The Ross Building is a historic commercial building at 700 South Schiller Street in

Little Rock, Arkansas Little Rock is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Arkansas, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The city's population was 202,591 as of the 2020 census. The six-county Central Arkan ...

. It is a single-story masonry structure, whose front facade features five bay windows sheltered by awnings, and a high

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/brea ...

with

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...

above. A major extension to the rear is covered by a

hip roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downward to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope, with variants including Tented roof, tented roofs and others. Thus, a hipped roof has no gables or other ve ...

, and includes space historically used both by its retail tenants and as residences for owners and employees. The building was built in 1896–97, and originally housed a grocery store serving the area's predominantly

German-American German Americans (, ) are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. According to the United States Census Bureau's figures from 2022, German Americans make up roughly 41 million people in the US, which is approximately 12% of the pop ...

population. It has since gone through a significant number of other commercial uses; although its exterior retains many original features, its interior has been heavily modified. The grocery store was owned and operated by Charles E. Ross, who was born in Germany in 1846 and immigrated in 1871, until 1930. The name of the grocery store is not clear from any available records, but it may have been called the Chestnut Store; a

chestnut The chestnuts are the deciduous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Castanea'', in the beech family Fagaceae. The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce. They are native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Description ...

was a popular holiday item in Germany. The building was occupied by a mattress factory from 1935 to 1960. It was then bought by Moise Seligman Jr. (October 8, 1918 – July 10, 2009). Seligman served in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

including in the

North African campaign The North African campaign of World War II took place in North Africa from 10 June 1940 to 13 May 1943, fought between the Allies and the Axis Powers. It included campaigns in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts (Western Desert campaign, Desert Wa ...

, ending as a Lieutenant-Colonel, and later served in the

Army Reserves A military reserve force is a military organization whose members (reservists) have military and civilian occupations. They are not normally kept under arms, and their main role is to be available when their military requires additional ma ...

, rising to Major General, its highest rank. He commanded the 122nd ARCOM during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

. He was on the Greater Little Rock Chamber of Commerce and served on the Wilbur Mills Highway Commission and later on the planning commission for the I-630, which began construction in 1969. Original plans were to run it right through the Ross Building property, but the highway's completion was delayed until 1985 due to protests about its route. Seligman may have helped influenced its final route to avoid the store. The building was renovated by Seligman's son (who died in 1973) into a pleasant home for himself and offices in the 1970s, and he operated an antique store there. It was renovated again in the 1980s by an

architectural firm In the United States, an architectural firm or architecture firm is a business that employs one or more licensed architects and practices the profession of architecture; while in South Africa, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Denmark and other countr ...

, Polk, Stanley, Wilcox Architects which occupied it until their 2009 merger into a larger firm, the Wilcox Group. The firm, in 2019, then as Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects, was renovating the Winchester Building elsewhere in Little Rock, also National Register-listed in 2019, for its use. The building was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 2019.

References

Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Arkansas Commercial buildings completed in 1897 Commercial buildings in Little Rock, Arkansas National Register of Historic Places in Little Rock, Arkansas {{LittleRockAR-NRHP-stub

See also

References