Hat & Cap Mutual Insurance Home Office

The building reads as a bowler hat from any approach: a charcoal dome four stories at the crown, ribbon windows where the hatband would sit, and a cantilevered brim wide enough to walk, which employees of Hat & Cap Mutual Insurance did on breaks from its completion in 1959 until the company's absorption in 1991. The home office now houses Kettleford Family Dental, which inherited the structure, the brass lobby directory, and by most accounts the obligation of the Friday brim tours. The directory still lists Claims, Underwriting, and Hat Blocks — the last unexplained by anyone currently in the building — and the tours proceed at 4 p.m. Fridays, weather and appointment schedule permitting. Fuller documentation awaits someone able to establish what Hat Blocks was. The receptionist books the tour and the cleaning in the same call.