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Downtown deco and nouveau
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Published: November 16, 2009
Downtown Statesville is like an outdoor museum of building styles built since 1854, the year of the Great Fire. Only Mitchell College was spared as it was being built.
They encompass all major architectural styles. Some are single-story, most two-story and a few are three-story structures. They were built for specific occupancy, but all have changed ownership and use many times. In most cases the fronts of these buildings have remained much as they were built and a few are being renovated to their original appearance.
Here is a quick review of the styles to be referenced:
-Art Nouveau: A style mostly in Europe that used vines and their curves as a major decorative element similar to Curvilinear Gothic.
-Art Deco: Took inspiration from streamlined transportation and geometric forms with little Classical appearance except in Monumental Deco.
-Modern or Moderne: Rejected all Classical forms and decoration and was an outgrowth of Deco.
-International School: Practiced at the Bauhaus School in Germany and was very severe with no added decoration.
There are several buildings on both sides of East Center Street that are usually overlooked. The fifth building (109) on the left side of East Broad counting from the Square has Art Nouveau wrought iron decoration in front of a glass block panel. On each side of the first floor there are cast iron pilasters with a cast iron cornice. The second-story front has segmental arches over flat windows which place it before 1900.
This is the only bit of Art Nouveau that I have found in downtown Statesville. An oval opening in the wrought iron probably held the firm name. The sixth building (111) I am going to call small-town Art Deco. The cast stone cornice has two short steps up on each side with a shallow segmental arch between them. Under the first steps are two peculiar arrow-like cast stone decorations. Between them is a rectangular cast stone panel set into the red brick face. A wide cast stone square two-story frame contains a glass block panel. Under that is a brick panel supported by another cast stone lintel. It appears to have enclosed a sign, possibly neon. Below this is an opening for glass show windows and recessed entrance. It is a very handsome building, very symmetrical with pleasing proportions among its many elements.
The seventh building (113 and 115) is a completely different one-story building with a blank white cast stone panel above the ground floor show windows. Parks Realty is still in 113 and Woodward's Jewelry Store occupied 115. I am reasonably sure both stores in it had large black signs on what is now a blank space. No brick shows on the outside front. It is a plain but very pleasing contrast to the surrounding two-story brick buildings.
On the other side of Broad Street to the east of Cooper Street is another restrained brick Art Deco with decorative terra-cotta strips having geometric designs embossed into the tiles. Beside this building are two stucco Art Deco buildings in a more modernistic design. The sole decoration seems to be two diamond geometric decorations.
The building on South Center Street just north of the Old Holmes Drug building, once the Singer Building, has a colored brick decoration under the cornice. This is probably Art Deco.
This ends Art Deco downtown.
With the leaves still on trees most of these buildings are hard to see but it is worth a walk on the sidewalks to see the details on these attractive buildings. When the leaves fall down the whole fronts will be on view.
On the other side of the alley going north from East Broad is the Georgian style Associated Reformed Presbyterian (ARP) Church of red brick with white wood trim. This style used to be called Colonial. It has an impressive Corinthian Order portico with tall Corinthian columns holding this wood pediment. Rising high above this is a multi-element Wren-style steeple. This edifice replaced the Gothic Akron-plan church that was demolished in the 1950s to build this church.
The old First Baptist Church on the corner of East Broad and Tradd streets was also razed for commercial property when the present stone Neo-Gothic church was built on Davie Avenue.
The only Akron plan church left downtown is the Broad Street United Methodist Church opposite Mitchell College. I should explain that the Akron-plan has an entrance tower on the front corner of a square building. The pulpit was diagonally opposite this entry with a choir loft on one side and usually an annex room on the other divided from the auditorium by doors, often roll-up. The pews were arranged in a semi-circle around the pulpit with two aisles.
This arrangement was very popular with Victorian Gothic churches and, at one time, all the downtown and other churches were of this style. The first Presbyterian Church was the first to change when, around 1925, the old building was torn down to build the Present temple-form Neo-Roman church with a stone portico held up by stone Tucson columns.
There are three additional buildings downtown that I would like to draw your attention to: 112, 114 (west of the Frame Gallery) and 124 (east of Sub Express) West Broad St. These buildings were built earlier and were remodeled into sort of a Post Art Deco style. The remodeled style was called Modern or Moderne. All have tall solid fronts over recessed glass entrances. The structure at 112 appears to be covered in marble slabs and 114 is glazed tile with two large black rosettes near the top. The building at 124 has light green ceramic tile which rolls under to the entry front.
On South Center Street north of the Old City Hall are two buildings which could be called International Style. The low building with a green slate front over a diagonal glass entrance was built for J. C. Penney. The column is covered in stainless steel. The tall building north of it is covered in cream glazed terra-cotta tiles, the Stimpson-Wagner Building, once had Spainhour's on the first two floors.
Another building at 146 East Broad St., Kimbrell's, is very restrained International Style. On the first block of South Center Street are two buildings of red brick with cream glazed terra-cotta decorations. North of these buildings are two older structures recently covered with painted metal panels. It was built before 1900; old postcards show that they were once red brick.
For me, all downtown buildings are important and their varied styles and heights keep it from looking like a shopping center. I have been walking through and observing downtown since 1938 when I started Davie Avenue School.
I miss the buildings of all styles that have burned or been torn down. I am grateful for what remains.
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