Brown Apartments (Cedar Rapids, Iowa)

Last updated
Brown Apartments
Brown Apartments.jpg
USA Iowa location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location1234 4th Ave. SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Coordinates 41°58′59.5″N91°39′15.7″W / 41.983194°N 91.654361°W / 41.983194; -91.654361 Coordinates: 41°58′59.5″N91°39′15.7″W / 41.983194°N 91.654361°W / 41.983194; -91.654361
Arealess than one acre
Built1914
ArchitectWilliam J. Brown
Architectural style Bungalow/Craftsman
NRHP reference No. 10000075 [1]
Added to NRHPMarch 17, 2010

Brown Apartments is a historic building located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, United States. Designed by local architect William J. Brown, this is an early example of an apartment suites building type and the first known English basement apartment building in the city. [2] Other innovations from the time of construction include the janitor's living quarters, a common laundry room, and tenant storage areas. The building's first owners were Arthur and Elizabeth Brown. He was an ice cream manufacturer and marketer, and it is unknown if he was related to the architect. [2] The four-story, brick structure features American Craftsman influences. The symmetrical facade consists of three projecting solarium bays between which are the entry ways into the building. Both of the entry porches has heavy wooden brackets, and each bay is capped with distinctive wood parapets that are supported by heavy timber brackets. Regionalist painter Marvin Cone lived in the building from 1920 to 1923. He dedicated two oil paintings to the Browns in lieu of rent. [2] The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010. [1]

Related Research Articles

The Albert (Detroit) United States historic place

The Albert, formerly the Griswold Building, is a former office building named after architect Albert Kahn, located at 1214 Griswold Street in Downtown Detroit, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980 and is part of the Capitol Park Historic District. In 2014, it was renovated into apartments.

Saxony Apartment Building United States historic place

The Saxony Apartment Building is a historic apartment building in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. Located along Ninth Street in the city's downtown, this five-story brick building includes a distinctive range of architectural details. Among these elements are brick pilasters and projections, a three-story bay window on each side of the symmetrical main facade, semicircular balconies, and many stone pieces, such as pediments, keystones, and stringcourses. Due to its location at the intersection of Ninth and Race Streets, the Saxony appears to have two fronts: one onto each street. Although the Ninth Street facade is larger and more complex, the Race Street facade is nevertheless ornate as well: it features small yet elaborate semicircular balconies with wrought iron railings similar to those of the Ninth Street facade.

Longmire Buildings United States historic place

The Longmire Buildings in Mount Rainier National Park comprise the park's former administrative headquarters, and are among the most prominent examples of the National Park Service Rustic style in the national park system. They comprise the Longmire Community Building of 1927, the Administration Building of 1928, and the Longmire Service Station of 1929. Together, these structures were designated National Historic Landmarks on May 28, 1987. The administration and community buildings were designed by National Park Service staff under the direction of Thomas Chalmers Vint.

Belcrest Apartments (Detroit, Michigan) United States historic place

The Belcrest Apartments is an apartment building located at 5440 Cass Avenue in Midtown Detroit, Michigan. It was built in 1926 as the Belcrest Hotel, designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1983, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. It is significant as an early example of the apartment hotel development concept in Detroit, and a major early work of architect Charles N. Agree.

Milner Arms Apartments United States historic place

The Milner Arms Apartments, originally known as the Hotel Stevenson, is a high rise building located at 40 Davenport Street in Midtown Detroit, Michigan; it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997. It is adjacent to, but not part of, the Cass-Davenport Historic District.

Cass–Davenport Historic District United States historic place

The Cass–Davenport Historic District is a historic district containing four apartment buildings in Detroit, Michigan, roughly bounded by Cass Avenue, Davenport Street, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997. The Milner Arms Apartments abuts, but is not within, the district.

Chatsworth Apartments United States historic place

The Chatsworth Apartments is an apartment building located at 630 Merrick Street in Midtown Detroit, Michigan, within the campus of Wayne State University. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

Cass Park Historic District United States historic place

The Cass Park Historic District is a historic district in Midtown Detroit, Michigan, consisting of 25 buildings along the streets of Temple, Ledyard, and 2nd, surrounding Cass Park. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005 and designated a city of Detroit historic district in 2016.

Lancaster and Waumbek Apartments United States historic place

The Lancaster and Waumbek Apartments were small apartment buildings respectively located at 227-29 and 237-39 East Palmer Avenue in Detroit, Michigan. The apartments were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997. They were demolished in November 2005.

Palmer Park Boulevard Apartments District United States historic place

The Palmer Park Boulevard Apartments District is a collection of three apartment buildings located at 1981, 2003 and 2025 West McNichols Road in Highland Park, Michigan. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.

Chateau Frontenac Apartments United States historic place

The Chateau Frontenac Apartments was an apartment building located at 10410 East Jefferson Avenue in Detroit, Michigan. It bore the name of the famous Chateau Frontenac hotel. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991, but was subsequently demolished. It was removed from the National Register in 2020.

Jefferson–Chalmers Historic Business District United States historic place

The Jefferson–Chalmers Historic Business District is a historic district located on East Jefferson Avenue between Eastlawn Street and Alter Road in Detroit, Michigan. The district is the only continuously intact commercial district remaining along East Jefferson Avenue, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.

Remmel Apartments United States historic place

Remmel Apartments and Remmel Flats are four architecturally distinguished multiunit residential buildings in Little Rock, Arkansas. Located at 1700-1710 South Spring Street and 409-411 West 17th Street, they were all designed by noted Arkansas architect Charles L. Thompson for H.L. Remmel as rental properties. The three Remmel Apartments were built in 1917 in the Craftsman style, while Remmel Flats is a Colonial Revival structure built in 1906. All four buildings are individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and are contributing elements of the Governor's Mansion Historic District.

The Emelie United States historic place

The Emelie was built in 1902 by German immigrant Frederick Schmid and named for his wife. The building was saved and restored by Browning Day Mullins Dierdorf Architects to serve as the company's corporate headquarters from 1987 to 2003. It is three stories, constructed of red brick and gray limestone. It is built in the German Renaissance Revival Architecture style. It has fine decorative detailing, totaling 35,000 square feet (3,300 m2). It has also served as an apartment building and commercial space. The law firm Kat, Korin, Cunningham moved to the building in 2004 and donated the use of several of its rooms to the Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library, which subsequently moved to its current location in January 2019. The space used for the library was the former home of the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art.

Hermitage Apartments United States historic place

Hermitage Apartments is an apartment building located at 4606 N. Hermitage Ave. in the Uptown community area of Chicago, Illinois. The common-corridor apartment building was designed by Chicago architect Jens J. Jensen in 1927. The building's design is highly irregular; it features five bays, each with a different design. The first bay from the left is faced in limestone, the second and third bays are faced in limestone on the first floor and brick on higher floors, and the fourth and fifth bays are faced entirely in brick. In addition, only the first and fourth bays are projecting, and no two bays have the same sized windows. The roof of the building exhibits the same irregularity, as it includes three dormers with different designs, a chimney, a parapet, and a cone-shaped tower topped with a weather vane. In its National Register nomination, the building's design was described as "old-fashioned" and evocative of "the Old World city from a time before the invention of railroads or factories", and looking at the building was described as like "looking at five narrow old houses".

The Blacherne apartment building in Indiana, US

The Blacherne is a historic apartment building located at Indianapolis, Indiana. It was built in 1895, and is a large seven-story, 6 bay by 15 bay, red pressed brick building on a limestone foundation. It features two circular projecting bays at the corners and a semicircular limestone Romanesque Revival style entry portal.

Casa del Rey Apartments United States historic place

The Casa del Rey Apartments are an apartment building located at 111 Oneida Road in Pontiac, Michigan. They were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.

Jackson Shore Apartments United States historic place

The Jackson Shore Apartments are a historic apartment building in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. The building was built in 1916–18, at which time Hyde Park was a popular and growing neighborhood. Architects Rapp & Rapp, who were more famous for their work on theaters, designed the Classical Revival building; the style, which conveyed dignity and luxury to apartment-seekers, was a departure from their more elaborate theater designs. The eleven-and-a-half story building's design includes towers at the front corners, detailed stonework on the first floor, a bracketed stringcourse below the top floor, and a frieze above the top floor. The interior continues the classical theming with wood paneling and egg-and-dart molding. While many luxury apartment buildings were built in Hyde Park in the early 20th century, the Jackson Shore Apartments are one of the few well-preserved surviving examples.

Buildings at 1301-1303 and 1305-1307 Judson Avenue United States historic place

The Buildings at 1301-03 and 1305-07 Judson Avenue are two identical apartment buildings at 1301-03 and 1305-07 Judson Avenue in Evanston, Illinois. Built in 1894, the buildings were among Evanston's first multi-unit apartments. Each building has four units which form a "U" shape. Architect Sidney Smith designed the buildings in the Queen Anne style, which was popular in the late nineteenth century and used in many houses in the vicinity of the apartments. The buildings each feature a brick first floor and shingled second floor, a single porch with two entrances, bay windows, and a bracketed cornice.

Colonnade Court United States historic place

Colonnade Court is a historic apartment building at the northwest corner of Main Street and Hinman Avenue in Evanston, Illinois. The four-story building was built in 1928–29. The building's first floor is used as commercial space, while the other three floors house apartments. Like many of Evanston's apartment buildings, the building has a "U" shape with a central courtyard; however, the courtyard is on the second floor to separate it from the commercial space. Architects Thielbar & Fugard designed the building to imitate an Italian Renaissance villa. The building's design includes a colonnade concealing its courtyard from the street, arched entrances, and a bracketed cornice.

References

  1. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. 1 2 3 James E. Jacobsen. "Brown Apartments". National Park Service . Retrieved 2017-11-27.