page_title: Fifth Street Historic District
section_title: Automobile-oriented Buildings
hierarchical_section_title: Fifth Street Historic District / Narrative Description / Automobile-oriented Buildings
caption_attribution_description: English: Pyramid Motors, Fifth Street Historic District, Lynchburg, Virginia, United States, 2011 [Fifth_Street_Historic_District]
context_page_description: Fifth Street Historic District is a national historic district located at Lynchburg, Virginia. The district encompasses 57 contributing buildings and 1 contributing object in a historically African-American section of Lynchburg. It includes a variety of residential, commercial, and institutional buildings, with about half dating to the period spanning from 1875 to 1940. Located in the district are the separately listed Kentucky Hotel, the Western Hotel, the William Phaup House, and the Pyramid Motors building. Other notable buildings include the Augustine Leftwich House, tobacco factories, the Humbles Building, M.R. Scott Meat Market, Miller Tire and Battery Company, Adams Motor Company building, Hoskins Pontiac, Burnett Tire Company, Moser Furniture Company building, Fifth Street Baptist Church, Community Funeral Home, and Tal-Fred Apartments.
  It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.
context_section_description: One of the first automobile-oriented buildings in the district was built in 1927 for the Miller Tire and Battery Company (118-5317) at 400 Fifth Street. The original portion (first floor) of the building is constructed of hard-fired rusticated brick. The most unusual feature of the building was a diagonal porte-cochere on its north corner that allowed drivers to stop at the building, visit the business office, and perhaps check their tire pressure without being exposed to the elements. This pass-through was supported on its extreme northern corner by a single brick pillar. In the 1940s, the porte-cochere was infilled, and a second story was added to the building.
  The Adams Motor Company building at 811 Fifth Street (118-5318-0034) was also built in 1927 and spans half of the block; it has one of the largest footprints of any building in the district. Originally constructed to house showrooms for three separate car retailers, the Flemish bond brick façade is divided into three sections, each containing three large storefront windows (except for the central bay of the right-hand section, which contains a garage door). The façade is dominated by large arched glazed fanlights with tracery (now covered with a dryvit-like material), which top each of the nine windows or garage doors. The district's second mammoth automobile showroom, Pyramid Motors (118-5237), was built in 1937 and is located at 407 Federal Street. The one-story Art Deco-style building features a yellow brick façade with contrasting red brick details. A semi-circular entry tower of corbelled yellow brick dominates the center of the façade and rises above the building's flat roof.
  The district also features two smaller, later automobile or auto parts retail buildings. Built in 1951 for Hoskins Pontiac, the building at 1018 Fifth Street (118-5318-0050) features a polygonal façade that is dominated by an angular metal canopy, yellow brick laid in a running bond, and polished aluminum doorframes. A service area along the Polk Street elevation is fenestrated by a short row of steel hopper windows topped by large vertical panels of thick green corrugated glass. The Burnett Tire Company building at 403 Fifth Street (118-5318-0004) was likely designed by the Lynchburg architectural firm of Cress & Johnson (Carl Cress and Stanhope S. Johnson) in 1956, and features a striking angular glass storefront that conveys a modern sense of upward movement and speed.
  Several early to mid-20th century service stations are also located along Fifth Street, the most notable being the eclectic Spanish Revival-style filling station at 1100 Fifth Street (118-5318-0051) at Fifth Street's key intersection with Monroe Street and Park Avenue. Built in 1927, the building follows the box-and-canopy form. Identical to the station at 1201 Rivermont Avenue (118-0334-0112), the building features a gable-front porte-cochere covered with green terra cotta tiles. A pair of globe light fixtures tops the porte-cochere's two end supporting columns.
caption: Pyramid Motors
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