Property Record
1701 DUNLAP AVE
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | LAUERMAN BROTHERS DEPARTMENT STORE WAREHOUSE |
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| Other Name: | |
| Contributing: | |
| Reference Number: | 22781 |
| Location (Address): | 1701 DUNLAP AVE |
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| County: | Marinette |
| City: | Marinette |
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| Unincorporated Community: | |
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| Year Built: | 1920 |
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| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 19882023 |
| Historic Use: | warehouse |
| Architectural Style: | Commercial Vernacular |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Brick |
| Architect: | |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | Lauerman Brothers Department Store |
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| National Register Listing Date: | 2/24/1992 |
| State Register Listing Date: | 10/16/1998 |
| National Register Multiple Property Name: |
| Additional Information: | PART OF THE PROPOSED DOWNTOWN MARINETTE HISTORIC DISTRICT. MAY BE DEMOLISHED, TRIPARTITE 6/1 AND 12/1 WINDOWS ON STONE SILL & LINTEL COURSES BRICK PILSTERS W/ STONE CAPS AND GEOMETRIC BRICK MOTIFS, STONE CORBELLED SILL COURSE. Sign on building reads "Lauerman Brothers Company Wholesale" In its heyday, the Lauerman Brothers Department Store called itself the "Largest Small-City Store in America." Big-city services included floorwalkers to aid customers, local charge accounts, savings stamps for future discounts, and a mail-order catalog division. The business began in 1890 when twenty-two-year-old Joseph Lauerman established a small novelty shop, which eventually became Lauerman Brothers Company, with his brothers Frank and Charles as partners. The brothers established their flagship store in a three-story classical building constructed in 1904 for local lumber magnate and U.S. Senator Isaac Stephenson. Brick pilasters supporting a wide, unornamented entablature demarcate street-level window bays. Transoms of prism glass filled the store with natural light, each beveled glass tile acting as a lens, refracting the sun’s rays and broadcasting them to the store’s interior. At the second and third stories, decorative brickwork outlines vertical pairs of windows, which reach from the storefronts to the roofline, creating a sense of height. A dentil course and a wide cornice ornamented by modillions crown the building. At the rear is an 1884 Italianate block distinguished by its cast-iron components. Stylistic hallmarks include the bracketed cornice at the roof, the triangular window hoods with pronounced keystones, and the cornice above the storefronts, embellished with dentils and decorative brackets. Beyond this structure is a more utilitarian brown-brick warehouse, built around 1920. Ribbons of tripartite Chicago windows run across the main facade. These windows and a continuous, bracketed stone lintel emphasize horizontality, as does in the gabled parapet above the brick pilasters. The Alexander Company rehabilitated the building into apartments. 2023: Update photo for Marinette Main Street Commercial Historic District DOE. See AHI #22782 and 22786. |
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| Bibliographic References: | Buildings of Wisconsin manuscript. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |