Ryan Block - St. Joseph, Missouri - Victorian Style Architecture on Waymarking.com

Constructed in 1889, the Ryan Block is a good representative example of a late 19th century commercial building with Late Victorian styling. The red brick, three-story building is located at 1137-41 Frederick Avenue in St. Joseph, Buchanan County, Missouri. The Ryan Block exemplifies the Small Scale Commercial Block property type as described in the “Historic Resources of Saint Joseph, Buchanan County, Missouri (Amended).”

The flat-roofed, south-facing building consists of three units in a row with common walls and cast iron storefronts, a dentillated metal cornice, and a two-story oriel window sheathed in decorative metal at the southeast corner. Both the storefront and the private spaces above are well-defined, contributing to a sense of the building as a distinct compositional whole. The storefronts have recessed entrances and boast a profusion of plate glass including semicircular transoms. Above the first floor, twenty-two double-hung, flat-arch windows are symmetrically arranged across the façade (eleven per floor, with decorative brickwork between the floors). Like many buildings fronting on Frederick Avenue, the Ryan Block is trapezoidal with parallel east and west walls while the primary south elevation is aligned with the diagonally oriented Frederick. Since its construction in 1889, the Ryan Block has experienced few exterior changes. It substantially reflects its period of historic significance and consequently easily fulfills the registration requirements for its property type.