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Gus Blass Department Store

Buildings and structures completed in 1912Buildings and structures in Little Rock, ArkansasCommercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in ArkansasDefunct department stores based in ArkansasHistoric district contributing properties in Arkansas
Little Rock, Arkansas Registered Historic Place stubsNRHP infobox with nocatNational Register of Historic Places in Little Rock, ArkansasUse mdy dates from August 2023
Gus Blass Department Store
Gus Blass Department Store

The Gus Blass Department Store is a historic commercial building at 318-324 Main Street in Little Rock, Arkansas. It is a seven-story masonry structure, built in 1912 to a design by George R. Mann, a leading Arkansas architect. It was one of the first instances of two-way concrete slab construction in the nation, and was one of the first department stores in the state to be air conditioned (in 1936). The Blass Department Store was for many years the city's largest department store, and remained in business here into the 1970s, ultimately becoming a part of the Dillard's department store chain before closing in 1972.The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Gus Blass Department Store (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Gus Blass Department Store
West 4th Street, Little Rock

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Latitude Longitude
N 34.745277777778 ° E -92.271111111111 °
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Address

West 4th Street 116
72201 Little Rock
Arkansas, United States
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Gus Blass Department Store
Gus Blass Department Store
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Rose Building (Little Rock, Arkansas)
Rose Building (Little Rock, Arkansas)

The Rose Building is a historic commercial building at 307 Main Street in Little Rock, Arkansas. It was built in 1900 from the plans of George R. Mann, and is named for Arkansas Supreme Court Chief Justice U. M. Rose. It is a prominent local example of commercial Classical Revival architecture. The building was built originally as an office property and by the early to mid twentieth century housed retail when the city's Main Street was the major shopping district. Rose purchased three lots on the Peyton Block of Main Street by 1880. Judge Rose built two preexisting Rose Buildings, both destroyed by fire on the current location. The existing structure is a 1916 incarnation of the Rose Building built by Rose's son. It is vastly different from the previous two structures. The two-story structure now displays a symmetrically massed Neoclassical façade, designed by George R. Mann. Mann was the architect who designed the existing Arkansas State Capitol and the Mann on Main mentioned above. It was later home to retail users in the mid twentieth century, two long term tenants were Allsopp-Chappell, a local bookstore, and Moses Melody shop. It had a myriad of occupants by the later part of the century, one being Gold's House of Fashions, in which the structure underwent a renovation. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.The building is currently owned by a private investment group, which acquired it in 2002. It has been redeveloped by the national CRE investments and development organization, The Lasiter Group, the asset's owner. The 20,000 square foot building is fully redeveloped. The overall project encompasses both commercial and residential components, consisting of two restaurants in the building's ground floor, as well as 11 apartment units, consisting of 10 residential units upstairs and 1 ground floor unit.

Worthen Bank Building
Worthen Bank Building

The Worthen Bank Building is a historic commercial building at 401 Main Street in downtown Little Rock, Arkansas. It is a two-story masonry structure with neoclassical and Art Deco lines. It has a steel frame and is faced in limestone. Three bays of three-part windows stand on the second floor, and two flank the center entry. The building was constructed in 1928 for the Worthen Bank, founded in 1877 (later merged into St. Louis-based Boatmen's Bancshares, itself integrated into Bank of America), and was designed by George R. Mann, a prominent local architect otherwise known for his design of the Arkansas State Capitol. Annexes and a parking garage were added in 1952 and 1962, along with some modernization of the 1928 building. In 1969, the complex was acquired by local ABC television network affiliate KATV (channel 7), which converted it into studios, as Worthern relocated to a new skyscraper nearby; the complex then became the KATV Building, with the monicker applied on the facade of the 1954 annex and other details denoting the building's new use, including decorative iron grating in the entryway of the 1928 building formed in the station's Circle 7 logo.KATV vacated the Worthen complex in January 2023 for a newer building in the Riverdale section, as it had become too large and outdated for a modern television station and exterior maintenance had been deferred for years, even before the station's acquisition by Sinclair Broadcasting Group, which saw a modern and streamlined broadcast facility for the station as a priority. The 1928 portion of the building is expected to be restored to its original state, with the newer 1950s addition and attached parking garage to be torn down as part a new technology park development.The original 1928 building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.