Depot Square on foot: the littlest skyscraper and downtown Wichita Falls

Downtown Wichita Falls is small enough to walk in an afternoon, and most of what makes it interesting sits within a few blocks of the old railroad depot. This is a route through it, built from the city's history and from the addresses in our own listings. Nothing here is a review of any business.

Seventh and Ohio, 1876

Start at the corner of Seventh Street and Ohio Avenue. On September 27, 1876, the day the city was named, town lots were sold here, and local histories call the corner the birthplace of Wichita Falls. The first permanent resident arrived three years later, in 1879.

The change came with the railroad. The Fort Worth and Denver City Railway reached town in September 1882, the same year Wichita Falls became the seat of Wichita County, and the city grew west from the depot, which stood at the northwest corner of Seventh Street and the tracks. That area is now the Depot Square Historic District, a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark.

The littlest skyscraper

Walk to Seventh and La Salle. The Newby-McMahon Building at 701 La Salle is a red brick and cast stone tower, finished in 1919, that stands 40 feet tall on a footprint 18 feet deep and 10 feet wide. Inside, each floor is roughly 12 feet by 9, and the narrow stairs take up about a quarter of that.

It went up during the oil boom. A large field was found just west of Burkburnett in 1912, and by 1918 an estimated 20,000 newcomers had moved in around it. Wichita Falls, as the county seat, became the place where deals were done, and there was so little office space that stock and mineral rights trades happened on street corners and in tents.

The story that comes with the building is that a man named J.D. McMahon raised money for a high-rise annex to the older Newby Building next door and then built this instead, with the plans giving the height as 480 inches rather than 480 feet. Treat that as local legend, which is how it is usually told. What is on the record: in the 1920s Robert Ripley's "Believe It or Not!" column called it the world's littlest skyscraper, and the name stuck. It was boarded up in 1929, gutted by fire in 1931, and later housed barber shops and cafes. The city gave it to the Wichita County Heritage Society in 1986.

The Museum of North Texas History

A short walk away, the Museum of North Texas History at 720 Indiana Avenue covers the region's past with a military collection, a room of western hats known as "Nat's Hats," a doll and toy collection and old medical equipment. The same museum runs an exhibit at the regional airport, "Jenny to Jets," that goes from a Jenny biplane to a T-38 jet trainer of the kind flown at Sheppard Air Force Base.

The railroad museum

The Wichita Falls Railroad Museum, listed with us at 500 Ninth Street, has been back in Depot Square since 1992, on the site of the old Union Station. Its collection includes Fort Worth and Denver steam locomotive No. 304, built in 1906, and a 1947 Katy diesel switcher, No. 1029, along with passenger cars, troop sleepers and cabooses.

It has had a rough few years. The museum closed in 2020, its future was unsettled through 2022, and the city council granted the museum board one-year leases in 2023 and 2024. Its volunteers have been restoring equipment toward a full reopening. Check its current days before you plan around it.

Up the bluff: the Kell House

Downtown's early money came largely from two men, Joseph A. Kemp and his brother-in-law Frank Kell, who worked in food processing and retail, flour milling, railroads, cattle, banking and oil. Lake Kemp, the reservoir upriver in Baylor County, is named for Joseph Kemp.

Kell's house is a few blocks away at 900 Bluff Street, on the bluff above downtown and just east of the Central Freeway. It was built from 1908 to 1910, and members of the family lived there until 1980. The Wichita County Heritage Society bought it and opened it as a museum in 1981, with the family's own furniture, textiles and clothing. Tours are guided. Look for the spiral staircase just inside the door.

The five-story Kemp-Kell Building from about 1910, one of the city's first office buildings of that height, still stands downtown as the Holt Hotel.

Galleries and studios

Downtown holds most of the art spaces in our Museums and Galleries listings: several on Indiana Avenue and Ninth Street, the Wichita Falls Art Association on Eighth Street, and the Kemp Center for the Arts, home of the Arts Council, on Lamar Street. A STEAM studio and makerspace sits on Indiana Avenue as well.

The After Hours ArtWalk is the night downtown fills up. When its longtime organizer stepped away in early 2026, the city and a local production group, Potencia Projects, put together a new way to run it in about 45 days. The first ArtWalk under that arrangement, in April 2026, drew about 5,800 people and 156 vendors, according to the city. Each one now has its own theme.

City Hall and the Memorial Auditorium

City Hall occupies the ground floor of the Memorial Auditorium, built in 1927. The building has been under renovation, and in January 2026 the city said its offices were beginning to move back in.

How downtown changed

For many years downtown was where the city shopped. That shifted as shopping centers opened elsewhere, starting with Parker Square in 1953 and ending with Sikes Senter mall in 1974. The city has been looking for money to rebuild and restore downtown since 2010.

Before you go

Summer afternoons are hot on bare sidewalks, and July highs at the airport average 97 degrees. A morning walk is easier. Museum days and hours change, so call ahead; we do not carry hours for any listing.

Using our listings

Our Museums and Galleries and Things to Do pages list the places named above with their addresses, and our Restaurants, Coffee Shops and Bars pages show what sits near Depot Square.