Delicate Jacobean decoration in sharp relief against the smooth limestone facade reveals the $160,000 investment of local telephone pioneer John Y. Rust. The smooth-faced coursed ashlar limestone rises from a base course of polished gray granite. Four ground-floor windows are set deep in Gothic-arched moldings, and the central entrance has similar moldings. The five second-floor windows feature tympanums with foliated relief patterns and are capped by engaged urn-shaped finials.
The first floor interior now holds switching equipment instead of the original reception area and bill-paying hall, but its octagonal columns and urn-and-foliage decorated ceiling panels are largely intact, as is the granite floor. Dallas architects Lang and Witchell designed the existing two floors to support an additional four stories that were never constructed.