| Additional Information: | WINDOWS SEPERATED BY NARROW TWISTED AND PLAIN TERRA COTTA COLUMNS. DECORATIVE TERRA COTTA PANELS ABOVE EACH 2ND FLR WINDOW. COMPLETELY ALTERED 1ST FLR FRONT.
3-9 South Brown Street Edward A. Forbes Building
This two-story structural clay tile building is veneered with glazed yellow brick and trimmed with glazed terra cotta. It is a Mediterranean Revival-influenced commercial building, featuring terra cotta pilasters, belt course and cornice, and a rectangular terra cotta panel with classical ornament above each second-story window. The entrance to the second-floor spaces is on West Davenport Street and features a terra cotta cornice with a swan's neck pediment. The name, "Forbes" appears on the cornice above this entrance. The canopy that runs around this building and across the front of 15-21 South Brown Street probably was built when the current tenant, DeByle's, expanded into the building next door, circa 1985. This building was erected for Edward A. Forbes, in 1929 (photos of building under construction dated October 14, 1929, Rhinelander Public Library). The building was designed by Al Fleck, of Selmer Contractors, Green Bay (New North, January 30, 1930, "Forbes Block Stages Opening Saturday Night."). The first tenants in the building included DeByle's clothing (which now occupies the entire building and the one at 15 South Brown Street), Isaakson's women's clothing, and Newberry's five-and-dime. Edward A. Forbes, then living in Minneapolis, installed an electric light plant in Rhinelander for the Casper Faust Electric Light Company in 1889. Forbes and Chester A. Wixson purchased Faust's concern in 1897, re-named the Rhinelander Lighting Company, and owned and managed it together from 1898 until 1916. In 1916, Forbes bought out Wixson, merged the Rhinelander Lighting Company with the Rhinelander Power Company, and named the new company the Rhinelander Light and Power Company (Oneida County: 1887-1987, p. 27; History of Lincoln, Oneida and Vilas Counties, pp. 118-19). Forbes and Wixson also owned and developed real estate together, notably on Dahl Street. This enterprise appears to have ended around 1911 (City of Rhinelander tax rolls; chain of title for 316 Dahl Street). Forbes continued as an officer in the Rhinelander Light and Power Company until at least 1924 (Rhinelander City Directories, Wisconsin State Gazetteers). The Forbes Building is a fine local example of a twentieth century commercial vernacular building and shows the influence of the Mediterranean
Revival style. |
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