Toner Store - Martinsville, Indiana
Posted by: BruceS
N 39° 25.651 W 086° 25.634
16S E 549297 N 4364376
Historic commercial building now courthouse annex in Martinsville, Indiana.
Waymark Code: WM7BR8
Location: Indiana, United States
Date Posted: 10/01/2009
Views: 3
"Toner Store, 65 North Jefferson Street, Chicago, 1915.
Believed locally to be a design of Louis H. Sullivan, the Toner Store is a brick building faced with white glazed terra cotta block. Delicate floral blocks adorn the cornice and second story name plate spelling out TONER STORE. The three-bay second story features banks of three windows each, all consisting of a fixed pane over one-over-one double hung sash framed in steel. The altered storefront features full-width display windows flanking a glass double entrance. An overhead sign indicates the building’s current function as the Morgan County Courthouse Annex.
The two-story, brick Parks & Hite Opera House, used as a commercial, professional and entertainment facility, was purchased by brothers Ott C. and Ed Toner on January 1, 1915, as the new location for the Toner Store, established in Martinsville in 1891. Advertised as the "handsomest store in this section of Indiana" upon completion of extensive remodeling in July 1915, Toner Store, thrived until 1926, when it was sold to the J. C. Penney Company. J. C. Penney remained at this location until moving to a highway strip mall in 1993. The Toner Store is now owned by Morgan County and utilized as the Courthouse Annex housing the Probation Department. - Historic District Nomination Form