The Grimm Book Bindery is a small
Georgian Revival-styled shop built in 1926 in
Madison, Wisconsin
Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th-lar ...
for the only dedicated book-binding business in town, run by the Grimm family for 60 years. In 1986 it was added to the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
.
[ With .]
History
Gottlieb Grimm was a German immigrant who came to Madison in 1850 to work for Charles Weed in his
book-bindery. There, Gottlieb is said to have bound the first book in Madison. After 24 years of ups and
downs, the immigrant ended up as head of the shop and changed its name to ''Grimm Book Bindery''. The building at that time was in the Journal Block. In 1909 it moved to Carroll Street, and in 1916 they built a shop at 324-328 W. Gorham.
[
By 1924 Gottlieb's children and grandchildren ran the business, which "bound volumes for the state government, the university, other community libraries, city directories, student theses, and private libraries." Despite this business, the building on West Gorham was too large, so the Grimms decided to build a smaller shop. To design the new shop, they hired Madison architect Alvin Small, who had designed ]Prairie style
Prairie School is a late 19th- and early 20th-century architectural style, most common in the Midwestern United States. The style is usually marked by horizontal lines, flat or hip roof, hipped roofs with broad Overhang (architecture), ove ...
homes like the 1914 Louis Hirsig house[ and Prairie style commercial buildings like the 1914 Eddy store.
For the new Grimm Bindery, Small designed a small shop in Georgian Revival style,][ similar in style to Ben Franklin's printing shop in Philadelphia.]pediment
Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape.
Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds.
A pedimen ...
. On each side is a large window with a round arch at the top. Topping the wall is a metal 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 ...
decorated with modillions, beneath a short gable roof facade with a stepped parapet on each end, somewhat like Federal style
Federal-style architecture is the name for the classicizing architecture built in the newly founded United States between 1780 and 1830, and particularly from 1785 to 1815, which was heavily based on the works of Andrea Palladio with several inn ...
. Above the front door is a neo-colonial-style sign proclaiming "Grimm BOOK BINDERY." Inside, the front door opened to a staircase which led up to an office on the left and the binding room on the right. The basement held a sewing room.[
The Grimms continued business in this building for 60 years, keeping the exterior very intact. Around 1986 they moved their operations to a different building in Monona and the 1926 building was remodeled into apartments. The NRHP nomination at that time nominated the Grimm Bindery as "possibly the best small Georgian Revival commercial building in Madison" and "the work of a locally important architect, Alvin Small."][
]
References
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Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Wisconsin
National Register of Historic Places in Madison, Wisconsin
Buildings and structures in Madison, Wisconsin
Colonial Revival architecture in Wisconsin