The Historic Flinn Block Building
The Historic Flinn Block is made up of two buildings at 222 First Avenue West in Downtown Albany, Oregon, between Ellsworth and Broadalbin Streets.
The Flinn Building “is Albany’s grandest extant 19th century commercial structure, and has one of the finest cast iron facades in the northwest.” (National Register of Historic Places nomination form). It was built in 1887 in the French Second Empire style.
The Ames Building was built in 1910 and housed a hardware store for decades, with retail on the ground floor and a warehouse on the second floor. In the 1970s, the two buildings were joined at the ground levels and Albany’s first indoor shopping mall was created.
A full renovation of the Flinn Block buildings began in 2005 and was completed in 2010. The Flinn Block now has the best of the old and the best of the new, with restored original woodwork and ceiling tiles, 16-foot ceilings, and large double-hung windows complimented by new wiring, heating, air conditioning and lighting plus a new elevator providing full access to the second stories.
Five ground floor retail bays are located on the best block in downtown Albany. The area’s nicest office suites are in the second floor of the Flinn Building. The former warehouse on the second floor of the Ames building has been turned into the area’s most popular event center for weddings, receptions, dances, parties and business meetings.