Sentinel Newspaper Company Building - Sedalia, Missouri - Victorian Style Architecture on Waymarking.com

Sentinel Newspaper Company Building and slightly later, the Equitable Savings and Loan, (Farmer's Mutual Insurance Co. of Pettis County)
1889
Romanesque Revival.

Rectangular plan, two stories, raised white sandstone foundation, red brick with red mortar/narrow raked joints. Raised first story accessed by left recessed door; one stone step and five wood steps. Single light door with right side panel and a single light transom (replacement, but appears historic) and a secondary taller transom (with an air conditioner) over all. Central bay with double set of stone stairs to the basement; iron pipe railings. Right single light door with left large fixed sash; low panel below. Right/south bay altered with a single light door accessed by two stone steps; the door, now only slightly recessed, would appear to have been deeply recessed to match the left entrance.

Door now with taller transom space, boarded, from the enclosure of the original recessed entrance. At the first story, above the central basement storefront entrance is a pair of 1/1 double hung sash united by a segmentally arched transom. White sandstone voussoir elliptical arch over the transom; keystone. Triple course voussoir brick round arches over the left and right first story entrances; stone extrados and stone "keystones." The three arches end with white sandstone blocks with foliated designs at the shoulder level. Rounded edge brick is used to the shoulder level between the window pair and doors; it creates a colonette-like effect across the facade. An inset stone panel above the central bay reads "8-EQVITABLE-9" in raised letters. The northeast corner turret is extensively corbeled at the base down to a stone corbel block; the turret's rusticated brick contrasts with the smooth brick of the facades. A single round arched fixed sash with soldier course round arch is in the turret. White sandstone trim is atop the round arch, serving elsewhere on the facades as a continuous lintel; stone sill. Stone atop the corbeling at the base of the turret later serves as a continuous sill for the rest of the facades. Three bay second story west facade with single sash in the end bays and three sash in the middle bay. Boarded fenestration except for the right/south window which is either boarded or painted, but which shows the 1/1 sash formation. Square transoms above, under the continuous lintel of stone. (The transoms were originally multi-light, in a pattern of small squares around a larger, central square.) Denticulation on both the turret and the west facade with a plain parapet above indicating some rebuilding. Originally this building had a steeply pitched gable roof, a conical turret roof, and tall chimneys; reputedly these were altered following the 1920s fire at the 1884 courthouse just across S. Lamine Avenue. The south elevation has a concrete parged foundation. This elevation has a slight L-shape, with the rear/east section recessed. On the left/west of the second story is a painted sign, most of which is not legible. "7UP" can be read. Two rectangular 1/1 double hung sash and one small fixed sash are on the first story. A 1/1 window with a double rowlock segmental brick arch is on the second story and a modern replacement door with a bricked (flush with the elevation plane) transom and double rowlock segmental brick arch is toward the rear/east. A straight run iron fire stair goes along the south wall to the door. A chimney is between the second story window and door. The north facade of the building faces East Fourth Street an is only slightly less detailed than the S. Lamine Avenue facade. A door to the left/east is labeled "202." Seven stone steps to the small landing; iron pipe rail. Single light door with panels and storm door; two "colonettes" to the left and three to the right with sandstone foliated caps, similar to the treatment on the front facade with the colonettes being created by the round edge brick. A fixed sash is underneath the suspended landing to the door; brick is under the stone stairs. Large four-light fixed sash to the right, grouped with the secondary entrance under a tall four light segmentally arched transom, and recessed under voussoir brick. A segmental arched with raised header trim is over this. Four segmentally arched 1/1 sash are across the remainder of this secondary elevation, all with the same treatment as the entrance. Smaller voussoir brick segmental arch with raised header trim. Triple "colonette" treatment frames each window; no caps. Second story with five 1/1 sash pairs. The sash are divided within the pairs by a single "colonette." Stone lintels. Four course corbel within the recessed window panel. Massive stone sills continuous within the recessions as are the lintels. Two piers frame the third bay, extending beyond the plain parapet. Corbeling at the lintel level extends beyond the plain parapet, corbeling at the lintel level, and extending down to the first story, ending with a stone corbel just past the first story's window "shoulder" line. Window "piers" are created between the recessed window groups, with stone corbels as those on the longer piers. At the second bay of the basement is a boarded fixed sash.

The other three bays to the west have broad double hung sash, separated per bay the short brick walls to the side walk, protected from the sidewalk by iron pipe railing. The adjacent jail building to the south wraps this building to the rear. Two symmetrically spaced 1/1 double hung sash with double rowlock segmental brick arches per story. The basement level has a fixed sash left/east. Stone cheek pieces frame the five stone steps to the rear basement door; the door has two large vertical lights.