The Schiffman Building is a historic commercial building in

Huntsville, Alabama Huntsville is the List of municipalities in Alabama, most populous city in the U.S. state of Alabama. The population of the city is estimated to be 241,114 in 2024, making it the List of United States cities by population, 100th-most populous ...

. The main structure of the building was built in 1845. Originally, it was a three-bay brick building divided by large, flat

pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...

s. The southern bay, at the corner of East Side Square and Eustis Avenue, was remodeled in the

Richardsonian Romanesque Richardsonian Romanesque is a architectural style, style of Romanesque Revival architecture named after the American architect Henry Hobson Richardson (1838–1886). The revivalism (architecture), revival style incorporates 11th- and 12th-century ...

style in 1895. The other two bays were demolished in the 1970s. Future Speaker of the U.S. House William B. Bankhead used the building as an office while he was Huntsville's city attorney from 1898–1902; his daughter, actress

Tallulah Bankhead Tallulah Brockman Bankhead (January 31, 1902 – December 12, 1968) was an American actress. Primarily an actress of the stage, Bankhead also appeared in several films including an award-winning performance in Alfred Hitchcock's ''Lifeboat (194 ...

, was born in the second floor apartment. Issac Schiffman, a businessman and banker, purchased the building in 1905 and it has remained in the family since. The façade is of rough

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

blocks, and is dominated by

turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Optical microscope#Objective turret (revolver or revolving nose piece), Objective turre ...

s on the corners that extend above the

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 ...

. The arched entry sits beside a large, arched window on the first floor. The window's keystone acts as a

corbel In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal keyed into and projecting from a wall to carry a wikt:superincumbent, bearing weight, a type of bracket (architecture), bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in t ...

for a massive

bay window A bay window is a window space projecting outward from the main walls of a building and forming a bay in a room. A bow window is a form of bay with a curve rather than angular facets; an oriel window is a bay window that does not touch the g ...

on the second floor. Above the door is a stone panel, flanked by turrets and marked with "I. Schiffman". Above the panel are two small windows and a smaller version of the cornice. Three windows on the third floor, two above the bay window and one above the door side, each have a decorative stone arch above a single

lintel A lintel or lintol is a type of beam (a horizontal structural element) that spans openings such as portals, doors, windows and fireplaces. It can be a decorative architectural element, or a combined ornamented/structural item. In the case ...

. The stone cornice has large

dentil A dentil (from Lat. ''dens'', a tooth) is a small block used as a repeating ornament in the bedmould of a cornice. Dentils are found in ancient Greek and Roman architecture, and also in later styles such as Neoclassical, Federal, Georgian Rev ...

s; the same design is carried down the Eustis side of the building on a pressed metal cornice. The side is faced with

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and ...

ed brick and divided into five bays by protruding pilasters. Each bay has a one-over-one

sash window A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double glazing) of glass. History ...

on each floor, with the final bay containing a door surrounded by a stone arch. ''See also:'' 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 1980.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Alabama National Register of Historic Places in Huntsville, Alabama Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Alabama Romanesque Revival architecture in Alabama Buildings and structures in Huntsville, Alabama