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William R.
Barringer Hotel.
The William
R. Barringer Hotel is a massive twelve-story building located at the
corner of North Tryon and Eighth streets in Uptown Charlotte. The
building sits on a 2.2 acre lot that occupies much of the city block
bordered by Eighth, Seventh, North Tryon, and North College streets.
The lot slopes down to the northeast, and aside from the hotel building,
the site includes a large parking lot and a small park-area bordering
North Tryon Street. When the hotel was built, ca. 1942, the block was more
crowded, with the Saint Marks Evangelical Lutheran Church bordering the
hotel to the south and the Elmore apartments, which faced 8th Street, to
the rear of the hotel. Attached and detached homes lined the block
along College and Seventh Streets. |
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The Barringer Hotel features a granite-clad foundation, topped with
limestone that veneers the tall first-story lobby. Though late for
the Art Deco Style, the building features some of the style's
characteristics including tall fluted limestone
pilasters, with stepped points. The pilasters delineate the eight bays of the first
story. The facade is symmetrical, but the bays are not uniform. The facade's four exterior bays are wider, and
the center two bays have been combined to allow for a wide entrance now
filled by two sets of metal framed glass double-doors, protected by a
rectangular metal awning. The remaining bays are filled with
replacement plate-glass windows that may have replaced metal
divided-light windows. In the larger bays the windows are
surrounded with glass blocks. Glass-block transoms are set above
the windows and the entrance, separated from the lower openings by
plain limestone spandrels. The top of the limestone veneer
is decorated a narrow zig-zag band, typical of the Art Deco Style.
The building was originally eight bays deep. The limestone veneer
featured on the facade, wraps the building and was applied to the first three bays on the
north elevation. The south elevation features a shallow, one-story
limestone entrance/atrium that was oriented toward the building's
parking lot. The large limestone entrance sheltered a doorway and
at least one recessed window bay, but is now partially obscured by metal
awning and covered walkway added around 1952.
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Detail - Barringer
Hotel facade |
Art Deco landmark
Howard Automobile Co. Showroom,
1930, Berkeley, CA |
The spacing of the bays established on the
first-story continues on the upper stories where wire-cut brick replaces
the limestone veneer. The facade's four wide
exterior bays contain paired double-hung windows, while the four
interior bays contain single windows. The limestone
pilasters continue upward as brick piers for the full twelve stories of
the building and are capped with pointed and fluted stone
capitals. The setbacks of the bays caused by the piers that
separate the bays are a distinctive design element of the building.
The walls are capped with a stone belt. The north and south
elevations of the original building continue the style of the upper
stories of the facade but are not symmetrical. The second
and third bays are narrow and contain single double hung windows.
The remaining six bays are wider and contain paired windows. The
original section of the hotel was constructed with a steel frame
infilled with brick curtain walls and concrete floors.
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In 1951, a twelve-story, steel framed addition was added to the rear
of the hotel. The rear additon is five bays deep. The rear
elevation features minimal fenestration with just three window
openings on each story. The notable setbacks found on the
original building are absent on the addition, with the only the
corners offset like piers or pilasters, and capped with pointed
stone caps. Veneered with wire-cut brick, the addition was
constructed with concrete block curtain walls. By 1952 a tall
curved-front, flat-roofed dinning room was added to the hotel's south elevation.
The addition is capped with a simple stone band. Tall
metal-framed windows pierce the wall. |
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Rear elevation of 1951
addition |
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