The Schiffman Building is a historic commercial building in Huntsville, Alabama. The main structure of the building was built in 1845. Originally, it was a three-bay brick building divided by large, flat pilasters. The southern bay, at the corner of East Side Square and Eustis Avenue, was remodeled in the

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

style in 1895. The other two bays were demolished in the 1970s. Future

Speaker of the U.S. House The speaker of the United States House of Representatives, commonly known as the speaker of the House, is the presiding officer of the United States House of Representatives. The office was established in 1789 by Article I, Section 2 of the U. ...

William B. Bankhead used the building as an office while he was Huntsville's city attorney from 1898–1902; his daughter, actress Tallulah Bankhead, 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 blocks, and is dominated by turrets on the corners that extend above the

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 ...

. 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 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 s ...

for a massive bay window 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 of w ...

. The stone cornice has large dentils; 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 a ...

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 window (architecture), paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double gla ...

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 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