Antebellum Buildings: Commercial

Antebellum Buildings: Commercial

All of the seven antebellum commercial buildings known to exist in the historic district are located on South Road Street and in the first block of Main east of Road Street. Road Street was the principal north-south thoroughfare through Elizabeth City, leading north to Norfolk and south to Edenton, until the U. S. 17 Bypass was constructed. Three of the group--Cluff-Pool Store, Farmer's Bank, and the North Carolina Building--have replacement storefronts, and are of predominantly historical interest. The Cobb Building, Wood Building, 104 South Road Street, and Pool-Kennedy-Lumsden Store retain much of their original architectural character.

The oldest surviving commercial building is the Cluff-Pool Store, 100 S. Road Street, at the Main Street intersection. Matthew Cluff's general store was located on this site by 1827, although perhaps not in this building.¹⁸ The present building had been constructed by 1845, when it was known as the "Brick Store House".¹⁹ The two-story brick structure, four bays square, has a flat roof, and no visible early nineteenth century fabric. The stuccoed walls, scored to simulate masonry block, and the tall, paired round-arched sash windows with stuccoed caps on the second story are probably the remains of an Italianate facelifting, ca. 1860, of the older store. The wooden bracketed balcony along the rear (east) side is probably a late nineteenth century addition. The molded pressed-tin cornice on the north eave and the plate glass storefronts with diagonal corner entrance and geometricized wooden Colonial Revival cornice treatment are early twentieth century additions. The store remains in commercial usage, and the interior is of twentieth century finish.

Only the pointed-arched windows with delicate wooden tracery, molded window surrounds, and coursed stucco walls of the side elevations indicate the imaginative Gothic Revival design of the 1855 Farmer's Bank (now Hill's Confectionary) 108 E. Main Street. A documentary photograph shows the original design: a trefoiled pointed arch pediment flanked by finials, and front openings like those of the side elevations. The building was constructed by local builder William W. Griffin,²⁰ and according to an 1855 description the exterior "under the cunning hand of Benjamin Richardson, exhibits an admirable counterfeit presentment of beautiful marble".²¹ In the early twentieth century, the pediment of the one-story storefront was cut down to a simple triangular shape, and a plate glass storefront replaced the original Gothic openings. The interior has also been completely renovated.

A documentary photograph shows that the North Carolina Building, 106 E. Main Street, constructed as an office building in 1859,²² was originally a Greek Revival style structure, with wide door and window surrounds and a gable end pediment. About 1880, the main façade was rebuilt in the Italianate Revival style probably for Dr. Palemon John, who published his newspaper The North Carolinian in the building, during this period.²³ The molded window caps, bracketed eave and storefront cornices and display windows with large transoms date from this change.

The Cobb Building, 111 S. Road Street, is the most significant and best-preserved antebellum commercial building in the district. The property was acquired by the Cobb family in 1798, and the building was constructed before the death of T. R. Cobb, Jr., in 1862.²⁴ The utilitarian design is typical of brick antebellum commercial buildings of the 1840s and 1850s. The L-shaped brick building, laid in one-to-five common bond, is perhaps unique in North Carolina in its combination of business quarters in the front section of the "L", abutting the street, and residential quarters in the rear section, separated from the street by a small front yard enclosed by a cast-iron fence. The low gable roof is concealed by stepped end parapets, through which the chimney stacks rise, and the flanks have brick corbel cornices. Except for the twentieth century front entrance and flanking large display windows, the six-over-six sash windows with ovolo-molded suurrounds and louvered shutters of the remainder of the building appear original. The front entrance of the residential wing is a double paneled and glazed door with sidelights. The interior was not available for inspection. Cobb was in the leather and shoe business in the 1820s,²⁵ and the building may have been constructed to house his business.

Opposite the Cobb Building, at 104 and 106-110 S. Road Street are two brick commercial buildings constructed ca. 1858.²⁶ 104, a two-story brick store laid in one-to-five bond, with six-over-six sash windows with ovolo-molded frames, is slightly older than 106-110. It housed a gunshop for most of the second half of the nineteenth century.²⁷ The structure at 106-110, believed to have been built for Sheriff John Wood,²⁸ is a three-story brick building also laid in one-to-five common bond, with a stepped front pacepet and four-over-four sash windows. Both stores have late Victorian replacement street-level storefronts.

Probably typical of many small offices and stores located in the yards of residences in the historic district is the Kennedy-Pool-Lumsden Store, on the south front corner of the residence's front yard. The store, at 206 S. Road Street, is the earliest building of this type in the district. It was probably built between ca. 1840 when the house was constructed and 1864, when it is mentioned as "the brick store occupied by C. C. Greene".²⁹ The one-story brick building, of common bond with a main façade of pressed brick veneer, has a steep gable roof with bracketed eaves and windows of nine-over-nine sash with some sandstone and some marble sills. Its late Victorian character dates from a heavy reworking after 1891--it was lowered from two-and-one-half stories, the front removed, and a new roof and gable-end windows added.³⁰