Pleasant Hill Downtown Historic District - Pleasant Hill, Missouri - Wikipedia Entries on Waymarking.com

Dating from the late 1860s through the mid-twentieth century, most of Pleasant Hill's commercial buildings are simple structures of one or two stories. The traditional building material is dark red brick. Commercial building designs with various, sometimes subtle, stylistic references dominate the District. While the majority of contributing resources are one- and two-part commercial block buildings with no discernable style, thirteen resources (19 percent) represent a formal architectural style. These buildings retain architectural features and physical forms that reflect the design trends popular during their period of construction. The earliest of these buildings express the Late Victorian Italianate style through pressed metal, bracketed cornices and decorative cast-iron window hoods. Most of the high style buildings reflect the popularity of the various revival styles during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Examples in the District include Jacobethan Revival, Colonial Revival, and Classical Revival. Modern Movement buildings make up the balance of high style examples in Pleasant Hill, exhibiting the influences of the Moderne, An Deco, and International styles. The remaining fifty-five resources (81 percent) have no discernable style, with one- and two-part commercial blocks being the most dominant vernacular building type in the District.

Some facades have been altered with inappropriate infill or siding. The majority of changes reflect the modernization of the first-story display windows and entrances. The replacement of display windows and the covering of transoms above the storefronts are the most conspicuous alterations, although many alterations of this nature have left the original openings and spatial relationships of the storefront intact. Other changes are reversible, such as the addition of awnings and the application of wood or metal sheathing over the original openings. The second stories often retain their original integrity and are the principal means by which to identify the building's original appearance and style.

Pleasant Hill Downtown Historic District is a national historic district located at Pleasant Hill, Cass County, Missouri. The district includes 53 contributing buildings, 1 contributing site, and 1 contributing structure in the central business district of Pleasant Hill. It developed between about 1865 and 1959, and includes representative examples of Italianate, Queen Colonial Revival, and Classical Revival style architecture. Notable buildings include the Missouri Pacific Depot (1903), Sinclair Fuel and Service Station (c. 1950), Benson Brothers Lumber Company (1925), J. R. Prewitt & Sons Manufacturing, Inc. (c. 1926), Knorpp's Opera House (c. 1880), Wherritt Building (1924), Booth Public Library (1948), Municipal Power Plant (1939), Pleasant Hill Post Office (1938), Tucker Inn (1911), Pleasant Hill City Hall (1959), and Memorial Building (1948).[2] It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.