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Description (2.4.1)

Commercial Buildings (2.4.1.2)

Elizabeth City's commercial buildings, because of their prominent downtown locations and their roles in displaying the success of owners and occupants, usually were erected in the prevailing styles. Local commercial structures survive from as early as 1819 and reflect the Italianate, Greek Revival, Gothic Revival, Victorian Italianate, Chateauesque, Colonial Revival, Mission, Art Deco, and International styles.

The old mercantile district, near the corner of Road and Main streets, contains one of the state's largest and most stylistically diverse collections of antebellum commercial buildings. The oldest of these, the two-story Cluff-Pool Store (100 South Road Street, ca. 1819), was remodeled ca. 1858 in the fashionable Italianate style with the addition of scored stucco walls, round-arched second-story windows, and a cornice over the first story transoms accented by robust corbels. A later metal cornice on its East Main Street elevation and a rear double-tier porch updated the building with Victorian elements. The adjacent three-story Wood Building (110 South Road Street, ca. 1872) and the nearby two-story Cobb House and Store (111 Road Street, 1840s) both display reserved elements of the Greek Revival style and stepped parapets. The most stylish member of this group is the diminutive but flamboyant Gothic Revival style Farmer's Bank Building (108 East Main Street, 1855). The focus of the stuccoed building is the robust tripartite Gothic arched parapet, crowned by a bold cornice and flanked by small square finials. This use of the Gothic Revival style is unique among surviving antebellum commercial buildings in North Carolina.

The increasing importance of the other commercial district near the intersection of Main and Water streets during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries resulted in the construction there of new commercial buildings in the eclectic Victorian, Neo-Classical Revival, and Colonial Revival styles. Although the most impressive structures were generally built on Main Street, stylish buildings were also erected on Water, Poindexter, McMorrine, and Fearing streets.

The Victorian buildings are the most varied group. The most visually commanding is the Lowry-Chesson Building (514 East Main Street, 1897), a three-story brick Victorian Italianate structure having attenuated window compositions crowned by round arches; a meal cornice and stepped parapet crown the structure. More modest and numerous are two-story multiple-storefront buildings to which the chief architectural character is supplied by the repetition of arched second-story windows beneath a bracketed wood cornice. This form is typified by the Robinson Rental Building (212-216 North Poindexter Street, 1896-1902), consisting of three, four-bay storefronts. The McMullan Building (117 North Water Street, 1885-1908) is a narrow three-story building with a robust pressed metal storefront (Mesker Brothers, St. Louis, Mo.) that combines Victorian and Neo-Classical Revival motifs such as engaged columns with Composite capitals on rosette-incised pedestals. A heavy cornice embossed with foliated brackets, fanlights, and dentils crowns the structure. Unlike most similar buildings in North Carolina, the McMullan Building is inact on both exterior and interior, the latter containing elaborate Eastlake style cabinets crowned with spindlework hoods.

The city's twentieth century commercial buildings followed the prevailing revival styles. Beginning this revival interest is the Citizen's Bank (200 South Poindexter Street, 1899), a rare example of a modestly scaled two-story commercial building erected in the Chateauesque style. The superbly detailed building has a steep roof crowned with metal cresting, prominent chimneys, and arched windows. Its corner turret, with "candle-snuffer" roof, was removed before 1931. The most popular of the revival styles was the Colonial Revival, as exemplified by the Kramer Building (500-512 East Main Street, 1909), a large and impressively scaled three-story brick structure crowned by a handsome classical cornice; the arched windows in the third story echo those on the adjacent Lowry-Chesson Building. The Selig Building (513 East Main Street, 1926), designed by the Norfolk architectural firm of Rudolf, Cooke, and Van Llewen, is an unusual example of the Colonial Revival style due to its veneer of buff brick and white tiles and decoration of classical motifs rendered in polyehrome tiles. The Auto Fountain (615 East Main Street) was erected in 1935 by the Colonial Oil Company of Norfolk. With skintled brick walls and a steep roof of blue tiles, it is a handsome example of the Tudor Revival style that was popular for filling sations nationwide. The Mission style was chosen for the F. H. Ziegler and Sons Funeral Home (304 South Road Street, 1923-1931), a two-story brick structure with twin two-story projecting porches and shaped parapet; the distinctive tile roof was replaced with asphalt shingles in 1991. There were also a small number of commercial buildings erected during the 1920s and 1930s in modern styles. The Norfolk Southern Bus Station (201 South Peindexter Street, 1939) exhibits modest elements of the International Style in a small One-story brick structure. The corbeled cornice bands, glass block transoms; and curved awning and corner steps mark this as a notable example of a style which was not frequently employed in small North Carolina cities. The Love's State/Carolina Theatre and Stores (105-11 North Poindexter Street, ca. 1945) exemplifies the continuation of the Art Deco style after World War II. Its handsome façade has vertical bands of cast concrete enframing panels of glass blocks, and a pattern of wavy terrazzo bands in the floor of the recessed entrance. The simple but effective Art Deco interior remains virtually intact.

Commercial buildings away from downtown are smaller in size and simpler in form and finish. particularly in traditional black neighborhoods. Only a few, such as the Rex Cleaners Building (700 Herrington Road, I932) and the Anna-Lu Florist Shop (523 South Hughes Boulevard, ca. 1931), are brick. Both are simple one-story structures with most of the architectural interest supplied by recessed cornice panels and modest stepped parapets; the latter building is further decorated with blond brick accents. The Sundry Shop (511 South Road Street, 1881-1908) is a traditional two-story gable front frame structure with Imercial space downstairs and living quarters for the proprietor above. The squat proportions of its six-six windows and the returns of the boxed cornices suggest retarditaire Greek Revival influence. The two-story gable-front Sykes-Wilson Grocery (318 Culpepper Street, ca. 1910) also has living quarters upstairs, with decorative Victorian porches on the front second story and sides. The store at 702 South Road Street (ca. 1908, enlarged in 1930s) is a typical example with recessed central entrance and large flanking display windows with transoms.