Baker Motor Vehicle Company Building, historic commercial building in Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States
The Baker Motor Vehicle Company Building is a 1910 commercial structure in Cleveland that once served as a showroom and service center for electric cars. The building features corner towers and red tile roof combining industrial design with mission-inspired architecture, and large display windows made the vehicles visible from the street.
The Baker Electric Motor Car Co. bought the Winslow House lot at 7100 Euclid Avenue in early 1909, demolished the house, and first occupied its new showroom on May 2, 1910. Baker Electric merged with Rauch and Lang in 1914, and the building was sold in 1920. It then housed an auto dealership, machine shop and print shop for 86 years before a two-year renovation from 2006 to 2008 turned it into a startup business incubator. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 21, 2007.
The showroom's oak panelling was stained silver-grey, with carved crests on each panel and a checked ceramic tile floor with an intricate border. Rohrheimer-Brooks, Cleveland's leading interior design studio, decorated the showroom and offices, and the reception rooms' furniture and fittings were finished to look like silver. The building was first occupied on May 2, 1910.
The building stands at 7100 Euclid Avenue, set 50 feet back from the street behind a lawn and a red quarry tile terrace, with a copper canopy over the two front entrances. The showroom's plate glass windows face Euclid Avenue, while the former garage bays open onto East 71st Street. The structure now operates as a startup business incubator.
The electric garage behind the showroom held 60 charging stations and stored 80 cars on four tiers of elevated racks, with a turntable and car wash at its E. 71st Street entrance. A separate one-bay garage handled gasoline cars, and a small elevator led to a 50-by-35-foot battery room in the basement.
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