Constructed in the 1930s, The industrial building known today as the J. Earle Bowden Building has passed through many hands over the years. Local business owner John M. Pfeiffer sold the lot to E. J. Moore in 1946.who opened the Builder’s Arcade at the location.

Many businesses worked out of the Bowden Building, including the, St. Regis Paper Company, Moore Building Bonded Distribution and Storage, Mayes Printing Company, and Hemmer & Yates Ad Agency. By the early 1990s, the building transferred to the Historic Pensacola Preservation Board and for nine months, the Hemmer & Yates Ad Agency and the Historic Pensacola Preservation Board shared the office space upstairs.

The Historic Pensacola Preservation Board, now the University of West Florida Historic Trust, dedicated the building to J. Earle Bowden, a historian and leader at Historic Pensacola Inc. Among other contributions, Bowden is remembered drawing cartoons that helped lead to the preservation of the the area now within the Gulf Islands National Seashore..” Located at 120 Church Street, the Bowden Building currently holds the administrative offices of the UWF Historic Trust. Upstairs, the education staff, event coordinators, and preservationists coordinate the best care for all historic properties owned by the UWF Historic Trust.

Credits and Sources:

Bob Dugan, “A Brief Biographical Essay of J. Earle Bowden,” Accessed April 14, 2015, http://archives.uwf.edu/Bowden/images/a/a9/Biographical_Essay.pdf.

State of Florida Department of State. Florida Master Site File Site Inventory Form: Mayes Printing Company(Pensacola, FL, 1982).

Photographs courtesy of University of West Florida Historic Trust