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     The Wright Block building, erected in 1899-1900, was designed by the Milwaukee architecture firm of Charlton, Gilbert, and Demar. The three-story buff-colored Columbus pressed-brick building with elaborately carved sandstone was divided in half by a firewall. The Reservation Street (eastern side) of the building contained the Superior Savings Bank on the first floor and offices on the upper floors. The lower front facade was altered in 1954, but the more impressive eastern facade, with its round bays and colonnade, still retains much of its original appearance. The original windows were replaced with smaller, bricked-in windows in an effort to conserve heat during the severe winters.
     The western portion, leased to Jacob Gartner in 1900, was once the largest department store north of Milwaukee. Gartner bought it in 1903, enlarged it to the west in 1907 and refaced it in 1952 with a pigmented structural glass called Vitrolite. These modifications and the Art Deco sign gave his business a fashionable look for its time.