Page:MonumentalCity1873.djvu/219

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214
The Monumental City,

Architectural Iron Works.


OF the many uses to which Iron is put, none are more comprehensive than the modern application of it in the erection of warehouses. The advan- t tages claimed for buildings constructed of this material are ease in embodying any architectural design, economy in cost, space, moving or rebuilding, security against atmospheric phenomena, such as lightning, moisture, &c.; ease of ventilation, durability of material and immunity from fire. We have in Baltimore one of the largest establishments in the country for the manufacture of Architectural Iron Works. Bartlett, Eobbins & Co. began business in 1844 as stove founders. They soon added the manufac- ture of railing and ornamental work generally, and later on added the business of Architectural Iron Work proper. A large number of first-class iron buildings have been erected by them in this city; among which may be mentioned, as monuments of their skill, and admirable illustrations of the advantages of this new method of house-building, the following: the Tracy Building, Baltimore street; Numsen Building, Light street; Consolidated Building, corner German and South streets; Office Building of George R. Vickers, German near South street; McOreery Building, corner German and Sharp streets; Gary Building, on Hanover street; Noah Walker Building, on Baltimore street above Howard; and J. W. Bond & Co.'s Building, !N"os. 90 and 92 West Baltimore Street, opposite Post Office Avenue. The Works of this firm are very extensive, embracing every facility for the manufacture of material used in the construction or enjoyment of an iron building to the minutest detail ; walls, floors, doors, windows, roof, por- ticoes, balconies, cornices, vaults, ventilators, fences, gates, fountains, vases, statuary, chairs, settees, gas and water fixtures, a heating apparatus, ranges or cooking stoves, parlor stoves, grates, brackets, stable fixtures, iron pave- ments, pots and kettles, culinary implements, bedsteads, in fact everything except beds and bedding, and science will doubtless ere long find some means of remedying this apparent difficulty. Independent of the work done in Baltimore by Bartlett, Robbins & Co., they are constantly in receipt of orders from other cities, and already have erected many iron buildings in New York, Richmond, Raleigh, New Orleans, Galveston, as far as Portland, Oregon, where they erected the "Corbett Hall," a building constructed at their works in Baltimore and carried around Cape Horn to its destination on the Pacific.