Spratlen-Anderson Building - Denver, CO
Posted by: 
Outspoken1
N 39° 45.053 W 105° 00.119
13S E 499830 N 4400108
A series of plaques as part of a walking tour of lower downtown (original) Denver
Waymark Code: WM8JEF
Location: Colorado, United States
Date Posted: 04/09/2010
Views: 8
The plaque reads:
Spratlen-Anderson Building
1906
On the original site of the Washington Hotel and Studebaker Buggy and Carriage House, this building was constructed in 1906 as a four-story warehouse for the Spratlen-Anderson Mercantile Co. Frank Edbrooke designed the original structure, as well as a two-story addition built in 1919. He used his characteristic paired arched windows divided by roundels, a style he also employed in the seventh story of his famed Brown Palace Hotel. The building was completed towards the end of Edbrooke's career and reveals his transition to a simpler, more sober and refined style, characteristic of post-silver crash architecture. The Spratlen Mercantile Warehouse was purchased in 1923 by the Davis Brothers Drug Company. Davis moved to Denver from Rawlings, Wyoming and purchased the firm in 1901. He died tragically in a railroad crash in 1909, but his sons and grandsons went on to build Davis Brothers into a large wholesale drug firm.
Text from the website:
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.
Group or Groups Responsible for Placement:
Lower Downtown [Denver] District
County or City: Denver
Date Dedicated: Unknown
Check here for Web link(s) for additional information: [Web Link]
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Visit Instructions:
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