Postbellum Buildings: Commercial

Postbellum Buildings: Commercial

The most significant postbellum commercial buildings within the district are these: Dr. Butt's Drug Store, the McMullen Building, 204-208 N. Poindexter, the Lowrey Building, former Citizens Bank, Robinson Building, Kramer Building, W. O. Saunders' Office, Weatherly Candy Factory, Selig Building and the Virginia Dare Hotel and Arcade. Constructed from ca. 1869 to 1931, these buildings have more varied architectural embellishments than the antebellum commercial buildings and are in an excellent state of preservation.

One of the most unusual commercial buildings in the district is Dr. Butt's Drug Store, 201 S. Road Street, a two-story brick building constructed between 1869 when Dr. Butt purchased the lot and 1884, when he sold it. It was described in 1885 as "Butts' old and well known stand"; therefore it was probably built soon after 1869.⁴⁴ The rectangular building, two bays wide and five bays deep, is laid in one-to-five common bond, and set with the gable end facing the street. The second floor was the Butt's residence.⁴⁵ The main facade has a side, double door entrance, a bay window with paneled dado and rich moldings on the first story and an oriel window resting on the bracketed wooden cornice between the first and second stories. The space flanking the bay window must originally have been window display area, but is now covered with flush vertical sheathing. The window sash have molded wooden caps, and wide boxed and bracketed eaves enclose the roof. Especially notable is the wooden balcony which extends the length of the south side. The intricate patterns of the brackets and basketweave railings, somewhat Eastlake in style, compose the most ornate sawnwork in the historic district. The cast-iron floral brackets which support the balcony are apparently original, but the metal posts appear to be mid-twentieth Century reinforcements. The two-story brick rear wing is a ca. 1885 addition. The interior has been almost completely gutted.

The McMullen Building, 117 N. Water Street, is the only metal-front commercial building remaining in Elizabeth City, and one of the few left in the state. The first two stories of the building, three bays wide and seven bays deep, were built ca. 1887, with the third story, the five-bay rear addition, and the Italianate Revival style metal front added before 1908.⁴⁶ The street level storefront has a recessed entrance and large display windows with paneled wooden dados, cast-iron pilasters with the "Mesker Bros." trademark and lintel; the upper facade has pressed tin paired Corinthian colonnettes and ornate entablatures. The unusually well-preserved interior contains the original Eastlake style wooden display shelves and a wooden bracketed ceiling cornice.

Around the turn of the century, the retail business center began to shift from the docks and Road Street to Main Street. A large number of the commercial buildings constructed during this period still stand, although most of the street-level storefronts have been modernized. Less ornate than the McMullen Building, the two-story brick, twelve bay wide building at 204-208 N. Poindexter Street, built ca. 1896,⁴⁷ is typical of the oldest stores in the present commercial center. The modest Italianate Revival style structure is now one large store, although it contains three entrances and may originally have been partitioned into three stores. The street-level storefronts have been altered, but the handsome, well-preserved upper facade is covered with pressed brick veneer, and has bracketed window caps and a pressed tin bracket cornice with decorative metal end blocks.

One of the most prominent commercial landmarks in the district is the Lowrey Building, now Chesson's Department Store, 514-516 E. Main Street, built ca. 1897. The large brick commercial block, three stories high and twelve bays wide, originally contained Mitchell's Bee Hive, a retail emporium, on the first floor, and offices, a dance studio and the “Academy of Music” on the upper floors. The street-level storefront has been altered, but the well-preserved upper main facade, of Italianate design, contains round-arched window panels extending through the second and third stories and a bracket cornice with center and corner parapets. The third floor “Academy of Music” is among the few well-preserved vaudeville theatres remaining in North Carolina. Although the stage floor is gone, the segmental-arched wood and plaster proscenium is still in place, with flanking fluted Doric colonnettes, spandrels and entablature decorated with Adamesque style motifs in brightly painted and gilded plaster, and a plaster bust of a Greek male head in three-quarter relief in the center of the entablature. The theatre auditorium has a rear balcony and a wooden coffered ceiling. The theatre was used for a variety of activities including travelling shows and lectures, graduation exercises, and civic meetings.⁴⁹

The former Citizens Bank Building, 200 S. Poindexter, built ca. 1899,⁵⁰ is the most architecturally significant commercial building in the historic district. The two-story brick corner building is Chateauesquein style, with pressed brick wall veneer, trim and string courses of deeper red rubbed brick, a stained glass entrance fanlight, and a deep hip roof, of slate, with cast-iron cresting and tall chimney stacks. The most outstanding architectural feature is the oriel window set above the diagonal corner entrance, supported on a vigorous foliated sandstone bracket with the inscription “Citizens Bank” on the base. The tall pointed spire which originally surmounted the oriel has been removed. The building now houses a clothing shop and has been completely remodelled on the interior.

By 1903, when the Robinson Building, 106-116 S. Poindexter Street, was erected,⁵¹ the Neo-Classical Revival style had triumphed in commercial architecture in the district. Tne three-story brick twelve-bay-wide building, another of the large commercial blocks in the district, has six stores on the street level, and offices and meeting rooms upstairs. Several of the original street-level storefronts are well-preserved, each with a center recessed entrance, large flanking display windows with wood paneled dado and wood-parted transoms surmounting door and windows. The prominent center bay entrance to the upper floors is a stone classical doorway with a segmental pediment on foliate brackets. The inscription “Robinson” and a monogrammed cartouche are located in the lintel and tympanum. The upper facade of pressed red brick, contrasts with the tan brick pilasters and quoins. A center dated frontispiece and corner pediments accent the maim facade eave.

The Kramer Building, 500-512 E. Main Street, built in 1909 in the Neo-Classical Revival style,⁵² occupies the west half of the block in which the Lowrey Building is located, forming a distinguished commercial streetscape. The three-story brick thirteen-bay-wide building has replacement street-level storefronts, but the upper main facade is unaltered. The classical design features quoins, voussoir window lintels on the second story, voussoir arches on the third story, and a wooden modillion cornice and parapet bearing the name “Kramer”.

The Selig Building, 511 E. Main Street, built ca. 1925,⁵³ is basically Neo-Classical Revival in style, although the brightly-colored yellow and blue glazed terra-cotta tile which form the classical trim of the upper facade---the quoins, pilaster and lintel window frames, and corbel course--are derived from the Art Deco style popular during the 1920s and 1930s. The street-level storefront of the unaltered two-story building has two arched entrances with classical wooden trim, and marble dados beneath the display windows.

The last of the Neo-Classical Revival style commercial buildings, and the most prominent commercial landmark in Elizabeth City is the Virginia Dare Hotel and Arcade, 507-509 E. Hain Street, built in 1927.⁵⁴ The lavishly-appointed complex, said to have been designed by Raleigh architect John Beamon,⁵⁵ contains a nine-story hotel in the center of the block, with a two-story lobby and office wing with a ballroom and roof promenade extending north to Main Street, and one-story wings containing small stores and a garage occupying the remaining block east and south. Beige brick veneer covers the walls, and the main facades, on Main and McMorrine streets, are distinguished by terra cotta veneer, bands of windows in brass frames, and marble dados. The Main Street facade is further elaborated by a classical parapet with a central cartouche containing carved symbols of Virginia Dare (the child born on nearby Roanoke Island, the first English baby born in the American colonies). The interiors of the complex are practically unaltered. The storefronts within the arcade, with marble, brass and terra cotta tile finish, are especially notable. The Virginia Dare Hotel and Arcade is now vacant and for sale.

Two utilitarian commercial buildings in the district have architectural significance: the office and print shop of The Independent, and Weatherly's Candy Factory. The Independent building, 110 E. Colonial Avenue, was constructed ca. 1923 for W. 0. Saunders, the controversial editor of this famous weekly.⁵⁶ It is believed that Milton C. Savins, local builder, designed the building, which consists of a front two-story brick office section and rear one-story printing wing. The front block has a two-story porch engaged beneath the main hip roof. The first story is arcaded, with stuccoed keystones, and the second story is supported by wooden Doric columns enclosed by an iron balustrade. The utilitarian brick rear wing has large metal casement windows and a flat roof.

Weatherly's Candy Factory, 225 N. Water Street, built ca. 1923, is the only industrial building in the district still in industrial use. The company was founded about 1890 hy W. H. Weatherly, and occupied two other buildings prior to the construction of the present plant, which is still in operation. About fifty employees worked for the factory in its heyday when this plant was constructed.⁵⁸ The large, three-story brick building, of utilitarian design, contrasts strikingly with the surrounding late nineteenth and early twentieth century commercial buildings with decorated fronts. Industrial features which came into general use in the second quarter of the twentieth century--steel frame, large bands of metal casement windows, and absence of any stylistic references--are previewed in this building.