Guided Tours  •  Self-Guided Downtown Tour
 

Formerly the downtown headquarters of Barker Brothers furniture store, the building was renovated for office use in 1985-86. The 1925 building, designed in the Renaissance Revival style by Curlett and Beelman, was said to have been inspired by the Strozzi Palace in Florence. The symmetrically developed twelve-story structure is faced in terra cotta and brick, with a monumental three-story round arched center entry. Inside there is a forty-foot-high lobby court with beamed and vaulted ceilings.

Originally shoppers could hear the sound of a pipe organ stationed in one of the mezzanine galleries. Pipe organs were also located in the interior decoration studio and in the 600 seat auditorium, where Barker Brothers held public lectures on home economics and decoration. The building also boasted an automatic telephone system, one of the few existing at that time.