Radio Wave Building

 office building, Queen Anne style (architecture), 1883_construction

130-foot, 11-story Queen Anne-style office building completed in 1883. Designed by August Hatfield as a French flat building, by 1892 it was the Hotel Gerlach, where inventor and electrical genius Nikola Tesla lived. There is now a plaque on the facade (installed in 1977) commemorating this. The name "Radio Wave Building" also stems from this. Tesla erected his transmission equipment on the roof of his lab building downtown. With his assistant Diaz Buitrago in charge of the transmitter, Tesla set up receivers on the roof of the Hotel Gerlach. It was here that he proved that electrical energy could be received remotely.

In 1899 Charles Gerlach, the owner of the hotel, stepped down; E. M. Earle was put in charge of the hotel and it was renamed the Hotel Earlington. The hotel was completely renovated, and a year later he transformed the tower room on the roof to a kennel for his 38 high-bred dogs. On August 1, 1907 Eugene M. Earle filed a petition in bankruptcy. The new manager, Guernsey E. Webb, decided to entirely revamp the hotel. In 1908, the building's original mansard roof was altered by the architectural firm Waid & Willauer. The Earlington closed in 1915. As the United States entered World War I, the old hotel was recycled as a servicemen’s hotel. In 1920 it was converted to offices and showrooms. The original, stone entry portico was covered with granite slabs in 1938, and storefronts cut into the ground floor, but around 1981 the granite was removed and the original handsome entranceway reemerged.

The building is six bays wide, with curved end bays featuring elaborately-carved bases above the ground floor. The 3-story rock-faced limestone base features a projecting, arched portico with an elaborate architrave, and paneled pilasters. Flanking the entry portico on the ground floor are segmental-arched windows, and four middle bays of the 3rd floor have round-arched windows. There are molded bands above the entrance, the middle bays of the 2nd floor, and the whole width of the 3rd floor.

The red brick upper stories feature keyed stonework, elaborate spandrels and lintels, molded bands, and a bracketed crown above the 8th floor. The building is topped by a brick parapet roof, and has an extra floor rising above the parapet at the eastern bay. The western elevation is clad in red brick and cement stucco, with a light court at the center. There is one bay of windows toward the front of the wall, three at the rear, and one on each facet of the light court.

The ground floor is occupied by Seoul Bap restaurant, Patent Coffee, and Sartorial Crown hats.