Hajoca Corporation Headquarters and Showroom

The story

Written by AI from this property's National Register nomination and the record above; every sentence is checked against its sources before it appears here. Corrections: privacy@treealive.com

The Hajoca Corporation Headquarters and Showroom is a commercial building at 3025 Walnut St. in Philadelphia. It began in 1921 as a warehouse, and in 1930 Hajoca Corporation commissioned architect Clarence E. Wunder to add a limestone-clad Art Deco first floor as a showroom.

Why it's listed

It was listed under criteria A and C, with local-level significance in commerce and architecture. Its period of significance runs from 1921 to 1953, reflecting the 1921 warehouse and the 1930 Art Deco showroom addition designed by Wunder.

Physical character

The building has a brick foundation, faced above with ashlar limestone cladding on a granite base, under a flat roof. A gabled parapet carries bronze cresting with leaf ornament above carved limestone piers, and ironwork bears the Hajoca Corporation's logo near industrial steel windows. A mezzanine added in 1985 was removed in the 1990s, and the original doors were replaced with double-leaf wood doors in the 1980s.

Historical context

Hajoca Corporation, formed in 1927, purchased the building that year from the Bridgman Company, its original builder. Hajoca used it as headquarters and showroom from 1930 to 1957, when it vacated and moved to Ardmore; the University of Pennsylvania bought it for business offices, and by the 1990s it stood abandoned.