Pence Automobile Company Building, commercieel gebouw in de Verenigde Staten
The Pence Automobile Company Building is an eight-story commercial structure in Minneapolis completed in 1909, featuring showrooms, offices, repair areas, and a special freight elevator for moving cars between floors. Its Classical Revival design with columns and symmetrical forms spans over 100,000 square feet and reflects the functional yet formal architecture of early 20th century commercial buildings.
The building was constructed in 1909 for Harry E. Pence, an early automobile dealer who established his business in Minneapolis in 1903 and quickly became the regional Buick distributor. By 1915, Pence's company controlled nearly 30 percent of all Buick sales and was considered one of the largest auto dealerships of its era.
The building sits on Hennepin Avenue, where many car dealers and repair shops once clustered together. This street was the commercial heart of the growing automobile trade, and visitors can still walk through the area to understand how the industry shaped early city life.
The building is located in central Minneapolis on Hennepin Avenue and is easily accessible for those wanting to explore early automobile industry architecture and history. Visitors can view the structure from the street and observe its columns and symmetrical forms to understand how commercial buildings of this era were designed.
The building featured a special freight elevator designed to move automobiles between its eight floors, a technical solution that was innovative for the auto industry of that time. This feature reveals how the business operated inside the building and what practical challenges needed to be solved for efficient car sales and storage.
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