{"nrhp_refnum":"04000239","name":"Lewis-Rothchild Building","other_names":["Commerce Building"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1214 First Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Columbus","county":"Muscogee County","state":"GA","lat":32.46910781300005,"lon":-84.99151875899997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2004-03-26","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Commerce"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A five-story brick commercial building with a full basement at 1214 First Avenue in downtown Columbus, Muscogee County, Georgia, built c. 1910 as a dry goods store by James A. Lewis.","why_significant":"It is a good, intact example of an early 20th century Classical Revival commercial building in Columbus (Criterion C). It is also significant in commerce (Criterion A) for its association with the James A. Lewis Company and with David Rothschild & Company, dry goods businesses that served the Columbus area.","narrative":"Located in downtown Columbus, Georgia, this five-story brick building at 1214 First Avenue was constructed around 1910 as a dry goods store for James A. Lewis, who later expanded his business into wholesale. Its symmetrical Classical Revival front has brick pilasters with corbelled capitals, a parapet, segmental arches and two cast iron columns marked with the James A. Lewis Company name. From 1912 until 1958 it housed David Rothschild & Company, a dry goods, notions and men's furnishings jobber that after World War II became the only converter of cotton goods in Georgia. The Lewis family sold the building in 1964, and it was modernized for offices behind a glass and steel facade. A recent rehabilitation removed that facade and the interior partitions, revealing the original storefront, window openings, plank ceilings, post-and-beam structure and freight elevator pulleys. It is listed for its architecture and its role in local commerce.","period_of_significance":"c.1910-1958","architect_builder":"Unknown","architectural_style":"Late 19th and 20th Century Revivals/Classical Revival","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Rehabilitated to its historic appearance after the 1964 facade was removed; currently used as office space.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:43.602875-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_GA/04000239.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/93206498","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q134392324"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/georgia/muscogee-county/lewis-rothchild-building-04000239/"}