Desenberg Building

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Desenberg Building
The Desenberg Building.jpg
Location251 E. Michigan Ave., Kalamazoo, Michigan
Coordinates 42°17′33″N85°34′51″W / 42.29250°N 85.58083°W / 42.29250; -85.58083 (Desenberg Building) Coordinates: 42°17′33″N85°34′51″W / 42.29250°N 85.58083°W / 42.29250; -85.58083 (Desenberg Building)
Arealess than one acre
Built1885 (1885)
Built byBush & Patterson
Architect Adler & Sullivan
Architectural styleChicago
Part of Haymarket Historic District (#83000860)
NRHP reference # 79001158 [1]
Added to NRHPAugust 13, 1979

The Desenberg Building is a commercial building located at 251 East Michigan Avenue in Kalamazoo, Michigan, within the Haymarket Historic District. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. [1]

Kalamazoo, Michigan City in Michigan

Kalamazoo is a city in the southwest region of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Kalamazoo County. As of the 2010 census, Kalamazoo had a population of 74,262. Kalamazoo is the major city of the Kalamazoo-Portage Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has a population of 335,340 as of 2015. Kalamazoo is equidistant from the major American cities of Chicago and Detroit, each less than 150 miles away.

Haymarket Historic District United States historic place

For other Haymarket districts see Haymarket District (disambiguation)

National Register of Historic Places Federal list of historic sites in the United States

The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance. A property listed in the National Register, or located within a National Register Historic District, may qualify for tax incentives derived from the total value of expenses incurred in preserving the property.

Contents

History

In 1885, Bernhard Desenberg planned on building a large commercial block for use as a wholesale grocery. He hired the Chicago firm of Adler & Sullivan (whose principals were Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan) to design the building. Adler & Sullivan had previously designed the 1882 Academy of Music Building in Kalamazoo (now demolished), and may have been recommended to Desenberg by Frederick Bush of the contracting firm Bush & Patterson. [2]

Chicago city and county seat of Cook County, Illinois, United States

Chicago, officially the City of Chicago, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and the third most populous city in the United States. With an estimated population of 2,705,994 (2018), it is also the most populous city in the Midwestern United States. Chicago is the county seat of Cook County, the second most populous county in the US, with portions of the northwest city limits extending into DuPage County near O'Hare Airport. Chicago is the principal city of the Chicago metropolitan area, often referred to as Chicagoland. At nearly 10 million people, the metropolitan area is the third most populous in the nation.

Adler & Sullivan was an architectural firm founded by Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan. It is known for designing the Auditorium Building in Chicago and the Wainwright Building in St Louis. In 1883 Louis Sullivan was added to Adler's architectural firm, creating the Adler & Sullivan partnership.

Dankmar Adler architect

Dankmar Adler was a German-born American architect and civil engineer. He is best known for his fifteen-year partnership with Louis Sullivan, during which they designed influential skyscrapers that boldly addressed their steel skeleton through their exterior design: the Wainwright Building in St. Louis, Missouri (1891), the Chicago Stock Exchange Building (1894), and the Guaranty Building in Buffalo, New York (1896).

Description

The Desenberg Building is a three-story rectangular commercial building with three storefront bays. The building measures approximately 58 feet by 90. The front facade is divided into three horizontal elements: the broad first-floor storefronts, the upper two stories, and the prominent sheet metal cornice running across the top. The upper floors are clad in orange brick. The windows are arranged in three groups of paired windows, with broad piers containing terra cotta bands between the groups. [2]

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References

  1. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. November 2, 2013.
  2. 1 2 Rochelle S. Elstein (March 22, 1979), National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Desenberg Building, National Park Service