Daily globe., 1881-05-06
.HBLBY STREET BLOCK.
UNSURPASSED BY ANY BUSINESS
BUILDING IN THE US.
Outline Description of the Sibley Street
Block to be Erected This Season by Hon.
e. r. Drake, for Messrs. Auerbach, Finch,
Van slyke s. Co.-The Architects, Super
intendent and Contractors. 8r rr.1s

j
intendent and Contractors. 1910
Within few days On Silbey, Fourth
and Fifth streets, where the excavators have
been at work all through the winters. some
Afty stone masons will be employed in laying
the foundations for the splendid building
which Col E. F. Drake is to erect for the oc-
cupancy of Auerbach, Finch, Van Slyke & Co.
This building, planned by w. w. Boyington Of
Chicago, (the architect of the First Baptist
Church building of this city, in the opinion
Of competent persons who have examined the
drawings and specifications, will be. with re-
ference to it's use as wholesale dry goods
house one of the best it will be one of the most
beautiful buildings in the United States. It
will be five story building, having front
age on Sibley street of 2SS feet and 6s feet
frontage on Fourth and on Fifth streets It's
height will be from the water table
to the top of the cornice 100 feet;
from the sidewalk to the tops OF the seven
gables 1875 feet; and its extreme height, from
the sidewalk to the top of the clock tower,
at the center of the Sibley stree. front, will be
$50 feet. The floor space will be about 17,100
square feet each in the basement and first
story, and about II, $50 square feet each in the
second, third, fourth and fifth stories, or
total floor space of about 10S $3.50 square feet.
The basement will be in height 10 feet clear;
the first story, Is feet; second, Is feet; third
and fourth each 10h feet, and the fifth 13 feet
under the main roof and 16 feet under the
gables and towers. The storage capacity OF
the basement floor will be considerably added
to by the walls of the building resting on piers
and the space between them opening into the
area under the sidewalk, protected on the
streetsid by heavy retaining walls.
The foundations and the piers, rising to the
water table, will be of selected st. Paul stone
The water table and all cut stone trimmings
bond stones, belt cOrnice, window sils and caps,
brackets for reveals, corbels, etc. will be OF
Kasota stone. The Fourth street corner, "a
feet on Fourth street by "a feet on Sibley, will
be all stone to the top Of the fourth story. An
iron Intel Gaping the first story piers will
extend all along the three fronts. The walls
will be faced with st. Louis pressed brick,
with occasional ornamentation in black brick
and terra Gotta panels. The cornices will be
of brick and galvanized iron.
There will be five gables on Sibley sire et,
with dOrmer windows and French roofs be-
tween,) the second and fourth of which gables
are fronted with massive-lined towers
which rest on stone piers, starting
from top of the first story, and which
towers enclose. the principal yentllatlng
carries q clock tower which rises IS feet
above the roof. The lines of this tower
spring from the top of the third story, where
three large brackets, projecting IL inches,
support the base of three-quarter round COL
umns, resting on which are brackets support
ing the fourth story caps and mouldings of
the bases of the fifth story. The columns
will be enriched with carved capitals, and
columns and capitals will be of polished gran
| ite, probably from the Sioux Fails quarries.
The Fourth street front, carrying two
gables, corresponds generally with the Sibley
street 'front.' but is distinguished by mosaic
of inlaid stone of different colors, between the
| fifth story Sills and the fourth story capitals
| The Fifth street front will be simpler, it's de-
tails being about limited to the general lines
and ornaments of the building. This front
carries one gable, having in place of the
second, which would correspond with the
Fourth street front, smoke-stack of tower
| like proportions and lines.
The main entrance will be at the corner of
Fourth and Sibley streets, through an open
space of thirteen feet on each street, by five
iron steps from each street to platform,
from which four circular steps will lead to
the landing and doorway. The rises of the
steps will be of glass. The floor and columns
dOOtC Will UC otppOllCQ Ny lulcC bQudIC COL
umns or piers OF dressed granite. Over this
entrance way will be a second open space,
thirteen feet on each street, rallied in, with
tiled floor, entered frOm the second story
through full-length windows; and at the cor
| ner, for support of the upper stories,will be
round granite column, resting on solid stone
and crowned with a rich capital.
A fire proof vault in the basement is ealcu-
lated for the storage of bulky valuables. Its
1lc a1ytnn md fn hn fret
above the first floor will be separated into
two vaults, one above the other. TEis will be
at the rear near Fourth street, it being intend
ed to have the offices on the first floor at the
Fourth street end of the building.
At about the center of the rear of the
building will be the passenger elevator, near
which, from the first floor, will start the
grand stairway extending from floor to floor,
to the top of the building. The service eleva-
street end near the rear corner. The service
stairway and the two elevators will each be
encased in brick, from foundation to
roof, with no wood work about then.
All the floors of the building are level, ex-
cept that the lower floor is raised four feet for
a space Of twenty-four feet at the Fifth street
end, to bring that par: of the floor, where
goods are TO be received and shipped, Oh a
level with the Fifth street sidewalk. Here
driveway enters on this space next to the
service elevator with its exit near the front
corner. The elevator will be SO arranged that
goods may be taken in or given out at the
sidewalk and driveway, as well as in the in
terror of the building.
Throughout the building will be as strong
as the combined art of architects and builders
can make it. The large floors will be sustained
by iron columns, in two lines from Fourth
to Fifth street, each lower column
standing on a heavy stone pier, and con-
tinued by iron caps, girders and bases, without
Intervention of other material, to the TOP of
the building. The iron work of the building
will all be from the st. Paul foundry, and, be-
ing now partly completed, is pronounced by
practical mechanics and builders to be very
fine work-equal to any builders iron work
they have seen.
AS a whole Mr.. Boynton, the architect, ap-
pears to have aimed at making the building Sc
cure and durable, without appearance of heav-
iness, and to have sought to reduce the fire risk
to lowest possible limits. That he has sue
ceeded. and that he has grandly improved the
opportunities OF facade one hundred feet