Introduction

The former buildings of the Rubenstein Department Store are two distinct structures, one located at 513-515 Milam, the other, next door, at 517-519 Milam Street, opposite the beautiful Caddo Parish Court House.

The building at 513-515, now known as the Lanford Building, after former owner T. B. Lanford, was built in 1907 by Joseph Dambley, a Shreveport photographer. The lower level served as Dambley's studios, the upper floors were leased out.

A rather simple facade of buff brick characterizes this three story building. Ornamentation is non- existent. This was not always the case. Early photographs show that the building originally had a recessed gallery across its middle level. Five stone Romanesque arches were the gallery's defining feature. Above, in the center of the third level, was a small Neo-Classical portico. Both the portico and the arched gallery below had cast iron balustrades. Two sets of show windows, each having four wide floor-to-ceiling panes with transoms above, were located on either side of the main entrance at street level.

Dambley occupied the building until 1917, adding a furniture and phonograph record business during the 1910s, which operated on the upper floors. In 1924-25 the building received its present facade after extensive remodeling, which also extended it back most of the depth of its 150' lot (prior to 1924 it had been only half the lot deep). The present street-level facade and iron overhang was added by Rubenstein's in the 1950s and is continuous with 517-519 next door.

During the early 1920s the Dambley/Lanford Building was temporarily used by the YMCA during construction of its present location two blocks away on McNeill Street. From 1925 to 1945 the building was occupied by the Capitol Theatre, a motion picture cinema. In 1945 it was acquired by Rubenstein's and again remodeled as an annex to the store next door. Rubenstein's occupied both structures until the department store's closure in 1987.

517-519 Milam Street was constructed in 1915 upon the former site of the Milam House Hotel, a large rambling frame structure, originally built as a residence. First called the Kittrell Building, it was initially three stories in height, the fourth floor having been added in the mid- I 920s.

The building's first tenants were the Cahn Electric Company and the KiddRuss Trunk and Bag Company. Cahn opened its doors locally in 1903; Kidd-Russ in 1912. Both moved, during the 1920s, to other Milam Street locations.

For many years the building housed offices in its upper floors: primarily a handful of attorneys and oil operators. A beauty school, Miss Lynn's, was located in the buildings upper floors for a number of years during the 1920s as well. As with the Dambley/Lanford Building next door, some services of the YMCA were housed in the Kittrell/Rubenstein Building during the early 1920s while the downtown YMCA was under construction nearby.

In 1926, Rubenstein's Department Store (founded in 1898 as "The Rubenstein Brothers' Boston Store") purchased the building and remodeled it as their new store, adding the fourth floor with its arched windows and decorative concrete detailing. In the early 1950s the street-level of the facade was remodeled to its present appearance and the corrugated iron sidewalk overhang was added. At about the same time the Rubenstein store purchased the Lanford Building next door and remodeled it as well. The two then formed a single building at the main level and were occupied, as such, by Rubenstein's until the store closed its doors in 1987.

The architects of both buildings are unknown, though the upper addition on the Rubenstein Building bears elements that indicate Clarence W. King of Shreveport could possibly have been its designer. The lower, street-level remodeling may have required no architect, though similarly remodeled facades elsewhere downtown are known to have been executed by Dewey A. Somdal and this could well be one of his designs.

The Product

The proposed plans for the Rubenstein and Lanford Buildings present sixteen apartments ranging from approximately 783 to 1331 square feet. Two-story loft apartments comprise eight of these apartments. One-story flats comprise the remaining eight. In this approach, the buildings have been connected by a common light-well created by skylights positioned throughout the corridors of the building. Common lobby areas are located on each floor.

Rubenstein & Lanford Buildings