The Unity Building- Downtown Webb City Historic District - Webb City, Missouri - NRHP Historic Districts - Contributing Buildings on Waymarking.com

114-116 N. Main Street
The Unity Building and Merchant and Miners Bank
ca. 1906
[c]

This is a three-story brick, multiple-front corner block building and was constructed to house a bank in the north section and a jewelry store in the south section of the first level. The building features a rounded corner façade, flat roof, concrete foundation and is notable for the terra cotta detailing around the entrance and the cornice line. Each upper level has well-defined zones, the second level is emphasized by a stone cornice line over the first level and there is a continuous stringcourse, which wraps from the façade (east) to the north elevation, offsetting the third level. The building is faced with light brown brick on the façade and north elevation and is offset by a red brick trim along the roofline and side edge (façade) of the building. Originally, the building had a projecting cornice, it is unknown when it was removed. The façade features a centered double wood and glass entrance with decorative dentils above the door with a transom. The pedimented entrance surround is designed in a speckled brown terra cotta.

Centered directly under the projecting edge and over the transom is terra cotta relief with the words “The Unity Building.” A terra cotta stringcourse separates the first level from the upper levels and wraps around to the north elevation. Located to the south of the centered entrance is a glass storefront with a transom (covered over), and a retractable green striped awning. To the north of the entrance is another double wood and glass door with a transom. The northeast corner of the building holds a corner tower that runs the full height of the building. The rounded corner and the terra cotta stringcourse help to emphasis the verticalness the building. On the first level of the corner tower is a door opening that has been infilled with glass blocks (prior to the 1940s) and is flanked by original or early period tall, narrow one-over-one double-hung windows. Brick pilasters with a terra cotta cap separate the windows and the door opening.

The first level of the north elevation features six sets of original or early period one-over-one double-hung windows with an entrance at the west corner. The second and third levels of the façade mirror each other with one-over-one double-hung windows and paired one-over-one double-hung windows over the centered entrance. The west elevations feature one-over-one double-hung windows on the second and with the third opening from the north corner holding a door and fire escape. The first level has a centered door and double-hung windows.