June 2025.
Now that we’ve covered Dickason Boulevard, we can dive into the rich Victorian character of downtown Columbus, Wisconsin. We’ll start with the west side of James Street, at the intersection of Dickason Boulevard, and proceed east to Ludington Street.
Telephone Exchange Building/Union Bank
We’re starting off strong with a nicely detailed brick Italianate building at 156 West James Street, which was built in 1861. This building was the former home of the Farmers & Merchants Union Bank before their Sullivan building across the street was constructed, and it was also Columbus’s Telephone Exchange until 1962.
Aside from the out-of-character asphalt shingle awning that spans far too much of the facade, the Telephone Exchange Building is very intact and has a good quality of architecture. The windows’ hood molds are built into the walls, and the cornice has fancy corbels. Some of the cornice’s decorations such as the dentils and pinnacles have been removed, though.
The front facade is pretty straightforward with its three bays:
The one-story annex in back even has an old Oshkosh advertisement:
Bellack/Knights of Pythias Building
1990s photo of the then-heavily altered Bellack Building. (Wisconsin Historical Society)
“K of P” on the cornice immediately stuck out to me as the abbreviation for the Knights of Pythias, but this building was actually built for a different purpose. It was constructed in 1895 in the Commercial style for Albert Bellack, a prominent businessman, who owned a clothing store that had been started by his father at 119 E James in 1883. Bellack stayed in business until 1935, but the building remained in use as a clothing store until the 1980s. It seemed to have received a new Art Moderne awning and storefront in the 1940s or 1950s, but this has since been removed and the building appears more historically accurate.
Bellack was a member of the Knights of Pythias, and the fraternity met on the second floor of his building. After their disbanding, the Knights of Columbus later used the space. The building is presently used by the Columbus Area Historical Society.
Mercantile Building
The Mercantile Building, a Commercial style building with Beaux-Arts details, was completed in 1903 as a furniture and undertaking business (which was a common combination at the time). As of the time of the NRHP listing, it was used as such, but today it is an antiques store.
The facade is tripartite with large windows on the second floor surrounded by dark stone pilasters, which serve as divisions between bays (possibly also referencing the building’s structural system) and as vertical emphasis. Small recessed rectangles above sit between the second floor and decorative denticulated cornice. The storefront was altered in 1955 to its current aluminum configuration.
This old neon sign probably dates from that renovation, too:
Cook Block
1990s photo of the Cook Block. (Wisconsin Historical Society)
An 1883 Commercial style design possibly influenced by Romanesque Revival decoration, this building takes the form of three identical units standing side by side. It was built for A. G. Cook (no relation to Charli XCX’s producer, I presume) by Nelson Sawyer, who was the first tenant with a hardware store.
Each unit of this large building presents individually due to the pilasters dividing them, repeating pedimented roof, and separate storefront. The two western stores share an additional entrance, likely to the apartments above. The cornice is the most highly decorated area of this building, as it has brickwork corbels and panels that achieve great texture.
The building’s expression is exacerbated by the different alterations to each unit. The westernmost has had its second-floor windows almost entirely bricked up aside from a tiny central window, and its storefront is likewise mostly obscured. The central unit has also had its windows altered, as the openings have been mostly spanned by wood boards, but its first floor is likely original. The eastern unit has a similar window treatment. Its storefront eludes me since it is decorated; but it doesn’t rise to the height of the others, and the neighboring McNulty Building has had the same treatment.
Original storefront and apartment portal:
McNulty Building
This building has a similar cornice design to its neighbor, but the NRHP listing actually states it was built earlier in 1864. One of downtown Columbus’s oldest brick buildings, it was the first hardware store location of Lewis Sawyer (possibly Nelson Sawyer’s father), who was the city’s first mayor in 1874. It was most prominently known as McNulty’s Grocery Store between 1918 and 1955. In 1970, the party wall between the McNulty Building and Cook Block was removed, and the first floors are connected today.
Brown Block
Though a little overexposed, this 1876 Italianate is one of Columbus’s best-documented works of architecture because its construction was discussed in a newspaper article from that year. It was designed by prominent Chicago architect William W. Boyington at a cost of $4,500, rather extravagant for the time. Some of the stone used was from Joliet, which was carved by Columbus monument maker W. J. Turner. Indeed, the stone hood molds and cornice might be commonplace in larger cities but were certainly very fanciful for the young city of Columbus. The Brown Block was built as a book, stationery, and jewel store by Colonel H. M. Brown, which remained open in some form until 1969. That year, the first floor was altered into the form it takes today, and the windows above may have been reduced in size as well.
This cornice is actually zinc, not faded wood as I originally thought:
First National Bank
First National Bank is an early example of a “facadectomy,” where existing building(s) have a modern facade grafted onto them. Here, two 1860s buildings have had their faces gutted and replaced with this limestone Beaux-Arts composition in 1916. It exhibits several common classical characteristics, such as a Doric pedimented entrance, pilasters, and a denticulated cornice (which lines up with the neighboring Brown Block). First National Bank moved out of downtown in 1975 and has apparently sat empty since, which seems to be the case today.
Jones Block
The NRHP listing mentions this building but does not describe it in detail, so I’ll try to do so using my own extrapolations. The Jones Block is a brick Italianate building, c. 1870-1880, with simple rectangular windows and subtle stone courses and lintels. The cornice is the most elaborate feature, which seems to have been recently painted, aside from the pediment with the words “JONES BLOCK” on it. The storefronts have been altered, possibly at different times, as the western one has an ugly stone veneer on it.
Anderson Building
Another early Italianate design with brick hood molds and a corbelled cornice, the Anderson Building was built in 1858 by Ole Anderson, a general store owner. He sold the eastern half of the building after his wife’s death in 1870, and it has been divided since. The building seems to be a hodgepodge of features from different eras, even in the masonry, but it appears that some original windows may be present as well.
J. C. Penney Building
The J. C. Penney Building, once a proud 1904 Commercial style building, seems to be in pretty shoddy repair today. Its cornice has been removed, its coats of white paint are chipping, and the storefront has been altered in a poorly considered manner.
F&MUB Annex
This 2006 annex to the Farmers & Merchants Union Bank attempts to mimic the surrounding buildings, but not very successfully to me. The second-floor windows seem too small.
The next post continues eastward on James Street past Ludington Street.
Sources:
https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4124cm.g095221915/?sp=4&st=image
https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/a61f3033-cff7-4e0e-b68c-712ef52d0c2b/
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