Feature 213: 201-203 North Main Street (in 2011)

Classification: Contributing.
Historic Name: Hill and Martin Building.
Architectural Style: Commercial.
Construction Date: 1907.
Period 2 of Harry S Truman's Life: Establishing Community Roots, 1890-1919.
Tax Identification: 26-230-02-08.
Legal Description: Old Town, south part of lot 5.
Description: Contributing two-story brick commercial building; rectangular in shape; flat roof concealed by parapet with slightly projecting cornice; brick exterior with stone lintels and sills above and below windows (second floor); large plated glass display windows (ground floor) and paired one-over-one double-hung windows (second floor), three bays on west side and four bays on south side; angled corner entrance. The building is located on the northeast corner of North Main and Maple Avenue; sidewalks extend along the west and south sides; buildings adjoin on the north and east walls.
• Alterations: Two shop entrances facing Main Street were converted to one angled corner entrance before 1950 (probably around 1948) with a large concave marquee extending from entrance awing to top of parapet; a rear addition was constructed also around 1948; ground-floor display windows have been altered several times; six-over six double-hung sash windows on second floor were converted to one-over-one; a major rehabilitation project was completed in 1998, which (among other things) reduced the glass at the corner entrance and minimized advertising on the corner above the door.
History/Significance: Charles S. and John E. Hill, along with William Martin, erected this building in two phases in 1907, after a devastating fire in mid-1907 burned their hardware store, which occupied a smaller two-story building on the north half of this building site.
Charles S. Hill and William Martin had become partners in the hardware business in 1894. Charles's brother, John Hill, had joined the firm in the late 1800s. Charles (born in 1862) and John (born in 1854) were the sons of English immigrants Richard and Elizabeth Sterns Hill, who had come from England to Wisconsin in the early 1850s, and then to Independence in 1868, where Richard Hill opened a wagon and blacksmith shop on East Lexington Avenue.
This new two-part 1907 building was raised on the ashes of the old. The north half of the site occupied by the destroyed building was built first. Then the neighboring three-story building to the south was dismantled and built anew. Hill and Martin Hardware Company occupied the ground floor; professional offices were on the second floor. The hardware company erected a sheet metal shop in the rear of their store (east side along East Maple Avenue). The northern half of the building was occupied by a grocery story (Saylor and Son Grocery). Hill and Martin eventually occupied both shop spaces (201 and 203 North Main). William Martin left the business in 1918, and the store became Hill Brothers Hardware Company. The two brothers conducted their business from this location until 1948 when John Hill died. Charles them moved to 115 East Lexington Avenue [outside the historic district] and opened the Charles Hill Heating and Plumbing Shop. Charles Hill died in 1957 at the age of ninety-four. In 1948, the Katz Drug Company had remodeled and moved into the Hill and Martin Building. This building stood vacant for many years before being rehabilitated in 1998 as a restaurant.
Note: It is unclear what feature the original 2011 nomination form is referring to in the Description Section where it states that a building adjoins the Hill and Martin Building on the east wall. The Hill and Martin building has a one-story addition attached to the rear (east) of the building, but it is not counted as a separate feature in the original 2011 nomination. There seems to be no other structure, neither on the original 2011 nomination map, nor on the ground.