Dowtown’s most exuberant Art Deco building was actually built in 1880. Although its original architect is not known, in 1931 it was extensively altered by Katz. This wooden building was completely remodeled and reclad in colorful terra–cotta—an early twentieth century “miracle” material which was though to be indestructible at the time.

The last building of significance to be built downtown before the Second World War was designed in 1933 by the noted architect of newspaper plants, Frank Davis Chase, in association with James Yardley Rippen. One of the County’s finest examples of the International Style—which emphasized the ornamental use of structural elements instead of traditional architectural motifs—the bold verticality and blocky massing lend it a simple elegance and monumentality.