Stamps Store - Osage, Arkansas - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

The building is now used as a pottery store and a general merchandise store.

The Stamps Store is a two-and-one-half story, stone masonry commercial building designed in a vernacular interpretation of the Romanesque Revival style. It features a rectangular plan with a large, open retail/bank/post office space occupying the entire first floor, apartments occupying the second floor and a meeting hall in the upper half-story. A single brick chimney rises through the gable peak near the center of the building. The stone foundation and walls are covered by a corrugated metal gable roof.

The southern or front elevation features a two-story, shed roof wood porch and balcony attached to the stone facade of the structure itself. Both the first and second story are symmetrically arranged. The first floor is divided into three evenly-spaced arched openings and entered via the central opening with a double-leaf entry set beneath a fixed glass transom. The flanking arched windows are filled with large, fixed glass panes and simply panelled wood bulkheads below. A raised stone landing supports the wood porch. The second story is fenestrated by two rectangular, four-over-four wood sash windows flanking a central doorway which accesses the balcony. The balcony itself consists of six simple wood posts supporting the shed roof with a connecting balustrade composed of square wood posts. It is supported by four larger wood posts that rest upon the stone landing below. The upper half-story is lighted by a central one-over-one wood sash window set into a weatherboarded pediment.

The eastern and western elevations are similar. The eastern elevation is four bays in length. The first floor is blank, while the second story is lighted with three arched window openings filled with four-over-four wood sash windows to the north and is accessed via a wood single-leaf entry to the south (the wood staircase has since been removed, though its stone foundation remains). The western elevation is five bays in length and composed of five evenly-spaced arched openings, each filled with four-over-four wood sash windows. It is also blank on the first floor.

The northern or rear elevation is completely symmetrical, with a central arched entrance on the first floor separating two four-over-four wood sash wood windows set into arched openings. The second floor is lighted with two smaller arched openings, also filled with four-over-four wood sash windows. The half-story above is lighted with a central window opening (now covered) set into a weatherboarded pediment. A slightly projecting wood box cornice finishes the elevation.

Exterior details of note are primarily limited to the massive mud and segmental stone arches throughout. While those on the front of the building are more finished than those found elsewhere, all rely upon a sophisticated setting of the stone voussoirs to support the weight of the wall and roof above. The rough, cut fieldstone walls lends handsome, heavily textured appearance to the large fields of uninterrupted wall surface and provide the only other significant ornament.

- National Register Application

The Stamps Store is a historic commercial building on Arkansas Highway 103 in Osage, Arkansas, a hamlet off United States Route 412 between Alpena and Huntsville. It is a 2-1/2 story stone structure, with a front-gable roof, and vernacular Romanesque Revival styling. The first floor was originally a large open retail space used as a general store, the second floor was a residential space for the proprietor, and the upper half-story was a meeting space. It was built 1899-1902 by Willie and Millie Sneed, and was operated by the Stamps family from 1912 to 1990. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990 for its architecture and its historical importance to the small community.

- Wikipedia Entry

Street address: 22 CR 996 Osage, AR USA 72638 County / Borough / Parish: Carroll Year listed: 1990 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Architecture/Engineering Periods of significance: 1900-1924, 1875-1899 Historic function: Commerce/Trade Current function: Commerce/Trade Privately owned?: yes Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Secondary Website 1: [Web Link] Season start / Season finish: Not listed Hours of operation: Not listed Secondary Website 2: Not listed National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   12/23/2014 silverquill visited it