Property Record
723-735 S MAIN ST
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | Amity Leather Products Company Factory |
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| Other Name: | Amity Apartments (2008) |
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| Reference Number: | 14713 |
| Location (Address): | 723-735 S MAIN ST |
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| County: | Washington |
| City: | West Bend |
| Township/Village: | |
| Unincorporated Community: | |
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| Year Built: | 1924 |
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| Additions: | 1933 1929 |
| Survey Date: | 1987 |
| Historic Use: | industrial bldg/manufacturing facility |
| Architectural Style: | Art Deco |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Brick |
| Architect: | FRED DOLKE (1929 ADD); Lockwood Greene |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | Amity Leather Products Company Factory |
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| National Register Listing Date: | 7/11/2002 |
| State Register Listing Date: | 1/18/2002 |
| National Register Multiple Property Name: |
| Additional Information: | A 'site file' exists for this property. It contains additional information such as correspondence, newspaper clippings, or historical information. It is a public record and may be viewed in person at the Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Historic Preservation. Another map code for this building is WT 19/10, found on the DOT map. This three story factory building displays elements of the modernist style. The structure features an irregular shaped plan configuration, a brick foundation, a brick exterior, a metal trim and a flat roof. Distinguishing the facade is an impressive seven story tower, which tastefully hides the sprinkler system. The tower was commissioned in 1929. Brick pilasters, many of which are tapered, all of which are capped, and some of which form buttresses, adorn each side of this tower. The rest of the building is comprised of a three story main structure flanked by two story wings. Brick pilasters separate the first story windows, and geometric designs embellish the area just beneath the cornice line all along the building. This structure is in fair condition. The building’s walls are really expanses of glass, framed in brick and crossed with steel muntins. Each window combines awning and center-pivoting sashes for ventilation. Large banks of windows typified industrial architecture of the 1920s through the 1940s. Workers needed natural light to supplement incandescent lighting; generous windows--absent in older factories--also reflected the concerns of Progressive-era reformers, who argued that workers’ health and workplace sanitation demanded plenty of natural light and fresh air. Amity Leather Products, founded in 1915 by Robert H. Rolfs, is one of the world's largest manufacturers of personal leather accessories. The Amity Leather Products Company specialized in billfolds and handbags. It first prospered, however, when it landed a contract to make leather vests for the armed forces during World War I. By 1924, the company had grown sufficiently to build this up-to-date factory, whose Moderne lines became even more apparent with the completion of the tower in 1929. Dolke, of Chicago, created a geometric composition that steps flat-roofed brown-brick rectangles to dramatize the tower’s verticality. Stepped cantons, buttresses, and pilasters ascend to the tower’s full height. But whereas the tower seems to soar, the building’s broad wings anchor the structure to the ground. |
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| Bibliographic References: | ZIMMERMANN, RUSSELL "THE HERITAGE GUIDEBOOK" (HERITAGE BANKS 1976). West Bend Daily News 3/9/2002. Buildings of Wisconsin manuscript. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |