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.

 

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.

 

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.

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.

 

 

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.

 

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 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.

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

 

Anthony (One half of the Freakin’, ‘Tiquen Guys)