120 High Street West - Oskaloosa City Square Commercial Historic District - Oskaloosa, Ia. - NRHP Historic Districts - Contributing Buildings on Waymarking.com

Date of Construction: 1911 (plaque on front)

Information taken from page 18 & 19 of the pdf for Type V buildings and pages 151 & 152 of the pdf on the specific building.

Type V Building - Type V buildings are, again, the standard rectangular commercial box with load-bearing masonry walls. Most of these buildings are two-stories in height, only four examples are three-story buildings. The only one-story building in the entire district is also of this type. The bricks of the Type V facade are slightly larger than those of the earlier building types and display a new range of color: from tan to dark brown, with a marked gradation within each color. Textures have changed, too. Several Type V building facades are constructed of the rough, striated bricks newly popular at this time.

At their second levels, Type V buildings have wide, double-hung windows with large single pane sashes. Windows are either paired or regular spaced. The approximate 2:1 proportions of the windows and the examples of paired windows reinforce the new horizontality of the facades. On many of these buildings, ornament is limited to horizontal bands of raised or recessed brick laid in repetitive rectilinear patterns. These decorative brick bands run the full width of the facade, usually just above the upper level windows, and are commonly of a contrasing color. Simple corbeled brick cornices are also common, as are name and date plaques. A stepped parapet appears on one building of this type.

As with other buildings of this district, the street level facade of Type V buildings have been repeatedly renovated so that original materials, in many cases, have been lost.

Specific to building - Unknown Architect. New first floor storefront. The building is considered endangered due to structural problems.

The wide, short, double hung windows, regularly spaced, give this building more of a horizontal emphasis, putting this within the Type V category. The cornice, constructed wholly of brick, does not rely on literal historical precedent but rather is more of an abstraction of a Doric order architrave or perhaps Italianate bracketing. A central plaque, of contrasting color, stating the name and construction date of the building is evident, another trait in Type V buildings.

History of the building tenants:
1889 - S.B. Shannon & Co. Furniture & Undertaking, Two Jewelers
1902 - C. Beadle Office
1911 - Barber, Osborn's Saloon, Perkins & Gosselink Shoes
1925 - Leader Dept. Store; Kopf Bldg. Physicians Offices; Bsmt - Barber Shop
1936 - Leader Dept. Store; Offices Above
1954 - New Leader Dept. Store; King of Prussia Hall; Credit Bureau of Mahaska Co