The Holman Building on Grafton Street in downtown Charlottetown, once a department store and soon to be transmogrified from office space into the Hotel Homburg, is having its regrettable modern skin peeled off to reveal the facade the building once presented. Our man on the street G. captured the first stabs:
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Comments
I’ll have to wander by to
I’ll have to wander by to take a closer look but, based on that photo, one has to wonder why they ever covered it up in the first place? Your assessment of the current facade is correct — regrettable.
I believe they are planning
I believe they are planning to call it the Grand Holman Hotel.
I saw them removing these
I saw them removing these panels this morning whilst waiting on the bus. I was also thinking that it was such a shame that they covered that brick up in the first place.
Those look like the same
Those look like the same porcelain-steel enamel panels as on Lustron homes. That would make them not just modern, but vintage modern. Lustron seems to have been a pioneer of machine-fabricated construction. Just think how hip those early post-War Islanders must have felt when they applied those tiles!
These very well could be
These very well could be porcelainized steel panels. These were used in commercial buildings including gas stations and other structures for many decades. For example, see the bus station shown on the news page of Lustron Connection.org website. It is very unlikely that the panels shown were actual Lustron panels made at the Lustron factory, but it would have been the same process. Porcelainized steel would have been perfect for this structure. It would not have needed re-painting, it wouldn’t peel.
Word around town is that they
Word around town is that they were indeed porcelainized steel panels, and that they came from the Enterprise Foundry in Sackville NB.
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