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CNH (J. I. Case Headquarters Building)

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1904, Wilson and Guilbert. 700 State St.

Founded in 1844, the J. I. Case Company helped transform Racine into an important manufacturing city. Jerome Case developed a threshing machine that efficiently separated the grain from the stalk and cleaned the chaff from the grain in one operation. Soon his company became Racine’s largest employer and the world’s leading threshing machine manufacturer. In 1904, when Case introduced the first all-steel thresher, the company built this headquarters in a Beaux-Arts classical mode. Inspired perhaps by the much-admired Boston Public Library, the architects utilized a composition with two-story arched windows separated by classical pilasters along the length of the facade. Classical moldings trim the cornice, and a low-hipped tile roof crowns the building. The entire composition rests atop an elevated basement. Above the central entrance is the Case Company’s logo: an eagle perched on a globe. The grand interior space, two stories high, was divided into separate floors in 1957.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Marsha Weisiger et al.
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Data

What's Nearby

St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church
Dania Hall
Shoop Building
Old Main Street Historic District
Historic Sixth Street Business District

Citation

Marsha Weisiger et al., "CNH (J. I. Case Headquarters Building)", [Racine, Wisconsin], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/WI-01-RA21.

Print Source

Buildings of Wisconsin

Buildings of Wisconsin, Marsha Weisiger and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2017, 175-175.

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