The Popular store and its owner, Adolph Schwartz, refused to sell arms to any faction of the Revolution, but he did provide them with other merchandise. At one point both the rebels and the federales were in the store simultaneously shopping for their respective troops. While the revolution depressed many sectors of the El Paso economy, it boosted business for El Paso merchants. Adolph Schwartz began by supporting Porfirio
Díaz, but ended up becoming a supporter of Francisco Madero. In 1912, Adolph Schwartzvoted against a proposal sent to President Taft by El Paso merchants calling for U.S. intervention in Juárez after the Orozquista uprising there. The Popular building also served as a hiding place for the much-hated General Juan Navarro. Navarro hid in the basement of the Popular when Villa and Orozco called for his court martial after his surrender at the Battle of Juárez. Orozco wanted Navarro tried for having bayoneted unarmed rebel prisoners to death. The Madero rebels felt all the more aggrieved by Navarro’s actions since they themselves had consistently spared the lives of federal prisoners. Madero refused to hand
over the federal general to Villa and Orozco’s troops. Instead Madero helped Navarro escape into El Paso where his disappearance became a major mystery for the press. On May 14, 1911, the New York Times finally reported that Navarro was hiding in the cellar of the Popular Dry Goods Company, “a large department store in El Paso, where he is guarded by United States
Secret Service Agents.” Despite the protection of the secret service agents, Navarro was immediately whisked away when a group of Popular employees, most of them sympathetic to the rebels, began to jeer and taunt the General. In 1907, when Adolph Schwartz moved The
Popular into the building, the first three floors were the meeting place for Masonic Lodge #130. In 1916, Adolph Schwartz bought the Masonic Building and constructed an additional three floors.
Henry Trost was the architect.