1505 Newcastle Street — A National Register landmark transformed into Brunswick's newest boutique hotel.
Built 1909 · Enlarged 1930 · Contributing Building, Brunswick Old Town Historic District · National Register of Historic Places · Reopened as The Kress Brunswick, 2023
The S.H. Kress Building has been many things to Brunswick over more than a century. A five-and-dime department store where generations of Glynn County families shopped. A commercial anchor on Newcastle Street through decades of downtown change. A building that survived when others on the block did not.
The renovation of the Kress into a boutique hotel is Brunswick's most ambitious act of downtown revitalization in a generation. Shropshire Built partnered with the GC Partner as a key trade contractor — executing the structural and envelope scope that made everything else possible.
The scope was substantial — all demolition, all masonry and concrete work, all structural wood framing, windows, doors and hardware, exterior trim, interior trim, and all partitions. This is the structural and envelope work that every other trade builds upon. Before the hotel rooms could be finished, before the restaurant could be fitted out, before a single guest could check in — this scope had to be completed correctly. It was.
The most visible exterior elements within Shropshire Built's scope — the new wood-framed windows and doors on the hotel building, the exterior trim, and the entry details — are what you see standing on Newcastle Street today. But the most remarkable work happened on the inside, during demolition.
The original S.H. Kress & Co. signage — in its historic red and gold — anchors the ground floor exactly as it has for generations. The building's presence on Newcastle Street is the product of a renovation that understood what to keep as much as what to change.
The hotel building — 1505 and 1507 Newcastle — received a complete exterior renovation within Shropshire Built's scope: white painted brick, wood-framed French windows with black operating awnings, and a continuous storefront-glass ground floor with wood entry doors. Every detail calibrated for a pedestrian-scale downtown street.
Partnering with our GC Partner on this project, Shropshire Built executed the structural and envelope trade scope — the foundational work that sets the stage for every finish, every system, and every guest experience that follows. This is where the bones of the renovation live.
Demolition of a 1909 National Register building is not demolition in the ordinary sense. It is selective, documented, and in this case — remarkable. During selective demolition, Shropshire Built recovered over 300-year-old heart pine structural timber and more than 10,000 square feet of century-old walnut hardwood flooring, both of which were preserved, remilled, and reused throughout the building rather than discarded.
All masonry and concrete work on the project — including work on a 1909 brick building where matching historic materials and respecting original construction methods is both a craft and a compliance requirement.
All structural wood framing throughout the renovation — the skeleton on which every partition, ceiling, floor, and finish system is hung. Framed plumb, square, and to specification on a building that had been standing for over a century.
All window and door installation on the project — units specified for a historic district and installed to weather, air, and water standards appropriate for the coastal Georgia climate. The exterior doors within Shropshire Built's scope include wood doors fabricated in part from the building's own reclaimed heart pine.
All exterior trim detailing — the elements that give the building its architectural character at street level and at the roofline. All interior trim throughout the hotel rooms, corridors, and public spaces.
All interior partition construction throughout the building — defining the floor plan of every guest suite, corridor, and public space from structural framing to finished wall substrate, ready for the finish trades to follow.
During selective demolition of the Kress Building, Shropshire Built uncovered something that stopped the job site: old-growth heart pine structural timber — wood grown over 300 years, felled more than a century ago, and locked inside the building's frame ever since. In most demolitions, it goes to a dumpster. Here, it went back into the building.
Old-growth heart pine recovered from the building's structural framing during selective demolition — then remilled and returned to the building as finished architectural elements throughout.
Over 10,000 square feet of 100-year-old walnut hardwood flooring — removed board by board, bundled, and sent out for remilling. Returned to the building as finished flooring, carrying its century of character into every room.
This is what historic preservation looks like when it's taken seriously — not as a regulatory obligation, but as a genuine commitment to the building and everything it contains. The Kress has stood since 1909. The heart pine inside it grew for 300 years before that. Sending it to a landfill was never an option we considered.
The Kress Brunswick opened in February 2023 as a boutique hotel and destination on Newcastle Street. The structural and envelope work completed by Shropshire Built created the foundation for the hotel experience that guests enjoy today.
Individually designed rooms with curated finishes, millwork, and hospitality-grade fixtures — each with a distinct character tied to the building's history.
Entry, check-in, and corridors finished to the same standard as the guest rooms — hospitality-grade materials and detailing throughout every shared space.
Full commercial kitchen and dining build-out — one of the anchor amenities that makes The Kress a destination rather than simply a place to sleep.
Interior photography available upon request for qualified prospective clients and owners' representatives.
The National Register of Historic Places designation carries real weight in construction. Work on a contributing building within a historic district must comply with the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation — a federal framework governing what can be changed, what must be preserved, and how new materials are introduced alongside historic fabric.
On a practical level, this means every material decision — what gets demolished, what gets preserved, what species of wood gets repurposed and how, which windows and doors are specified — required documentation, review, and approval from historic preservation authorities before a single element was touched. It also typically involves coordination with state and federal Historic Tax Credit programs, which require specific compliance at every phase of construction.
Not every contractor can navigate this environment. The ones who have are the ones worth calling when the next historic building in your community needs to become something.
The Kress project is proof that Shropshire Built operates in this environment — with the demolition discipline to take apart a 1909 building without compromising its structure, the masonry craft to work with historic brick, the framing precision to create new floor plans inside an existing historic shell, and the window and door expertise to install period-appropriate units to modern performance standards. That is what structural and envelope work on a National Register property requires.
We bring the same discipline that built The Kress to commercial, municipal, and hospitality projects across coastal Georgia — whether as GC or as a structural trade partner. If you have a building that needs this level of craft, let's talk.