United Carbon Building, also known as Boulevard Tower, Stanley Building, and Nelson Building, is a historic office building located at

Charleston, West Virginia Charleston is the capital and List of cities in West Virginia, most populous city of West Virginia. Located at the confluence of the Elk River (West Virginia), Elk and Kanawha River, Kanawha rivers, the city had a population of 48,864 at the 20 ...

. It is a 12-story, steel-framed building sheathed in a smooth, unornamented shell of gold-colored brick, black steel and glass. Its slender volume rises 157 feet from the sidewalk to the twelfth-floor penthouse, which once served as the office of the building's prominent patron, Oscar Nelson (1879-1953). Mr. Nelson, president of the United Carbon Company, commissioned architect

Walter F. Martens Walter Frederic Martens (March 15, 1890 – July 8, 1969) was an American architect who worked mainly in West Virginia. He is best known for building the West Virginia Governor's Mansion (1926). Early life and career Martens was born in Danvill ...

to design the structure. The building was commissioned in 1939 as the national headquarters for the United Carbon Company, which occupied the ninth through the twelfth floors until 1950. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. Its current list of tenants includes the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission and the West Virginia Community and Technical College System.

Gallery

Image:United Carbon Building rear Apr 09.JPG, United Carbon Building (Rear View), April 2009 Image:United Carbon Building entry Apr 09.JPG, United Carbon Building (Entry Statue, "From the Fullness of the Earth"), April 2009

References

Office buildings completed in 1940 Buildings and structures in Charleston, West Virginia International style architecture in West Virginia National Register of Historic Places in Charleston, West Virginia Office buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in West Virginia 1940s architecture in the United States Streamline Moderne architecture in West Virginia {{KanawhaCountyWV-NRHP-stub