W. S. Brown Mercantile Building

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The W. S. Brown Mercantile Building is a three-story, 30,000 square foot commercial building on Block 102 at 2223-2225 2nd Avenue North. It was constructed for William Brown's W. S. Brown Mercantile Company in 1905.

The building is designed in a Beaux-Arts influenced commercial-style. It is constructed of brick with stone lintels and sills tying together the wide double-hung windows. The intermediate cornice and roof cornice, along with their supporting brackets and Roman vents, are of cast iron.

By 1928 the 50-foot building was divided in half, with the Lowry Furniture Company at 2223 and the N. W. Smith Furniture Company at 2225.

Later both halves were recombined, along with another building at 2227 2nd Avenue North, by Harold's Furniture, which had been incorporated in 1969 by Harold Lischkoff.

The building is a contributing structure to the Downtown Birmingham Historic District, listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

Architect Louis Nequette purchased the building from Lischkoff in 2016 for $945,000 and subsequently announced plans to convert the ground floor into two leasable retail spaces, and divide the upper two floors into twelve loft residences. He also added a fourth floor with a terrace setback to house the offices of his Nequette Architecture & Design. When the building reopened in 2017 it was renamed "The Thomas" in honor of Nequette's father.

Tenants

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