Van Antwerp Building

The Van Antwerp Building in Mobile, Alabama, is an eleven-story high-rise completed in 1907 and considered the city's first skyscraper. It is also one of the first reinforced-concrete high-rises in the southeastern United States. Built in the Beaux-Arts style, the tower was designed by architect George Bigelow Rogers for the pharmacist Garet Van Antwerp, whose shop on the ground floor operated until the 1960s. After the Alabama Retirement Systems purchased the building in 2012, when it had fallen into disrepair, it underwent an extensive restoration between 2014 and 2016. Among other things, the terra-cotta facade and the historic cornice were restored, and the building has been back in use since 2016.