Van Allen Building

The Van Allen Building, also known as Van Allen and Company Department Store, is a four-story building in Clinton, Iowa designed by Louis Sullivan and commissioned by John Delbert Van Allen (October 5, 1850 – December 30, 1928). Constructed 1912–1914 as a department store, it now has upper floor apartments with ground floor commercial space. The exterior has brick spandrels and piers over the structural steel skeletal frame. Terra cotta is used for horizontal accent banding and for three slender, vertical applied mullion medallions on the front facade running through three stories, from ornate corbels at the second-floor level to huge outbursts of vivid green terra cotta foliage in the attic. There is a very slight cornice. Black marble facing is used around the glass show windows on the first floor. The walls are made of long thin bricks in a burnt gray color with a tinge of purple. Above the ground floor all the windows are framed by a light gray terra cotta. The tile panels in Dutch blue and white pay tribute to Mr. Van Allen's Dutch heritage of which he was quite proud. (Mr. Van Allen was accepted for membership in the Holland Society of New York in 1908). The Van Allen Building was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1976.