. As it was, the parents were so grateful that they named
the boy after the building - giving him the official name of Federal Building
Wright.
No one seems to know anything about the life after birth of Federal
Building Wright. It is said that he went by the abbreviated F. B. Wright during
his adult life.
We will never know his accomplishments, his dreams or
ambitions - assuming he had some. His mark on the world seems to be simply his
name - and the story that we're still telling over one hundred years after his
birth. | | |
