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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 4, 1902)
VOL. AT, NO. I LINCOLN, NEBRASKA, SATURDAY, JANUARY 4, 1002 ESTABLISHED IN ISSi; LINCOLN'SJAGGEDSKY LINE Being a Dissertation on Street Architecture in the Capital City of Nebraska J J Architecture in the business district of Lincoln can boast a peculiar variety if not a distinctly artistic arrangement. It is a disorderly array that looks good or bad, according to the mood of the witness. Glancing down any of the streets one is impressed with the no tion that the business men who built the structures on either side were actu ated by as strong an architectural as .1 commercial competition. In other words, rather than strive for harmony in appearance their thought was to put together a building as alien to its elbow neighbor as possible; they de sired a different structural design, no matter what the looks might be. The result is that a person craving enjoy ment from one of these commercial vistas must seek it in the jagged char acter of roof lines and in rugged, jag- H1 fjicadco. On n liy -when the sun is shining brightly and the observer is feeling in the best of vim he can see in these inharmonious lines and angles a sort of inanimate opposition or war fare that g'ives the streets a spirited aspect, which with the moving multi tudes of people and cars anil trucks shows the city to be a pretty lively young metropolis, all interesting to say the least. Tall buildings are oddly infrequent, or rather, so few are they that lirst sight of them strikes one oddly. The Burr block claims the greatest height, spiring upward from a square of low roofed buildings in a manner that never fails to excite the curious comment of the visitor. Spying it from the west or southwest it is sure to win some admiration. Though its dark hue is rather a sombre spectacle it gives an instant impression, with its serried ranks of windows each with its office sign, of its sturdy character as i hi.e of business. To look from it to the buildings below and about it hardly stuns one with admiration for them or for the society of buildings of so in compatible an architectural nature. Then too it is a disappointment to look from the chipped stones of the west and south walls to the nakedness of the brick that composes the east and north sides. It looks wholly unnatural all around. The only other particularly tall buildings are the Lincoln hotel at Ninth and P streets, the Richards block at Eleventh and O streets and the Farmers and Merchants block at Fifteenth and O streets. All four are structures good to look upon and good to think about. The Lincoln hotel, of a lead colored stone, is tall and staunch and with its fire escapes possesses airs that are strictly metropolitan. The Richards block. latest or new bus iness block, is a handsome building with walls smooth and uniform with the exception of occasionally jutting adornments, enough and sufficiently tasty to relieve monotony. Much the same is the Farmers and Merchants block, tall and narrow with large .win dows set in artistically formed case ments. These buildings are decidedly ornamental to the business district of the city. If doubted, fancy them ab sent, with some of the low roofed, com monplace samples of architecture in their places. It would certainly be a dull looking town. There is just the proper degree of difference in their shading, and their projection above the loofs of the others of the town is dis tinctly attractive to the eye, especially from some point of eminence. These witli the peaks and spires and cupolas scattered over the center of the city form a certainly interesting upper ele ment of architecture. That it is surely the art and architecture of commerce sky scraper. At present it has one need and that is a new. substantial of fice block. This is practically the unan imous opinion of the real estate men of the city. They think that with a new building such as the Richards block or the building of the Farmers Insurance Company. located somewheie between Tenth and Thirteenth street., with modern equipments and the prop er frontage, the city's office needs might be pretty well supplied. One real es tate agent said: "I have calls-Tor first class offices and suites nearly every day and am unable to furnish desirable places. The chon Is invariably a set or rooms fronting on O street. It Is one of the queer things about the city that none of the large blocks possesses a frontage of any t -tent on O street. Another bloik at Eleventh and O streets would be a line investment for the man with the cash like hot cakes. It ought to have an east frontage and he on some O stive t corner. Pel haps you have never no ticed it, but the city is unfortunate in the frontage of Its blocks. All of those of most consequence, the RlchanW block, the Purr and the Farmers and Merchants building, you will notice, stand flouting the west. Talk about bent' Those outside rooms are like iivi'iii in the summer time in spile of the awnings that are spread for the protection or the i enters. I hail my rooms In one of them fur several years but I would not teturn to any of them again if the rooms were olfered me fm nothing. Of course there nie a good many unoccupied rooms in blocks whose riontage is in the right position and which look rrom the outside like fine buildings. The trouble with these is two-fold, they are too far fiom o street .mil their lighting N r Lra.-. y jwjuoftt - jf-zm& smi. Sir. tm: fc V m - r . . t .--. , uwKSiyoBl 1 1 R ilwa wrSKKSZ v5 .m' 'it wr, "fecdgasSaff STRTET SCENE IN LINCOLN VIEW OF O STREET. Lfi.KlXU VKT : mm 1 HHH - ; H vvi IfBH i3 VHjlB 1 1 may readily be believed, even by one who does not chance to be a birdseye observer, when he tenters his attention on the myriad advertisements or all sizes, colors and characters that cram the walls and interspaces. Taking the long view or a street, and it is one or the advantages of the city that it may brag wide streets, as shown in the illustrations, it is a receding parallel ar tay or nondescript masonry and carpen try, fairly uniform as high as the dis play windows, but with a most uneven, gaping skyline with some smooth and other figured cornices and quite a showing of angles, a few tiny pinnacles, upper bay windows and an occasional column and buttress. It is safe to sa that it will be many years before the city will enjoy the distinction of a real sharp, heighty to put it up. Two more blocks would be one too many, but one more, with good lighting and heating facilities say the size of the Richards block, "voultl be filled in two weeks without trouble. Plocks that stand a distance of from one block to two or three from O stieet are not very cordially regarded. Pro fessional men desire to be where their signs m:i-y be seen by the passing thtong. That is one reason why some of the more distant blocks are so thinly populated.' Another leal estate man taking the same view said: "Well, I believe one new block would just about fit the office needs of thi city. One new block in the right local ity and possessed or the modern feat ures of light and heat would find im mediate renters. The rooms would go poor. Th- ib p.-nd laigtl) mi sk.. lights that are entirely unsatisfactoi They are sandwiched in between high walls of other buildings and the otluts are caverned from street view. A new block with the frontage and equipment I have mentioned would till quickly and get a good many men oiJicing in tin three buildings I have mentioned. I do not bellexe in building to excess. Every uirplus building Is hurtful to the city, but It Is hardly possible to have to: many efficient, choice office rooms." t -! T S tV Another View of It Street architecture is the background to outdoor. cit Iif-. If tin- back ground i sordid wil vqiitlid. the men .mil iwutiui who tno in front of it do not f'-t-l that so fit .is their en nv.ntinued on Page i
