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}} Italian Hall was a two-story commercial and recreational building in Calumet, Michigan, built in 1908 and demolished in 1984. Two prior buildings known popularly as "Italian Hall" stood on the site. The first floor housed commercial space with a large hall on the second floor. The building served as headquarters for the ' (Italian Mutual Benefit Society) and hosted community events. The hall is notorious as the site of a disaster in 1913 in which over 70 people died after a false cry of "fire" at a Christmas party. Since demolition, the site has served as a memorial park. The property is a Michigan State Historic Site and the building was formerly on the National Register of Historic Places. ==Architecture and use== Italian Hall was designed in the Romanesque Revival style.〔 It was located in the 400 block of Seventh Street between Elm and Pine Streets in Calumet. It was situated on lot 9, block 31 of the original plat, measuring like all others in block 31. The two-story building faced east and was rectangular, about . The walls were constructed of brick and rubble masonry. The façade was divided into seven bays, each with an arched window on the second floor. On the main wall was a cast metal cornice, bearing the words , supported at either end by pilasters topped with Doric capitals. There were three chimneys, two along the north wall and one about midway on the south. The roof, supported by I-beams spanning the width of the building, sloped from the front and rear to a low point about a third of the way from the rear. The first and second floors both had tin ceilings. When built, the first floor consisted of two shop spaces with stock rooms and living spaces at the rear. The store fronts each had a centered, recessed entrance flanked by windows. Each shop had access to separate halves of the basement. On April 5, 1913, the northern space was let to The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company and remained in that use through at least the end of the year. At the time of the 1913 disaster, the southern space was occupied by a saloon owned by Dominic Vairo; the original tenants are unknown. At the south end of the building's front was a doorway, framed by brick pilasters, with capitals and imposts supporting an arched overdoor all made of Jacobsville Sandstone. This doorway opened to a foyer with access to the saloon on its right. Straight ahead was a set of double doors separating it from a that led up to an vestibule that opened to the hall on the second floor from the front of the building. The hall measured . At the rear was a stage, beneath which was a kitchen and to one side was a barroom.〔 Along the southern wall was a viewing gallery overlooking the hall.〔 The hall also had two fire escapes. The hall was used for the society's activities and was rented out to the community; six or seven organizations met regularly in Italian Hall about 1914.〔 The two storefronts were eliminated, most likely in either 1961 or 1966, and replaced by a single entrance at the center of the first floor. In the approximate center of each former storefront were irregular octagonal windows. By 1975, the cornice had been removed and the southernmost arched window boarded up. In addition, a passage had been opened between the two halves of the basement and the first floor had been remodeled several times. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Italian Hall」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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