Christian A. Schrader Building (Indianapolis, Indiana)

 office building, Romanesque (architecture), 1901_construction

Located at the southeast corner of Maryland and Pennsylvania streets., D.A. Bohlen & Son designed this Romanesque Revival building for the Schraders’ wholesale grocery firm. The builder was William P. Jungclaus, the city’s leading contractor.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a number of wholesale firms including the C.A. Schrader Company, outgrew rented quarters and built large, imposing headquarters. The C.A. Schrader Building was erected in 1901 on the site of a former junkyard by William J. Jungclaus after the designs of D.A. Bohlen & Son. The company remained here until 1953 when it moved to a new facility. Christian A. Schrader and his brother, Henry F., organized this wholesale grocery firm under the name of Schrader Brothers. After Henry’s death, Christian renamed the firm C.A. Schrader Company. John and C.S. Ober of the Business Furniture Corporation (BFC) purchased the building in 1955. After a remodel, the BFC moved in. The corporation was founded by C.S. Ober in 1922 and was previously located nearby at 112 E. Maryland St.

The six-story wholesale building features two principal facades: that on S. Pennsylvania St. is four bays wide, while that on E. Maryland St. is seven bays wide. Two-story piers of rusticated stone blocks divide the window walls of the first two floors, while all upper floors are of tan color brick. At the third, fourth, and fifth floors, rectangular windows with stone lintels and sills are paired to correspond to the division of bays. At the arcaded sixth floor, the grouping of windows in threes is accentuated by gauged brick archivolts. The most distinguishing feature of the building are the copper pyramidal roofs displaying squire windows at attic level.