On the evening of May 11, 1970, an F5 tornado dropped out of the sky over southwest Lubbock and carved a path of destruction directly through the heart of downtown.
It was one and a half miles wide when it tore through the central business district. It killed 26 people, injured more than 1,500, and caused an estimated $250 million in damage, making it the costliest tornado in American history at the time. An estimated 80 percent of all plate glass windows in downtown Lubbock were shattered. More than 250 businesses were damaged or destroyed. Entire blocks were reduced to rubble and twisted steel.
And at 1109 13th Street, a three year old furniture store called Watson Furniture took the hit. But the building itself did not come down.
A City Changed Forever
To understand what the 1970 tornado meant for downtown Lubbock, you have to understand what downtown Lubbock was before it hit.
In 1970, the downtown core was still the commercial center of the city. Banks, department stores, furniture showrooms, and professional offices lined the blocks around Broadway and 13th Street. The 20 story Great Plains Life Building (now Metro Tower) dominated the skyline. The streets were alive with foot traffic, and the buildings that filled them were built from brick, stone, and steel in the 1920s and 1930s, when Lubbock was booming and builders constructed things to last.
The tornado changed all of that in minutes. The damage was so extensive that Dr. Ted Fujita himself traveled to Lubbock to conduct what researchers later described as the most detailed tornado damage survey ever completed at that time. His work on the Lubbock tornado directly contributed to the creation of the Fujita Scale, the system still used today (in its enhanced form) to rate tornado intensity. The National Wind Institute at Texas Tech University was also founded as a direct result of studying this storm.
But the tornado did not just reshape the science of severe weather. It reshaped the city. In the years that followed, businesses migrated south and west. Downtown emptied out. Buildings that had survived the storm itself could not survive the economic exodus that came after it. One by one, the storefronts went dark.
Twenty Two Years of Silence
The Watson Building was one of them.
After Watson Furniture closed in the wake of the tornado, the building at 1109 13th Street sat vacant. For more than two decades, it collected dust and decay while downtown Lubbock slowly hollowed out around it.
That is a long time for any building to sit empty, let alone one that had already been standing since 1927. The structure was originally built by Norton Baker as the home of Baker Furniture. By 1928, Montgomery Ward had leased the space and turned it into one of Lubbock’s first department stores. When Ward moved to Broadway, Groce Furniture operated out of the building through the Depression years. The Watson family took over in the 1940s and ran their furniture business there for nearly three decades.
So by the time the tornado struck in 1970, the building had already lived several lives. It had seen Lubbock grow from a young West Texas town into a real city. It had weathered the Great Depression. And then it survived a direct encounter with one of the most violent tornadoes ever recorded in the United States.
But surviving a tornado is not the same as thriving after one. The building sat. The years passed. And it seemed entirely possible that 1109 13th Street would quietly crumble into the same fate as so many other downtown structures.
A Second Life
In 1992, new owners purchased the building and began what would become a painstaking, decades long restoration.
The work was not a quick renovation. It was a genuine act of preservation. The original 1920s hardwood floors were refinished rather than replaced. The decorative wall trim from the building’s earliest days was carefully maintained. The wrought iron railings on the staircases and balconies, the same railings that had been there when Montgomery Ward opened its doors in 1928, were restored and kept in place.
At the same time, modern updates were added thoughtfully. A new bar was installed. Upscale restrooms were built. A bridal suite with a professional hair and makeup bar was created. A full industrial kitchen was outfitted with commercial refrigerators, a warming oven, and stainless steel prep surfaces. New custom drapes and a grand entryway gave the space the kind of polish that makes it feel special the moment you walk in.
The result is something rare. The Watson Building is not a reproduction of a historic space. It is the real thing, carefully brought back to life. The floors you walk on are the same floors that Montgomery Ward customers walked on in 1928. The iron railings you grip on the staircase are the same ones that were there when the tornado roared past outside.
Why This Story Matters
There is a reason people feel something when they step inside The Watson Building for the first time. It is the same feeling you get in any space with genuine history. It cannot be faked with reclaimed wood accents and Edison bulbs. It comes from the weight of real time, real events, and real survival.
When couples celebrate their wedding on the main floor, they are standing in a room that has been a department store, a furniture showroom, and a gathering place for Lubbock families across four different decades of commerce. When a family hosts a quinceañera under the balconies, those balconies have been looking down on celebrations since before the Great Depression.
And when the lights come up and the music starts and 300 people fill the room, the building is doing exactly what it was meant to do: bring people together. The tornado could not stop that. Two decades of vacancy could not stop that. Nearly a century of West Texas weather, economic shifts, and changing tastes could not stop that.
The building refused to fall. And it is still standing, still beautiful, and still open for the next celebration.
The Centennial Is Coming
In 2027, The Watson Building will turn 100 years old. A full century of Lubbock history, from the Roaring Twenties through the Depression, through World War II, through the tornado that reshaped the city, through two decades of quiet, and into a thriving third act as one of the most beloved event venues in West Texas.
If you have never been inside, now is the time. Tours are available by appointment. You can contact the team to schedule a visit and see the space for yourself. Browse the gallery to get a preview, or explore the full timeline on the Our Story page.
Some buildings are just buildings. This one has a story. And it is still being written.