The Fort Worth Live stock Exchange was constructed in 1902-03 to replace an 1885 exchange building east of the Swift plant. With the stock market for trading of livestock, the barns and pens for holding the livestock, and the meatpacking plant aligned on E. Exchange Avenue, the new location produced an orderly, centralized arrangement of functions in the stockyards district. Details regarding construction are vague. The Fort Worth Stock Yards Co. was responsible for having the building erected to house their offices as well as those of a number of livestock commission companies. Though the architect remains unknown, William Bryce’s contracting firm is thought to have constructed the building. The Mission Revival style building contains two stories in its U-plan. Construction is of brick with a roughcast stucco exterior below a Mission-tiled roof. A gabled-roofed, one-story arcade screens the central hipped mass between two hipped wings to create two inner courtyards. Octagonal cupolas and Missionesque parapets give variation to the roofline. An early example of the Mission Revival style, this important structure was made a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1968. Renovated in 1977-78, the Exchange lies within the Fort Worth Stockyard Historic District.
