Commercial Property

When Erle Rawlins Jr. and his wife purchased an old laundry business on Congress Avenue, his goal was to take the building and turn it from a cavernous commercial property and into a true townhome. This was in 1934, when most people were trying to find their financial footing after the stock market crash of 1929.

Rawlins was a business-savvy man — a Realtor, natch — and he knew a thing or two about architecture. So he set out on this project with the help of Earl Hart Miller, and what they ended up with is this amazing 3,000-square-foot home around which high-rises and a bustling neighborhood was built.