Graves Building

From Bhamwiki
Revision as of 16:08, 31 December 2010 by Dystopos (talk | contribs)
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This article is about the 1912 commercial building, for other similarly-named buildings, see Graves Building (disambiguation).

Graves Building is a four-story commercial building at 1816-20 3rd Avenue North, across from the Alabama Theatre. It was constructed in 1912 by W. S. Graves who had founded the Graves Shale Brick Company in 1901. The four-bay building spans 100 feet. It was designed by Harry Wheelock and composed of brick with subtle terra-cotta ornamentation.

In 1930 the building housed Dailey's Clothes and Duke Brothers Furniture on the left, with Kilgore Furniture on the right. The Cable Piano Company later took over on the right.

In 1961 a major remodeling and modernization of the left side of the building was undertaken by the Vaughan-Weil department store and Engel Realty. Vaughan-Weil, long occupying the former Duke Brother's space, expanded into the former Dailey's Clothes slot at that time. Architect Greer Holmquist designed the renovations, which were executed by the Mann Brothers Building Co..

By 1970 the Vaughan-Weil store occupied the left half of the building's lower floors while Lawrence Furniture occupied the right side, as well as a "third floor annex" which extended westward over adjoining stores. A major fire broke out in this annex on December 17, 1970, causing about $1 million in damages, mainly from lost stock.

By 1977 Mr King Furniture had taken over the Graves Building. The left-side ground floor space was the home of The Playhouse costume and prop shop until 2009. The right side most recently housed Lichter's Furniture and Jewelry. Both are now vacant.

References

External links

Retrieved from "http://bhamwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Graves_Building&oldid=70492"