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Spratlen-Anderson Building - #24
1628 15th Street
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Architectural style: Twentieth-Century Commercial with Classical Revival Elements Built: 1906 Architects: Frank E. Edbrooke |
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On the original site of the Washington Hotel and Studebaker Buggy and Carriage House, this building was constructed in 1906 for the Spratlen-Anderson Mercantile Company. In 1905, Frank Edbrooke was hired to plan a four-story warehouse to replace the old wood frame building formerly on this site, and a fifth story was added even before the initial construction was completed. In 1911 a sixth floor was added, also designed by Edbrooke, with detailing identical to that on the fifth floor. Architect Edbrooke first came to Denver from Chicago in 1879. After supervising the construction of the Tabor Block and the Tabor Grand Opera House, he stayed on to become one of the city's most notable and successful architects. He is especially noted for his design of the Brown Palace Hotel, the Navarre, the Masonic Temple, the Oxford Hotel, and the Denver Dry Building. Spratlen-Anderson continued to lease the building until they went out of business in 1923. At that time the building was owned by George Fry and Robert J. Grant, who then sold the building to the Davis Brothers Drug Company. The drug company occupied the warehouse until they built modern facilities in 1957. The Lande Manufacturing Company, producers of upholstered chairs, was located here until 1978. In 1988, developer Dana Crawford purchased and renovated the building into residential loft condominiums and renamed it Edbrooke Lofts in honor of its designer. The design of the building is regular, simple, and elegant, with each of its elevations divided into three parts like a column, an approach often used in early high-rise construction. All the openings are detailed with molded brick architrave trim and stone sills, double-hung sash, brick mullions, and recessed brick panel spandrels. The water tower on the roof was added for a sprinkler system in 1915. It is no longer in use but was restored for its historical whimsy. |
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