Feature 230: 111-113 South Main Street (in 2011)

Classification: Contributing.
Historic Name: Herson Building.
Architectural Style: Commercial (altered).
Construction Date: ca. 1890/remodeled before 1950.
Period 4 of Harry S Truman's Life: Attaining National Prominence, 1934-1953.
Tax Identification: 26-230-15-12.
Legal Description: Old Town, part of lot 62.
Description: Contributing two-story brick commercial buildings; rectangular in shape; shed roof sloping gently toward the rear; smooth brick exterior above large plate glass display windows (ground floor facade). Located in the middle of the block one-half block south of the Courthouse Square; commercial buildings adjoin along the north and south walls; sidewalk along facade.
• Alterations: Two buildings dating from the early 1880s and about 1890 may have been totally remodeled to create the present edifice; a rear addition was constructed early on; stucco was applied to the second-floor facade before 1950; the storefront has been remodeled and the second-floor facade was covered with metal by 1970, but which was removed in 2001.
History/Significance: The north half of this building (111 South Main) may have been constructed before the south half. In 1892, a Sanborn fire insurance map shows the present two-story building divided into two shop spaces, located at this address. The north half and later the entire ground floor housed a furniture store (second-hand in the late 1890s, then new) for decades. In the early 1900s, the building, then known as the Herson Building, was occupied by two different grocery stores (Miles Grocery and Searchy Grocery) in the north and south halves on the ground floor and James, Mary, and Kate Herson on the second floor. By 1926, a furniture store occupied the entire ground floor (and one-story rear addition). Wyandotte Furniture moved into the building, probably in the 1920s.