Columbus Investment Company Building

Built in 1896 at 21 12th Street in downtown Columbus, this five-story brick and granite office building was first called the Columbus Investment Company Building. By 1910 it was known as the Murrah Building, and around 1958 it became the Empire Building. Its Neo-Classical Revival design includes a granite first floor with alternating smooth and rusticated stones, a projecting semi-circular corner bay with engaged columns, two-story Corinthian pilasters, and terra cotta work around the second-floor Palladian windows above the 12th Street entrance. The third-floor frieze of pressed metal and the fifth-floor entablature with modillions are noted for their craftsmanship, and the organic quality of the entablature is described as Sullivanesque. The building matters locally as one of Columbus's first high-rise structures and as a long-serving office address. Early tenants included attorneys, dentists, architects, cotton buyers and a business college, and later occupants included leading doctors, lawyers and businessmen. It remains a recognized local landmark in the central business district.