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The I. Schiffman Building, located at 231 East Side Square, is famous for being the birthplace of Tallulah Bankhead. 

It is the remaining south bay of a three-bay Federal style structure. The other two bays were demolished during urban renewal. The surviving south bay was stylistically transformed in 1895 by the Southern Savings and Loan Association and is one of the few remaining commercial example of Richardsonian Romanesque architecture in Alabama.

In 1903, actress Tallulah Bankhead was born in the second floor apartment during the time when here father William Bankhead was a lawyer in Huntsville.  Isaac Schiffman purchased the property in 1905 and his family businesses have continued there ever since. The current owner is Mr. Schiffman's great granddaughter, Margaret Anne Goldsmith, who renovated the building in 1998 and was awarded an Historic Preservation Award from the Historic Huntsville Foundation.

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©2002 Jean Brandau, licensed to About.com
Photo ©2002 Jean Brandau, licensed to About.com