GORDON—Fort Worth-based PRIM Construction and Holiday Auto Group officials recently broke ground on a new Ford dealership set to open in Gordon by April 2025.
The 26,000-square-foot facility will house 17 service bays and feature a ranch-inspired ambiance with a fireplace and deep leather chairs. It’s designed as a “destination for car and truck buyers,” a PRIM news release said.
The exterior sales building will be constructed entirely of brick, paying homage to the area’s history in brickmaking. In 1897, shale deposits found in Thurber were ideal for the production of high-quality bricks, according to Tarleton State University libraries. Thurber is about six miles southeast of Gordon.
The Thurber Brick Plant was established and able to produce around 80,000 bricks daily in thirty-five different varieties, TSU reports. It became one of the premier brickmaking companies nationwide and covered five acres of land immediately east of New York Hill.
Thurber bricks paved hundreds of miles of Texas highways and streets in the 1920s. Examples include the Bankhead Highway, U.S. Highway 80 west of Mineral Wells to Breckenridge, Austin’s Congress Avenue, Fort Worth’s Camp Bowie Boulevard and around the Stockyards in Fort Worth.
Additionally, the Galveston Sea Wall and the streets of small towns in Texas, like Breckenridge, Stamford, Albany and Muenster, made good use of the bricks. The plant closed in 1931, according to TSU.
Mayor Roger Keck said Gordon welcomes the business and appreciates the contractor’s willingness to preserve the area’s rich history.
“We are very pleased that Holiday Auto Group will be extending and expanding the long history of Gordon’s ‘Ford House’ as an employer and valued part of our community with the new location on I-20 and Highway 108,” Keck noted.
The mayor said the building was originally the Eaton & Blewett General Store from the 1880s. A Ford franchise was established there in 1910.
Nephew “Slick” Jones took over when times were tough during the Great Depression around 1930, Keck added.
John Stowe and Boyd Haney joined Jones from 1964 to 1973. Stowe, and later his sons, owned and ran Stowe Ford until Holiday acquired the dealership in 2020.
Keck said new jobs are an additional perk to the new business.
“Holiday Auto Group has been a like-minded partner seeing the potential here in Gordon with our natural beauty and accessibility, while maintaining a small-town personality,” he said. “Employment options that allow families to remain here and thrive or attract new residents are a top priority for the City of Gordon.”
PRIM cofounder Trent Prim is enthusiastic about the facility as well.
“Projects like this one are what gets our team excited to go to work every day,” said Prim. “The detail, the brick, the interior design, the history, everything about it puts a smile on our faces.”
PRIM Construction was founded in 2007 by Beth and Trent Prim. A multiple U.S. Green Building Council LEED Awards winner, PRIM is certified as a Women’s Business Enterprise and a state of Texas HUB contractor.
The company builds everything from mid-rise office buildings to auto dealerships and interior finish-out (everything inside the building that’s not part of the structure).
Holiday Auto Group is located in Whitesboro.
“We look forward to growing Holiday Gordon Ford into a flagship location in a beautiful new facility built by PRIM,” said Matt Johnson, Holiday Auto Group owner. “We are proud of the legacy our dealership holds as one of the oldest Ford dealerships in the nation, and we look forward to continuing our service to the rural Texas community.”
PRIM Construction and Holiday Auto Group opted not to disclose the cost of the project.
