White-Branch-Shelton Hat Company Building

An eight-story concrete-frame loft at the northwest corner of Washington Avenue and 16th Street, six bays wide on Washington and seven deep on 16th, its brick now painted white. The two-story base is capped by a frieze of linked roundels between egg-and-dart moldings, centered on a small shield. Above, broad piers frame bands of three windows. The recessed spandrels each carry a roundel enclosing a four-pointed diamond, and ornate terra-cotta cartouches cap the piers at the top floor. The original cornice is gone, replaced by a plain dark band, and a neon champagne bottle for the Windows on Washington event venue now hangs from the facade. The plain back elevation, facing the alley toward Lucas Avenue, has gained balconies in its residential conversion.

Built in 1909 for the White-Branch-Shelton Hat Company, an eight-story fireproof loft at the corner of 16th Street that cost about $158,000. Albert B. Groves designed it, Murch Bros. Construction Company built it, and the Mortgage Guarantee Company financed the deal. It replaced a row of flats and small workshops. Later tenants included the Marquette Cloak and Suit Company in the 1920s and the Business Products Center through the 1990s, when aluminum siding covered the facades. A remodel stripped the siding, though the cornice was already lost, and the ground floor became part of the Windows on Washington event complex.