Abandoned Brewery in Baltimore MD once the largest Brewer in the state

National Brewing Company, Baltimore Maryland

Date added: December 31, 2023 Categories:

View southwest toward rear of Conkling Street block (2002)

The National Brewing Company, a complex bounded on the north by Dillon Street, on the east by Haven Street, on the south by O'Donnell Street, and on the west by Conkling Street, is located immediately east of the Canton Historic District. Comprised of buildings constructed from 1885 to 1966, the site has been associated with the storage and production of beer since the mid-19^th century. The National Brewing Company complex was a part of the long evolution of a once major Baltimore industry that was closely linked with the city's dominant German population. The complex shows how the brewing industry evolved through the changing technologies that characterized both the pre-Prohibition and post-Prohibition eras. One of many local breweries before Prohibition, the National Brewing Company grew to dominate Baltimore's brewing industry after the end of World War II with its best-selling "National Bohemian" brand. By 1954, National was the largest brewery in Maryland and one of the 20 largest in the nation.

The Brewing Industry In Baltimore

Brewing in Baltimore During the 19^th Century

The long history of brewing in Baltimore provides a backdrop for the National Brewing Company, which occupies a site that has been dedicated to brewing since the mid-19^th Century. Baltimore's growing German-born population fueled the development of breweries in the 19^th Century. Baltimore served as a major point of German entry into the United States, and by the 1850s Baltimore's German community was well established, encompassing all social classes and occupations. The German community brought new ideas regarding public schools, music, religion, and politics, and introduced the brewing and enjoyment of lager beer. Lager beer, a traditionally German drink that gradually became America's national beer style, had to be laid away or lagered at near-freezing temperatures for several weeks after primary fermentation. Thus lager beer could be made only in winter months. To extend the production season, brewers dug cellars that could be lined with ice and kept cool to extend the lagering further.

Baltimore's first commercial brewery seems to have been the 1748 establishment of John and Elias Barnitz, German immigrants from York, Pennsylvania. By the 1860s there were 22 breweries in the city, many of which were located near the wharves at Fells Point. Several Fells Point brewers dug lagering cellars in Highlandtown, especially around O'Donnell and Conkling Streets, prompted both by the increasing demand for lager as well as the impossibility of digging cellars at sea-level Fells Point. The area around Conkling and O'Donnell became known as Lager Beer Hill and is the site of the present National Brewing Company.

Lager Beer Hill had the advantage of lying outside the city limits. Before Baltimore annexed the area in 1918, the city had no jurisdiction over restricted land uses such as cemeteries and slaughterhouses that clustered at the city limits. Taverns also located in the area, serving families that came out from the city to enjoy the beer gardens on Sundays when drinking was forbidden in town.

Refrigeration and the Evolution of Brewing Practice

The advent of refrigeration transformed brewing practices. Prior to refrigeration, the brewers of Lager Beer Hill constructed icehouses for ice imported from New England. In the 1880s, however, brewers began constructing their own artificial ice plants to refine control of the lagering process. The Weissner Brewery became the first in Baltimore to make its own ice when it installed 50- and 100-ton ice machines in 1887. The National Brewing Company installed ice machines shortly thereafter." With an abundant ice supply, lagering cellars no longer had to be built underground, and multi-story insulated buildings, still called cellars, accommodated ice hoisted into the top floor where it could cool the lagering below.

1899-1921: Consolidation and Prohibition

The consolidation of food and beverage processing operations that characterized the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries affected brewing as well. In March 1899, investors organized the Maryland Brewing Company to purchase local breweries with the objective of forming a monopoly that could corner the market. Seventeen Baltimore firms joined the trust, including the National Brewing Company. Only a few breweries such as the Weissner Brewery remained on their own. The Gottlieb-Bauernschmidt-Strauss Brewing Company (known as G.B.S. Brewing Company) took over the Maryland Brewing Company when it failed in 1901.

The combination of anti-German sentiment created by World War I and Prohibition soon doomed Baltimore's breweries. In a city so culturally embedded with German ethnicity, World War I posed a painful dilemma. Sherry Olson, Baltimore's pre-eminent historian, wrote that "the war put an end to the German-American era in Baltimore." German Street and the German-American Bank vanished, replaced by Redwood Street and the American Bank. Viewed in the light of anti-German hysteria, Maryland's support for the prohibition of beer drinking in 1918 can be seen as a direct attack on German culture and folkways.

Repeal and Growth

Prohibition was repealed on April 7^th, 1933. The post-Prohibition brewing industry was characterized by milder, less alcoholic beers brewed in larger quantities for wider geographic distribution. Only large, modern breweries were able to compete in this changed market. Prior to Prohibition, there were 35 breweries in Baltimore City and County employing approximately 450 people. After Prohibition, only 5 breweries in Baltimore City reopened. Those 5 breweries, however, grew to employ more than 1500 people by the 1950s. The Post-Prohibition National Brewing Company was the highest-producing brewery from 1954 to 1961.

As a result of increased production requirements, brewhouses grew taller and more utilitarian after Prohibition. The post-Prohibition brewing process continued to follow the fundamental principles of brewing, but over time nearly every aspect became automated. Brewing began near the top floor of the brewhouse, where a malt mill would draw malt from the storage bins where railcars had placed it. After grinding, the malt would be mixed with water in a mash tun with an automatic mixer. To add adjunct or filler ingredients to the brew, a brewer boiled corn grits and mixed them into the mash. Straining off the solids to sell as animal feed, the brewer would send the wort that resulted to a copper brew kettle for boiling with hops. The process would take several hours to this point; the rest consisted of a long period of fermentation. Refrigerated coils cooled the hot wort, which went to tanks where the yeast was added and the mix was allowed to ferment for two weeks. The yeast was skimmed off the bottom of the tank, and the beer was sent to glass-lined lagering tanks for a number of weeks. After filtration, the beer was ready and could be stored in tanks until the bottles or kegs were ready to carry it out of the brewery.

The perfection of the metal crown in the 1880s had allowed bottled beer to become the standard means of product distribution by the first quarter of the 20^th Century, and breweries built bottling plants in addition to kegging operations. Federal tax law did not allow bottling to take place inside a brewery; the beer had to be measured and taxed first, then bottled in a separate building. The 1933 and 1939 Bottling Plants at the National Brewing Company illustrate the effect of this mandate. By the 1930s, bottled beer was overtaking draft beer. Cans joined the beer market in 1935 and would account for more than 9% of packaged beer sales nationally by 1941. In the 1940s, the National Brewing Company introduced the nation's first six-packs of beer, developed by a former German submariner employed at the plant. The lightweight, portable, six-packs changed retail distribution patterns and facilitated home consumption.

Advertising, important to breweries since the 19^th Century, became one of the defining features of the industry beginning in the 1930s. At the time the National Association of Brewers met in Baltimore for their annual conference in 1941, there were five contending breweries in the city, all defined by their advertising. The Brewers Digest, the national trade journal, wrote: "So active is this competition that it is almost impossible for an outside brewer to invade the Baltimore market. On the one hand, it must do an advertising job commensurate with National, Gunther, and Arrow. And that means investment of a large sum of money because these brewers are no advertising tyros. If an outsider is to come in on the basis of price, then he must run over American and Free State, brewers of very fine beer, sold with little advertising, but at a relatively low price." The National Brewing Company focused its advertising on the mascot "Mr. Boh" and the slogan "the land of pleasant living." By the early 1950s, National was spending between $78,000 and $140,000 per year on advertisements.

Brewing was an established industry in Baltimore and Maryland before Prohibition. According to data compiled by the Census of Manufactures, brewing remained a significant force in the Maryland economy after Prohibition as well, particularly after World War II. Eight breweries were located in Maryland after World War II. The industry was centered in Baltimore City, which had five breweries. The National Brewing Company was the largest of the Baltimore City breweries and, during the 1950s, the largest brewery in Maryland. Strong as they were, Baltimore breweries would prove no match for national competition in the last quarter of the 20^th century as larger breweries in Midwestern cities such as Milwaukee and St. Louis invaded the local market. Anheuser-Busch had introduced the pasteurization process to brewing in the late 19^th Century, which enabled beers to be stored for longer periods of time and shipped longer distances. The company had gained a toehold in the Baltimore market by the turn of the 20^th Century but was not a serious competitor. However, Anheuser-Busch began aggressively marketing in Baltimore during the 1950s. In addition, the Phillip Morris Company, owner of Miller Brewing, began "pouring" money into television ads for its beer after cigarette ads were banned in 1970. Due to their greater production capacity, these companies and other large, national breweries were able to price local brands out of the market. Baltimore breweries began struggling in the late 1960s and had shut down by the late 1970s. The National Brewing Company plant, by then owned by Carling O'Keefe Company, closed in 1978.

National Brewing Company

The Wunder Family and Forerunners to the National Brewing Company (ca. 1850-85)

Beginning about 1850, the Fells Point brewer Johann Baier leased the northeast corner of O'Donnell and Conkling Streets. In 1863, Baier added the adjacent land at the northeast corner of O'Donnell and Dillon Streets. Baier and others dug cellars on these sites, and Baier's operation, which moved from Fells Point to Canton in the 1850s, stored its beer at Lager Beer Hill as it became one of the larger breweries in the city. In 1872, Baier's widow, Anna, and her second husband, Frederick Wunder, began operating a brewery on the site of the current National Brewing Company. Their brewery was the first to have all its operations on Lager Beer Hill and included a beer garden and tavern, now gone, for visitors from the city. No buildings survive from this period, however, parged brick remnants of an early cellar remain in the foundation of the 1885-89 Beer Cellar.

The Strauss Family and Formation of the National Brewing Company (1885-1920)

The earliest surviving buildings of the National Brewing Company complex date to the time of the Strauss brothers, who foreclosed on the Wunder Brewery in 1885. Part of a family of maltsters, the Strausses founded the National Brewery out of the earlier firm and added to the plant, constructing the surviving 1885-1889 Beer Cellar on Conkling Street. The company was renamed the National Brewing Company in 1889. A fire of 1892 occasioned more rebuilding, including the Grain Storage Building on O'Donnell Street. Further expansions at the turn of the century, including the 1899 Beer Cellar, were designed by Philadelphia brewery architect Otto Wolf. Four steam boilers totaling 500 H.P. powered the plant. All of the buildings constructed by the Strauss family were located in what is now the western section of the site along Conkling Street.

When the National Brewing Company joined Baltimore's beer trust in 1899, it was one of the largest of the 17 breweries in the Maryland Brewing Company. Nevertheless, the Maryland Brewing Company underutilized the National Brewing Company complex: for a year the buildings housed equipment brought across the street from the former Gunther Brewery, which was also part of the trust. After Gottlieb-Bauernschmidt-Strauss (G.B.S.) took over the Maryland Brewing Company in 1901, the firm used the site as its National Brewing Company Branch. No buildings were constructed during the Maryland Brewing Company/G.B.S. period (1899-1920).

Prohibition (1920-1933)

Operations continued until World War I and Prohibition put an end to National and many other breweries. On January 16^th, 1920, the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment effectively outlawed the business of the National Brewing Company. Although some other breweries converted their plants to the production of ice or non-alcoholic malt drinks, National closed altogether. In 1925 the company sold its property to the Linthicum Realty Co., which gutted the buildings and leased them to small-scale industrial operations.

The New National Brewing Company (1933 - World War II)

When Prohibition ended on April 7^th, 1933, the buildings of the old National Brewing Company suddenly regained value as a site for beer production. A group of entrepreneurs led by Saul C. Hoffberger decided to re-open the brewery. The new National Brewing Company, with its entirely new staff and Board of Directors, incorporated on May 17^th, 1933 and began to remodel the gutted buildings. The firm built several new buildings, including the 1933 Beer Cellar and the 1933 Bottling Plant in the current western and central sections of the property. Like most major Baltimore breweries reopening at the time, National replaced its old steam system with purchased electricity and reached a capacity of 800 H.P. (The Hoffberger family, co-founders of the new National Brewing Company, also operated Crown Petroleum in Baltimore.) Other than the name, the new company did not preserve a good deal of the old brewery: the firm demolished the existing brewhouse and replaced it with a modern one, now gone. The new National Brewing Company also started using Carlsburg yeast, the classic lager yeast introduced by the Carlsburg Brewery in Denmark in the 19^th Century. The "National Bohemian" and "National Premium" brands introduced by the National Brewing Company in 1933 quickly became popular, and the brewery reached a capacity of 438,000 barrels per year within six months of opening. National Bohemian became the best-selling brand in Maryland and remained so until 1970.

Regular cycles of expansion and modernization would characterize the National Brewing Company for the next thirty years. In 1940 the firm expanded its 1933 Bottling Plant. In 1941 the brewery added 3 floors to its stockhouses (now gone) along with new equipment that reportedly increased production capacity by 20%. During World War II, the company acquired the mostly-vacant land to the east (now the eastern section of the property) and constructed the 1942 Garage.

Modernization (World War II - 1960s)

After World War II, the National Brewing Company expanded to dominate the Baltimore brewing industry. With mechanization and standardized brewing operations ensuring a uniform quality, capacity became the most important factor in a brewery's success. The National Brewing Company built to stay ahead of competitors. At the top of Lager Beer Hill, the brewery erected a neighborhood industrial landmark. Between 1948 and 1950, National built its blind-walled 9-story Stock House on Conkling Street. Inside this building, National installed new equipment for refrigeration, along with a new 600-hp boiler and fifteen 1,000-barrel tanks for lagering. National also installed a new high-tension substation and reached a 1,800 H.P. capacity, approximately double what it had before improvements. The Stock House originally had an office on its lower floors. In 1954, the pressure to expand caused the brewery to install thirty lagering tanks in that space, adding another 10% to the brewery's capacity. By the end of 1954, National was the largest brewery in Maryland and one of the 20 largest in the country. National remained the largest brewery in Maryland until Carling O'Keefe's Halethorpe plant opened in 1961.

National's later expansions consisted mostly of new warehouse, bottling, and canning space, including the 1959 Loading Dock, the 1960 Annex, and the 1966 Warehouse. New automatic palletizers and mechanized conveyors enabled the large operations that production of bottled and canned beer required.

The imperative to grow also encouraged expansion in places other than Baltimore. In 1954, the company bought the Altes Brewing Company of Detroit, which it renamed the National Brewing Company of Michigan. The prominent Detroit advertising firm W. B. Doner & Co. opened a branch office in Baltimore to handle National's advertising campaigns. It was Doner & Co. who developed National's "Land of Pleasant Living" slogan. In 1956, National bought the Marlin Brewing Company of Orlando, Florida. In 1963, National began production of its Colt 45 brand, a malt liquor that was sold throughout the country, making the firm "National" in practice as well as name. By 1964, the brewery produced approximately 1,000,000 barrels per year and employed approximately 900 people in Baltimore. It was the largest brewery in Baltimore and one of the two largest in Maryland. National Bohemian and National Premium were shipped as far as North Carolina and Maine; Colt 45 was distributed nationwide.

It was during the period after World War II that the National Brewing Company, its advertising, and its products became part of Baltimore's folk culture. The National Brewing Company produced National Bohemian beer, National Premium beer, and Colt 45 malt liquor. National Bohemian was the best-selling brand in Maryland at the time, largely due to the efforts of a well-trained fleet of salesmen who visited every establishment in Baltimore City in person. Advertising also played an important role. National Bohemian's one-eyed mascot "Mr. Boh" first appeared on bottle labels in the 1930s, then became the animated star of television commercials in the 1960s. National's slogan, "The Land of Pleasant Living," became Maryland's unofficial state slogan.

Although "Mr. Boh" and "The Land of Pleasant Living" were replaced with new advertisements in the late 1960s, remnants of their billboards and painted signs can still be found throughout Baltimore. The Hoffberger family was also a visible force in Baltimore. Under Jerold Hoffberger, who became president of National in 1947, the family acquired the Baltimore Orioles in time for their World Series-winning season in 1966. From 1966 until the team was sold in 1978, only National brands were sold at home games. The well-funded Hoffberger Foundation also made substantial contributions to organizations such as the South Baltimore General Hospital.

Closing of The National Brewing Company

Despite National's growth, its rank began slipping in the late 1960s. Although National remained the largest brewery in Baltimore, its capacity was less than a quarter of that of the large midwestern breweries. The capacity of these larger breweries enabled them to lower production costs and price National out of the market. One advertising executive from Anheuser-Busch told a National representative: "We're going to price you out of business rather than market you out of business - we're going to hold our prices down, and other breweries are going to have to move prices up." Pabst passed National Bohemian as the best-selling beer in Maryland in 1970; Budweiser continued the trend in 1975. The decline continued through the 1970s as Maryland beers slipped from more than 80% to approximately 30% of the in-state market. Despite signing a license with a British firm for production of Colt 45 in England in 1975, National succumbed to a larger competitor. In 1975, the Carling O'Keefe Company of Canada purchased National to create Carling National Brewery, the tenth-largest brewery in the country. In November of 1978, Carling National closed National's plant, and the G. Heileman Brewing Company bought the company's brands. Production of the last vivid reminder of the National Brewing Company, the National Bohemian brand, moved to Heileman's Brewery in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

The National Brewing Company complex has been associated with the brewing industry, a major industry in Baltimore and Maryland, since the mid-19^th century. The company grew steadily from the end of Prohibition onward, becoming the largest brewery in Maryland by 1954. With buildings dating from 1885 to 1966, the complex effectively illustrates the evolution of the National Brewing Company and of the brewing industry from the small, family-operated breweries of the late 19^th century through the highly mechanized, large capacity plants of the mid-twentieth century.

Site Description

The National Brewing Company complex occupies a large rectangular site immediately east of the Canton Historic District in Baltimore City, Maryland. The numerous buildings on the site were constructed from 1885 to 1966. There are 11 masonry buildings and one corrugated metal building that are in poor to good condition. No machinery or other equipment associated with brewing remains. Nevertheless, the continual modernization of buildings on the site reflects the history of brewing over more than 100 years. By 1954, the National Brewing Company had largely achieved its current form and had become the highest-producing brewery in Maryland.

The National Brewing Company is situated in a mixed residential/industrial neighborhood typical of the Canton Historic District immediately west of the site. Gunther's Brewing Company is located across O'Donnell Street to the south of the National Brewing Company. Rowhouses occupy the blocks north and west of the site, while a tank farm and railroad tracks are located to the east.

The National Brewing Company complex occupies 5 city blocks bounded by Dillon Street on the north, Haven Street on the east, O'Donnell Street on the south, and Conkling Street on the west. City streets such as Dean, Eaton, Fagley, and Grundy that once extended through the complex have been closed.

Western Section

Stock House (1948-50)
Grain Storage Building (1892-93)
Oil Tank Building (ca. 1950)
1885-89 Beer Cellar
1899 Beer Cellar
1933 Beer Cellar
1933 Bottling Plant

Central Section

Case Storage Building (1951-1953)
Annex (1960)
1939 Bottling Plant

Eastern Section

Garage (1942)
Warehouse (1966)

Stock House (1948-50)

The Stock House, constructed from 1948 to 1950, dominates the National Brewing Company complex. The brick building faces west onto Conkling Street and has a 9-story center tower flanked by 7-story wings. The primary (west) facade of the Stock House features limestone detail that includes full-height piers topped by roundels, a molded cornice over the second story of the tower, and belt courses above the top stories. The first and second stories of the 7-story wings have large window openings, now bricked in. Otherwise, the building has largely blind walls punctuated by a few small window openings. The east wall is severely damaged due to the demolition of the adjacent 1933 Brewhouse. An eighth story has been added to the north wing.

A 6-story Brewhouse and 8-story Malt Mill, both constructed in 1950, extend east from and are structurally integrated into the Stock House. The Brewhouse and Malt Mill have large window openings with steel-sash windows, most of which are missing. The north wall of the Malt Mill is severely damaged due to the demolition of the adjacent 1933 Brewhouse. The rest of the building is in fair condition. The interiors of the Stock House, Brewhouse, and Malt Mill have exposed steel frames and brick and ceramic tile walls.

Grain Storage Building (1892-93)

The Grain Storage Building, constructed from 1892 to 1893, is located immediately east of the Brewhouse and Malt Mill and faces south onto O'Donnell Street. The Romanesque Revival building is constructed of brick with a granite foundation. It has a 4-story west end with a flat roof and a 5-story east end with a front-gable roof. The west end has narrow window openings with jack, segmental, and round arches filled with louvers. The east end has large window openings with steel lintels and steel sash windows. Decorative brickwork includes pilasters on the upper stories, beltcourses, and recessed panels. Copper letters in the front gable spell "The National Brewing Comp'y." A ca. 1950s corrugated-metal shed addition stands on the roof. The building is in poor condition.

Oil Tank Building (ca. 1950 )

The Oil Tank Building, constructed circa 1950, is located immediately east of the Grain Storage Building and faces south onto O'Donnell Street. The 1-story, 1-bay building is a hodgepodge of brick and concrete block construction and encloses a large oil tank that is completely encased in asbestos. A concrete-block shed stands on the roof. The building is in poor condition.

1885-89 Beer Cellar

The 1885-89 Beer Cellar is located immediately north of the Stock House and faces west onto Conkling Street. The 2-bay, 3-story, Romanesque Revival building is constructed of brick with a granite foundation and a flat roof. The tall, narrow window openings have stone lintels and sills. All are bricked in; a few have recent casement windows punched into the brick infill. Decorative details include granite beltcourses, brick pilasters, and a corbelled brick cornice with drop pendants. Copper numbers between the 2^nd and 3^rd stories read "1885" and "1889." The interior has round steel posts, a barrel vault ceiling, and plaster walls. The building is in fair condition.

1899 Beer Cellar

The 1899 Beer Cellar is located immediately north of the 1885-89 Beer Cellar and faces west onto Conkling Street. The building is identical to the 1885-89 Beer Cellar in massing, materials, and style. The 1899 Beer Cellar, however, has an integral fifth story over its east end. The building is in fair condition.

1933 Beer Cellar

The 1933 Beer Cellar is located immediately north of the 1899 Beer Cellar at the corner of Conkling and Dillon. The 4-story building is constructed of brick with a granite foundation and a flat roof. Decorative brickwork includes tapered full-height buttresses and corbelled belt courses at each floor level. The west and north walls are blind with the exception of recent small casement windows punched into the west facade and two iron-shuttered openings on the north facade. The east wall is damaged due to demolition of the 1933 Wash House and Beer Cellar, while the south wall features large window openings with steel sash windows. The interior of the 1933 Beer Cellar has an exposed steel frame and plaster walls. The building is in fair condition.

1933 Bottling Plant

The 1933 Bottling Plant is located approximately 4 blocks east of the 1933 Beer Cellar along Dillon Street. The west end of the building was constructed in 1933. In 1940, an addition was constructed on the east end of the building, the interior was remodeled, and an elevator was added. The Bottling Plant is a simple, 2-story brick building. The large window openings house steel sash windows. Several loading bays, one with wood doors, are located on the north and west elevations. The building has a stepped parapet wall on the west elevation, a 1940 elevator overrun at the northwest corner, and a sawtooth roof with clerestories. The interior has an exposed steel frame, a mezzanine around the 2 story perimeter, and ceramic tile walls. The building is in good condition.

Case Storage Building (1951-1953)

The Case Storage Building, constructed between 1951 and 1953, is located immediately east of the 1933 Bottling Plant along Dillon Street. The 1-story building has a corrugated-metal skin and an asphalt-shingle gable roof. The interior has an exposed steel frame supporting roof trusses. The building is in good condition.

Annex (1960)

The Annex, constructed in 1960 as storage space, is located immediately south of the 1933 Bottling Plant in the center of the site. The 2-story building is constructed of concrete block with a flat roof. The building has a large loading bay on its west facade and small window openings with steel sash windows on the second story of its north facade. The interior has exposed clear span steel trusses. The building is in good condition.

1939 Bottling Plant

The 1939 Bottling Plant is located immediately south of the Annex along O'Donnell Street. The 2-story building is constructed of brick with a low stepped parapet and a flat roof. The building has large, square window openings that originally contained steel sash windows. Many of the window openings have been bricked in, but some retain original windows. Two loading bays are located along O'Donnell Street. A 2-story 1959 brick addition with a loading dock extends south of the building. The interior has an exposed steel frame. Partitions divide the building into multiple storage spaces. The building is in fair condition.

Garage (1942)

The Garage, constructed in 1942, is located across a driveway to the east of the Case Storage Building along Dillon Street. The simple, 1-story brick building has a flat roof with a suspended canopy over the south elevation. The large window openings have steel sash windows. Loading bays are located on the north elevation along Dillon Street and on the south elevation facing a paved courtyard. The interior has an exposed reinforced concrete frame and brick walls. The building is in good condition.

Warehouse (1966)

The Warehouse, constructed in 1966, fills the east end of the block bounded by Dillon, Haven, and O'Donnell Streets. This massive, 2-story building has a brick first story, a second story covered in precast concrete panels, and a flat roof. There is no fenestration other than loading bays on the east elevation and a few ventilation panels. The interior has an exposed reinforced concrete frame and concrete block walls. The building is in good condition.