Feature 232: 115 South Main Street (in 2011)

Classification: Contributing.
Historic Name: Gosset-Welch Building.
Architectural Style: Commercial.
Construction Date: ca. 1890.
Period 2 of Harry S Truman's Life: Establishing Community Roots, 1890-1919.
Tax Identification: 26-230-15-07.
Legal Description: Old Town, part of lot 62.
Description: Contributing one-story masonry commercial building; rectangular in shape; flat roof concealed by stepped parapet on facade; brick exterior; large plate-glass windows on ground-floor facade. Located in the middle of the block about one-half block south of the Courthouse Square; commercial buildings adjoin along the north and south walls; sidewalk extends along facade.
• Alterations: Ground-floor display windows, taking up more than half of the facade, have been altered since the period of significance.
History/Significance: Constructed around 1890, this small one-story commercial building has throughout most its life served as a shop space providing secondary commercial services or supplies, such as barbering, feed store supplies, and tailoring. In the early 1890s, a barbershop occupied the space, followed by a feed store in 1898. For several years around this time, and "old" (on Sanborn insurance maps) two-story building, apparently a rooming house, adjoined the brick commercial building in the rear. Sewing machines were sold in this shop space around 1907. Four years later, Joise Gossett operated a grocery store and John Welch, a plumber, held forth in the building. A barbershop had returned to the building by the mid-1920s. Samuel Reisman operated his tailor shop at 115 South Main Street in 1930.