Category:546 Hamilton Building, Allentown, Pennsylvania

The Breinig & Bachman building at 546 Hamilton Street (the southeast corner of Sixth and Hamilton streets) was built in 1894. The yellow bricked structure replaced a building of a similar name built in 1891, but burned down two years later when an electrical storm on the night of Friday, October 13, 1893 started a fire in a Bell Telephone switchboard in the adjacent Kramer Building at 544 Hamilton. The fire spread, gutting both structures. The rain-soaked walls collapsed the next day.

The building is notable for a series of circular terra cotta plaques featuring the heads of various farm animals. built into the brickwork of the building between the fourth and fifth floors. No one can say for sure why the animal heads were added, however it is believed that they were included to please one of the building's original long-time tenants, the wholesale grain and animal feed dealer George W. Eckert. Another notable feature are the numerous arched windows on both the Hamilton Street and along the Sixth Street fourth floor. They reflect the original stone arch of the second floor front facade along Hamilton Street which is the only surviving piece of the original B & B building that burned in the 1893 fire. It was saved and incorporated into the new/current building.

The building's name is derived from the building's original occupants, the Breinig & Bachman men's clothing store. Breinig & Bachman sold businessman's suits and other attire on the first floor. It was a partnership between George F. Breinig and Alfred P. Bachman. Breinig, the senior partner, had entered the dry goods business in 1877 at age 14. The remaining upper stories were used for professional office space. Breinig & Bachman operated until February 1926 when the business closed due to the retirement of George F. Breinig, head of the company. Previously in 1923, Bachman left the firm as an active partner. Breinig passed in October, 1948; Bachman in February, 1937.

In the years since, the building has housed many businesses. In May 1926 the first floor was taken over by the Leon Furniture store. Leon's moved out after several years to a new location at 20 North Seventh Street (which burned down in a massive general alarm fire in 1969), and the first floor along with the basement was converted to a nightclub and restaurant. The first club, the Avondale Palm Room, was a big band and jazz club which opened in September 1935. The club lost its liquor license in October 1939 due to a nude dancing incident, and closed. It reopened as the Circlon Club in April 1941, which played popular music, as well as a restaurant. The Circlon club closed in March 1960.

Several successor clubs came and went during the early 1960s until 1966 when the first floor was renovated into office space. It has been a general office building since Today it is primarily the home of financial services companies.

Camera location	40° 36′ 09″ N, 75° 28′ 10″ W	View all coordinates using: OpenStreetMap	40.602500; -75.469444