Walk through downtown El Paso, look up at the skyline, and you’ll see them! The towering works of Henry C. Trost, architect, innovator, and perhaps something more. To many, Trost is simply the man who shaped the city’s look, from Art Deco gems to Prairie School classics. But to those who whisper about the city’s hidden history, Trost is the master of secrets, a man who may have embedded mysteries and symbols into his architecture that few have truly deciphered.
Take the O.T. Bassett Tower, for example. On its exterior, dozens of faces, geometric patterns, and intricate reliefs stare down at passersby. Some claim the portrait above the main entrance is Trost himself, watching over his creation. Others suggest these carvings contain cryptic messages or hidden Masonic symbolism, secret codes meant only for those who know what to look for. And it doesn’t stop at the façade. Rumors of hidden rooms behind false walls, even swimming pool chambers tucked out of sight, suggest Trost loved to hide things in plain view. Could these concealed spaces correspond with symbolic layouts? Some dare to imagine a secret geometric language woven through the very bones of his buildings.
Trost & Trost did design for Masonic clients, and members of the Trost family were Freemasons. But whether Henry C. Trost himself was a Mason remains a mystery. That uncertainty only adds fuel to the fire. Was he a secret member, leaving clues in stone and concrete? Or merely an imaginative architect playing with the vocabulary of the era, whose work naturally overlaps with symbolic imagery?
Every eagle, every carved sunburst, every repeating pattern across downtown El Paso could be read as decoration or as an enigmatic message. The more you study Trost buildings, the more the city seems to come alive with whispers of a hidden story. Perhaps it’s a game he left for future generations, a puzzle in concrete and steel, waiting for someone bold enough to decode it. Interestingly enough, it’s always important to note that his son, Charles Bassett, is the one who built the tower but it was one of Henry Trost’s last commissions so it was still designed by Henry himself…