The Arthur G. Rocheford Building is a historic commercial building at 1717 Vinton Street in
South Omaha, Nebraska, United States. The building was built in 1913 to house Arthur G. Rocheford's Globe Plumbing Company. Rocheford served as the general contractor during construction of the building. The building was added to the
National Register of Historic Places in 2006 as part of the admission of the
Vinton Street Commercial Historic District
The Vinton Street Commercial Historic District is located along Vinton Street between Elm Street on the west and South 17th Street on the east in south Omaha, Nebraska. This district is located adjacent to Sheelytown, a residential neighborhood ...
.
History
Arthur G. Rocheford was the son of William M. Rocheford, co-owner of the brickmaking and general contracting firm of
Rocheford & Gould.
The company's brickyard operation was located at Thirteenth and Frederick Streets, and the family's large red brick home was at 2423 South 18th Street. The location Arthur Rocheford chose for his plumbing business was within walking distance of both locations. Although Rocheford & Gould dissolved in 1906, William Rocheford continued his construction business with his sons, building family rental properties and a select number of larger projects.
Coming from such a construction-oriented family, it is no surprise that Arthur would choose to act as the general contractor during the construction of his own building.
The Arthur G. Rocheford Building is built of red brick in the
Italianate style.
[Frame, Bob, and Chad Moffett. Retrieved 2014-03-14.] It retains its first floor
cast-iron columns with inset double entryway with
transom windows overhead.
The building was built with a small tin
cornice
In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...
with
corbelled
In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applied to the st ...
brickwork and a raised
stringer course.
Interior details include oak flooring and a
pressed tin ceiling on the main level.
In addition to housing Arthur G. Rocheford's plumbing business, the building has also been home over the years to a jeweler, a mail order business, a shoemaker, a dry cleaner, a painting business and a carpet dealer.
The building was the headquarters of Emerging Terrain, a nonprofit organization devoted to community development and creatively informing civic and urban planning, but the organization sold the building in April 2014.
The building is currently the home to DeOld Andersen Architecture, an emerging architecture and urban design practice originally founded in New York City.
See also
*
History of Omaha
*
Vinton Street Commercial Historic District
The Vinton Street Commercial Historic District is located along Vinton Street between Elm Street on the west and South 17th Street on the east in south Omaha, Nebraska. This district is located adjacent to Sheelytown, a residential neighborhood ...
*
Elsasser Bakery
References
External links
Emerging Terrain - Official Website
{{NRHP Omaha
National Register of Historic Places in Omaha, Nebraska
History of Omaha, Nebraska
History of South Omaha, Nebraska
Commercial buildings completed in 1913
Landmarks in South Omaha, Nebraska
Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Nebraska
1913 establishments in Nebraska