It wasn't long, though, in fact just three years passed before it was renovated, becoming a mixed commercial/residential building, with a grocery store on the ground floor and the store owner's residence upstairs. The building was design by the locally prominent architect, H. M. Patterson, exhibiting his creative style in the oriel windows, the heavy arched stone window lintels and a preponderance of corbelling at the cornice. Quite innovative, the features of that corbelling result in several rows of various sized dentils, with straighter lines of corbelling below. Just above, centered in the building, is a tiny squared parapet with one step, on the face of which is a rectangular stone plaque bearing the name of the original owner of the building, J.L. Morris. The ground floor commercial space was framed with cast iron pilasters, some of which remain. Another slightly unusual feature of the design is a corner entrance to one of the commercial spaces.
This building being on a corner lot, all the design features, including another oriel window, wrap around the building to include the street facing side wall.
J.L. MORRIS BUILDING
Henry M. Patterson designed this residential building for J. L. Morris in 1898, replacing an earlier dwelling. A year later, Morris commissioned J. A. Riddell to add a storefront to the east at a cost of $9,000. Danish immigrant L. M. Brobeck rented the building in 1900, opened a grocery business on the ground floor, and lived upstairs with his family. The first floor, with its cast-iron storefront, reflects the 1899 commercial addition, while the upper floor displays Patterson’s lively creativity. Arches of quarry-faced stone, oriel windows, and decorative brickwork distinguish this pleasing building, which today continues its commercial function.
From the NRHP plaque at the building