Schiffman Building

The Schiffman Building is a three-story commercial building at East Side Square and Eustis Avenue in Huntsville. Its 1895 Richardsonian Romanesque corner bay has a rough limestone façade with corner turrets rising above the cornice, an arched entry beside a large arched window, and a stone panel marked "I. Schiffman". The Eustis side is stuccoed brick divided into five bays by pilasters.

The main structure was built in 1845 as a three-bay brick building with large, flat pilasters. The southern bay at East Side Square and Eustis Avenue was remodeled in the Richardsonian Romanesque style in 1895, and the other two bays were demolished in the 1970s. Isaac Schiffman, a businessman and banker, bought the building in 1905, and it has stayed in his family since. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

William B. Bankhead used the building as his office while serving as Huntsville's city attorney from 1898 to 1902. His daughter, actress Tallulah Bankhead, was born in the second-floor apartment. The stone panel above the door, flanked by turrets, is marked "I. Schiffman" after Isaac Schiffman, the businessman and banker who bought the building in 1905.

The building stands at the corner of East Side Square and Eustis Avenue, facing the square. Only the southern bay survives, so the limestone corner with its turrets and the arched entry beside the large first-floor window are what can be seen from the street. The Eustis Avenue side, in stuccoed brick with five bays, is best viewed from the sidewalk.

The stone panel above the arched entry reads "I. Schiffman", a mark left when banker Isaac Schiffman bought the building in 1905; his family kept it afterwards. The corner section itself dates to an 1895 remodeling in the Richardsonian Romanesque style, while the other two bays of the original 1845 brick building were demolished in the 1970s.