The Brickell Building

The Brickell Building from the Mall, 19 September 2010. Ebyabe, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.[commons-brickell-2010]

The Brickell Building stands on the north side of East Main Street at the corner opposite the First National Bank, seven bays of polychrome brick two stories high, with oriel windows carried up over the first, third, fifth and seventh bays and a broken swan’s-neck pediment over the middle, “the oddest thing on the street.”[nrhp-90000486]

Who built it, and when

Evidence: contested. It was financed by E. M. Brickell, an investor from Pittsburgh, and designed in Pittsburgh by William J. Heim, who on finishing the drawings moved to Avon Park and set up his office in the building; the National Register nomination dates it 1921, and the Pinecrest nomination of 2000 says the commission came through the Pittsburgh-Florida Fruit Growers Association and that Heim moved in 1920.[nrhp-90000486][nrhp-00000266] The Society’s 1976 history says “in 1919 the Brickel Building was erected on the corner opposite the First National Bank building. Charles W. Pabor was the architect,” and the county property appraiser’s record, drawn from the historic properties survey of 1989, also gives 1919 as the year built.[maxwell-1976][hcpao-parcels] The year is therefore two against one for 1919, and the architect one against one; Pabor was a builder, and the likeliest reading is that Heim designed and Pabor built, but nothing found proves it.

What went on upstairs

The second floor was a large auditorium “used for the Town Council meetings, lodge meetings and public dances,” and the offices around it held Dr. A. H. Able, the town’s first dentist, and the lawyers S. C. Pardee and Mattie W. Tompkins. On 11 January 1926 the council rented the building as its city hall at $50 a month, and stayed until it moved to the Jacaranda Arcade in 1928. On the street level Grover and H. Langford’s furniture store burned; Ott and Son’s department store, D. T. Lockett’s grocery, the Davis five-and-ten, Sappington’s, Delaney’s and Rich’s hardware stores and Gibbs Gifts and Office Supply followed one another there. In 1965 the city renovated the upstairs for the classrooms and offices of the new South Florida Junior College, which taught there until its campus on Highway 27 was built.[maxwell-1976]

Since 2021

The city acquired the building by quitclaim deed in February 2021 and conveyed it in April 2023, for a nominal $100, to Daniel Sauls Real Estate LLC, which opened a gym in half the ground floor.[hcpao-parcels] The transfer, the certificate of occupancy and the unrenovated upper floor were the subject of a public dispute reported in 2025.[newssun-brickell-2025]

References

• maxwell-1976 — Leoma Bradshaw Maxwell. The First Hundred Years of Avon Park, Florida. 1976. the-first-hundred-years-of-avon-park_leoma-bradshaw-maxwell_1976.md
• nrhp-90000486 — National Park Service. National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Avon Park Historic District. 22 March 1990. nrhp-avon-park-historic-district-1990.md
• hcpao-parcels — Highlands County Property Appraiser. Highlands County Property Appraiser, parcel records for the Avon Park Historic District: 28332201006900010A (1 W. Main), 28332201006900020A (15 W. Main), 28332201007000010A (101 W. Main), 28332201007000020A (119 W. Main), 28332201007200020A (307 W. Main), 28332201004200045A (2 E. Main), 28332201004800100A (19 E. Main), 28332201004200042A (22 E. Main), 28332201004200030A (36 E. Main), 28332201004200040A (110 E. Main). 2 September 2026. https://www.hcpao.org/
• nrhp-00000266 — National Park Service. National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Old Pinecrest Hotel, Avon Park. 24 March 2000. https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/d3eaa10c-7fe9-4298-af1c-11123bb9c20b
• newssun-brickell-2025 — Highlands News-Sun, February 2025. Citizens allege Brickell Building sold under table. 26 February 2025. https://www.midfloridanewspapers.com/highlands_news-sun/citizens-allege-brickell-building-sold-under-table/article_e5cfc566-f3c0-11ef-8b67-5b1ecb16b6c5.html
• commons-brickell-2010 — Ebyabe, Wikimedia Commons. Avon Park Historic District: the Brickell Building, photograph of 19 September 2010. 19 September 2010. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Avon_Park_Hist_Dist_Brickel_bldg01.jpg

Related

• Main Street’s buildings and the City Hall
• Finding: Boom-era investors: E. M. Brickell, John Raab, and Harry Winter
• Avon Park City Hall
• William J. Heim
• South Florida Junior College
• Mattie W. Tompkins
• The Mile Long Mall

Where this comes from

Evidence

single-source — One source. Treat as reported, not established.

Review

unverified — Drafted from sources but not yet checked by a volunteer.

Rights

society

Sources

1. Leoma Bradshaw Maxwell, The First Hundred Years of Avon Park, Florida (Held at the Avon Park Historical Society Depot Museum, Avon Park, Florida) (1976) · book
2. National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Avon Park Historic District (1990) · official
3. Highlands County Property Appraiser, Highlands County Property Appraiser, parcel records for the Avon Park Historic District: 28332201006900010A (1 W. Main), 28332201006900020A (15 W. Main), 28332201007000010A (101 W. Main), 28332201007000020A (119 W. Main), 28332201007200020A (307 W. Main), 28332201004200045A (2 E. Main), 28332201004800100A (19 E. Main), 28332201004200042A (22 E. Main), 28332201004200030A (36 E. Main), 28332201004200040A (110 E. Main) (2026) · official
4. National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Old Pinecrest Hotel, Avon Park (2000) · official
5. Highlands News-Sun, February 2025, Citizens allege Brickell Building sold under table (2025) · newspaper
6. Ebyabe, Wikimedia Commons, Avon Park Historic District: the Brickell Building, photograph of 19 September 2010 (2010) · secondary

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