Introduction

The Selber Building, located at the southwest corner of Milam and McNeil Streets was completed in 1956 to house the offices and central store of the Selber Brothers Department Store company, founded in 1907.

The site was selected by executives of the Selber Brothers Company -- all members of the Selber family-- in 1954. The site was occupied originally by the Majestic Theatre, a Vaudeville house turned cinema built in the 1890s, which had been seriously damaged by fire in 1954. The Majestic was purchased from the Lane and Jordan families of Shreveport and demolished. In 1955, construction of the 80,000 square foot Selber store began.

Architects for the project were Somdal, Smitherman, Sorenson and Associates of Shreveport, working in cooperation with Brochstein Brothers of Houston, Texas, specialists in department store design. The new building is built of orange and beige brick trimmed with red marble and bronze fittings. The building, opened in February 1956, features wide plate glass show windows along its street levels on Milam and McNeill and two floors of wide bay windows above its main entrance on Milam Street.

For a time the 601 Milam Street building was Selber Brothers only Shreveport store (the old store at Milam and Marshall having been vacated in January, 1956). In 1964 Pierremont Mall on Line Avenue at Southfield Road was opened with Selber's as its anchor store. Seven other stores were also operated by the firm, some in locales such as Monroe and Lafayette, Louisiana and Tyler and Longview, Texas. Others opened later in Shreveport in new suburban shopping centers and malls. Selbers closed the downtown store in the mid-80's, citing poor sales receipts as compared to its other stores. Offices continued to be housed in the downtown store and it continued to be used as a warehouse for the firm until its closure in 1987. The building is still owned by the Selber family.

THE PRODUCT

The proposed floor plans present thirty- six one-story flats ranging from 823 to 1451 square feet. All of the floor plans are open and spacious. Raised platforms with stairs and railings differentiate the bedrooms from the remainder of the apartment. Proximity of the Selber Building to nearby retail businesses, restaurants and the courthouse makes this a prime location for future residential and retail development.

Selber Building

Introduction | Existing Floor Plans | Proposed Floor Plans | Fact Sheet |