From boarded up to built out: rebuilding 268 Pearl

Every building downtown has a past. Ours had a faded white facade, boarded-up windows and a sign for Index Tabs Express. This is how 268 Pearl Street became The Forge, mostly in photos we took along the way.

Where it started

A vintage postcard of streetcars and people at a downtown intersection, titled The Busiest Corner in Beaumont, Tex. — An old postcard of downtown Beaumont: “The Busiest Corner in Beaumont, Tex.”

A black-and-white photo of a downtown Beaumont street lined with shops, old cars and streetcar wires — Downtown Beaumont in the streetcar days. This is the neighborhood we chose to build in.

Downtown Beaumont has seen busier days. By the time we came along, a lot of Pearl Street was waiting for someone to bet on it again.

An old photo print of 268 Pearl Street with a faded white facade, boarded windows and an Index Tabs Express sign — How it started: 268 Pearl Street in an old print, with a faded facade and boarded-up windows.

The brick storefront of 268 Pearl Street from across the street, with boarded windows on the ground floor — 268 Pearl Street from across the street, before the work began.

Inside, each floor was one long brick room.

A long empty floor with bare brick walls, a concrete floor and light from the front windows — The first walk-through: one long, empty brick room.

An upstairs floor with the ceiling opened up to the joists, old windows and debris on the floor — Another floor, with the ceiling already opened up to the joists.

Sketch it, then model it

Before any walls went up, Ed drew the new front by hand. Then he built the whole building in 3D, on his phone, in a 3D app, to see how the space would work.

A hand-drawn ink sketch of the building front with AmeriCommerce lettering, flags on the roof and the words New Front of Building — Ed's hand sketch for the new front, back when the building was becoming AmeriCommerce's office.

A 3D computer model of the building, 30 feet wide and 100 feet deep, with big blue glass windows and AmeriCommerce on the front — The 3D model Ed built on his phone: 30 feet wide and 100 feet deep.

Taking it down to the brick

A crew member standing in a gutted room full of old flooring, tools and debris — Demolition: everything that wasn't brick or beam came out.

Two workers stripping old plaster and paneling off a brick wall — Stripping the walls back to the original brick.

Building it back up

A bare brick floor mid-renovation, with the first rooms framed in wood, beams on the floor and work lights overhead — Framing the first rooms inside the old brick shell.

Ed Sturrock in a respirator, safety glasses and coveralls, holding a paint sprayer up by the ceiling joists — Ed on the scaffolding with a paint sprayer during the renovation.

A floating wooden staircase going up to a new steel-railed mezzanine against the brick wall — The staircase and mezzanine going in.

Scaffolding across the front of the building on Pearl Street — Scaffolding out front while the front was redone.

Open for business

The finished 268 Pearl Street front: a dark facade with tall windows and a glass door — The new front on Pearl Street.

Ed Sturrock in a face mask holding up the certificate of occupancy — Certificate of occupancy in hand.

The finished first floor: lounge chairs, an air hockey table, the staircase and the long brick room under a warm chandelier — The finished first floor. Same brick, new life.

It first served as AmeriCommerce’s office. Today it’s The Forge, a coworking space and venture studio where founders from across the Golden Triangle come to build. Read why we put a venture studio downtown, or come see the building for yourself.

Book a free tour

From boarded up to built out: rebuilding 268 Pearl.

Where it started

Sketch it, then model it

Taking it down to the brick

Building it back up

Open for business

Holiday parties at The Forge

A brick for the builder: Ed Sturrock's 40 Under 40 Legacy Award

Murder at the speakeasy: our Christmas murder mystery

Book a free tour

You’re booked in.