When Gulf States Utilities Company built this Travis Street substation building in 1929, a new era of progress began in Beaumont and all of southeast Texas. Additional farms, homes, and industries received access to dependable and economic electric power. In spite of the Great Depression, the company expanded to include 22 more communities. This substation provided street lighting and power for railway cars and switchboards, as well as electrical service for rice irrigation, cotton gins, gravel pit operations, and underground oil pumping to refineries.