Spot Coffee at 200 East Avenue. Rochester, New York
I’ve written a few posts on Art Deco in Manhattan, but not anything about Rochester, New York my home since 2001. Truth said, there’s not much Art Deco in Rochester. But there is some and SPoT Coffee is one of those places. SPoT is located in a great Streamline Moderne former Chevrolet dealership. SPoT Coffee a Toronto based firm opened the Rochester Branch in the late 1990s. The building, at 200 East Avenue dates back to 1911 and by the late 1920s housed the Sergeant Ford dealership.
East Avenue looking west, circa 1930. Sergeant Ford dealership at right, center of the photo. Image from Monroe Country Library System Digital Collections.
As seen in the photograph above the building’s original design was in Arts and Crafts style. The walls were of a dark concrete with a light brick trim. The Mathews Street façade not modernized in the 1930s still has the original design.
SPoT Coffee Mathews Street Facade. This side of the building did not receive the 1930’s Vitrolite modernization.
The conversion from Arts and Crafts to Streamline Moderne took place in 1937. The 1936 Rochester City Director still lists Sergeant Motors being at 200 East Avenue. The 1937 directory does not list a business at that address. By 1938 Central Chevrolet had moved to Sergeant Motor’s former building.
SPoT Coffee’s East Avenue frontage.
The East Avenue frontage was completely covered in black vitrolite and a huge semi-circular window installed. Red neon Chevrolet signs, a neon clock and ribbed stainless steel pilasters and mullions completed the new exterior.
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- Entrance detail of SPot Coffee showing, stainless steel pilasters, mullions and neon clock.
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- The neon Chevrolet clock over the entrance to SPoT Coffee.
The interior received an up to date (for 1937) streamline make over, too. The original interior design was a restrained classical style with octagonal, modified doric columns and a coffered ceiling. While the columns survived the moderne make over the sidewalls went streamline.
SPoT Coffee interior Showing details of the original columns and ceiling and the streamline remodel of the office, with blue glass wrap around windows and stainless steel moulding.
The chrome banding and the wrap around blue glass windows typify the modern style of the mid to late 1930s. A style that would be coming to an end by the start of the Second World War.
The interior of SPoT Coffee. Looking down on the main floor from the balcony.
Streamline chandelier with mid-century down light attachments.
The chandeliers are almost pure Art Deco. They feature chrome banding, fluted rods attached to brushed aluminum discs that sandwich clear glass balls. There are 14 lights sticking out from the chandelier’s center. While the rods holding the lights seem original to the fixture, the lights themselves look like 1950’s replacements.
Close up view of one of SPoT Coffee’s Chandeliers. Photo taken from the balcony.
In addition to the chandeliers, there are a couple of “futuristic” ceiling fans cooling off the coffee shop.
When Central Chevrolet opened in 1937-1938 the manager was Maynard Hallman. Hallman eventually acquired the dealership sometime in the early 1950s and renamed the business Hallman Chevrolet. First Team bought the Hallman’s in 1986. Then after unsuccessfully trying to find a buyer for the dealership, First Team closed Hallman’s in 1990.
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- Hallman Chevrolet at Christmas, 1988.
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- The empty Hallman Chevrolet building, 1995.
While still on the market, the Landmark Society of Western New York wanted to get landmark designation for the closed Hallman’s dealership in 1991. Because of the restrictions to landmark buildings, First Team was against the designation. First Team also claimed that the Art Deco makeover was a later addition to the 1911 building. So the building sat empty. Then in 1995 the city of Rochester took a $900,000 option on the old dealership building.
Eventually the building received landmark status and in 2000 SPoT Coffee moved in. Originally SPoT had the entire showroom space. In 2011 the main floor was divided and now a Bubble Fusion and Japanese cuisine and tea restaurant moved into the eastern half of the building. An original showroom feature is the Vitrolite glass and chrome fireplace. And the same chrome stripping along the walls and ceiling lights.
Vitrolite glass and chrome fireplace in Bubble Tea on East Avenue. Image from yelp.
So should you be in downtown Rochester and you find yourself in a need for a good dose of Art Deco, or coffee, or sushi, make sure you stop in at SPoT Coffee or Bubble Fusion.
The East Avenue facade of the former Central / Hallman’s Chevrolet. Now home to SPot Coffee and Bubble Fusion.
