Segal Building

Mr. Vivian B. Smith Sr. was the architect of the Segal building, a store and office building designed for William I Segal. Smith was born in 1886 in Ocean City, New Jersey and studied architecture in Philadelphia before opening up his own office in Atlantic City in 1910. Some of Smith's other major projects were the City Hall at Ocean City in 1915; and these Atlantic City buildings: the Hurley-Jones Company store at 1714 Atlantic Avenue, the Crailsheim apartment building at 131 S. Illinois Avenue, and a store and office building for Abe Freeman at 1516 Atlantic Avenue. During World War I, Mr. Smith designed a new town and loading plant for Bethlehem Steel and the U.S. Army at Belcoville, south of Mays Landing; the plant and town covered six square miles and Mr. Smith supervised 5,000 workers in its construction.

The first floor of the Segal Building was designed to house William Isaac Segal's produce business, founded in 1912 after an earlier partnership dissolved, to supply the growing hotel businesses. His business needed room to expand so Segal bought the corner lot of 50 by 150 feet in 1920 for a new building. Segal would visit produce markets in New York and Philadelphia and have "fancy" fruits, vegetables and flowers sent by train to Atlantic City. The tracks and siding for freight trains ended at Commerce Street, across the street from the new lot.

The 1920 building held a ground floor showroom, storage space, and mezzanine level offices for Segal's company. The building is steel frame construction walled with hollow tile and faced with yellow tapestry brick. The wide cornice is simple in design, with a stone band, vertical brick band, and wooden dentils. The showroom exterior along Atlantic Avenue is cast stone with large plate glass windows under elliptical arches. The showroom interior has a decorative tile floor and fancy plaster ceiling details; metal canopies along the interior side walls held spotlights to highlight displayed produce and flowers. The windows on the North Carolina side were filled with cinderblock in the early 1980s. The rear storage areas are simple concrete floored and concrete-walled spaces; walk-in refrigerated units were added later. A separate commercial space for lease is on the right side of the main (Atlantic Avenue) facade.

Some of the tenants in the Segal building in the 1920s were attorneys John Rauffenbart and Robert J. O'Neill; real estate and insurance agent William H. Oliver Jr.; the International Speedway Association; and the firm of Harding & Sons, affiliated with the proposed Harding Hotel, to be built next to the Ambassador Hotel in Atlantic City. The main doorway along Atlantic Avenue to the upper level offices is topped by the inscription "Commerce Building," but the building has always been called the Segal Building. A bronze plaque to the west of the door reads "Wm. I. Segal & Son." The upper level offices have been remodeled a number of times and are not distinctive.

Nathan Segal joined his father's business in 1925 and eventually took over the company; Nathan was succeeded by his son, Richard. The showroom closed by the 1960s and the business became solely wholesale. The once-thriving commercial district became the victim of urban renewal and many other commercial buildings have been demolished. By the early 1980s, the Segal family business no longer occupied the building and the owners, 1200 Atlantic Associates, were on Market Street in Philadelphia.

Anonymous. "Untitled." The Bulletin of the Commercial Law League of America. January 1st 1922. 247 - 247.

Foster, Janet. NRHP Nomination of Segal Building, Atlantic City. National Register. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 1983.

Harding & Sons Company. "Brokers and Salesmen." Sunday Star (Washington, DC) March 26th 1922, 29-29.

Heston, Alfred M., ed. South Jersey: A History, 1664-1924. Volume III. New York, New York. Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Inc., 1924.

International Speedway Association. "Salesmen." Evening Journal (Wilmington, DE) November 22nd 1922. Late News ed, 17-17.

New Jersey State Hotel Association. Harding Hotel Planned. New York Hotel Record, vol. 19, 9 - 9. Published August 23rd 1921. Google Books.

Tucker, William R.. Ninetieth Annual Report of the Philadelphia Board of Trade. Philadelphia, PA. John R. McFetridge & Sons, 1923.