501-505 South Main Street (Also has an entrance at 120 East Fifth
Street), 1917; Christman's Department Store.
This is the largest and most intact historic building in the immediate vicinity. It has brick walls, a concrete foundation and a flat roof. It is six stories tall, with brown brick and light terra cotta on the main elevations, and red brick on secondary wall surfaces. The façade, which faces west to South Main Street, is 65 feet wide, and the north elevation, which runs along East Fifth Street, is 120 feet long. The lower part of the back (east) wall is connected to the neighboring building, as are the bottom two floors of the south side wall.
The design of the building reflects its corner location; both of the elevations with street frontage feature nearly identical patterns of fenestration and ornamentation. A substantial terra cotta cornice runs along the top of the mezzanine floor level on both elevations, and the upper floors are divided into wide, window-filled bays. The bays are separated by brick piers on the upper floors and by brick pilasters on the lower floors. The top of the building originally had a cornice along those two walls as well; historic photos show that the top cornice was replaced with a band of plain brick sometime before 1940.
The building appears to be in good condition however it is mostly vacant.