An old Shoe Wholesale Company was based here for 60+ years
R. Brand and Company - Western Shoe Company, Toledo Ohio
An excellent example of late nineteenth-century Toledo commercial architecture stands at 120-124 St. Clair Street. Although the county courthouse records carry an 1877 date, it appears that the building was completed in 1874. R. Brand and Company, Wine and Liquor importers occupied the building for thirty-six years. Guido Marx, one-time mayor of Toledo, and Adolph Brand founded the firm in 1849.
In 1910 another old Toledo firm purchased the building. The Western Shoe Company. General John Fuller and True M. Childs founded the firm in 1867 and it was incorporated as the Western Shoe Company in 1900. The company was one of the few wholesalers left in the field and maintained an excellent profit picture throughout the years.
The late nineteenth century, four-story, stone and brick commercial building was once part of a block of similar structures, but now stands alone, with parking lots on either side. The front facade (west), composed of stone and glass, features a center entrance, large display windows, and cast iron columns on the first floor. The second floor has three sets of three rectangular windows with pilasters between each window and stone bands between each set.
The third and fourth-floor facades are divided similarly with segmental-arched windows on the third floor and round-arched windows with keystones on the third floor. There are wide stone bands between the floors. Above a wide frieze, there is an elaborately bracketed cornice. A stone set into the lower story reads: "J. V. Sanfleet, Builder".
The north and south sides are solid brick and once abuted other structures. The roof is flat.
Front west side (1974)
