Shaw & Schoonover Bank - Anamosa, Iowa - Converted Bank Buildings on Waymarking.com

You would not normally guess that this building was at one time a bank. It is a nice example of Italianate architecture, but it just doesn't scream "I'm a bank." According to the documentation - Lawrence Schoonover and his partner William Shaw, went into the private banking business in 1873. They had this building constructed in 1880, and then closed the bank in 1897 to merge with the Alamosa National Bank. The building is now a Hair Salon.

This is a 2-story, orange-red brick commercial building. It possesses a double facade, one facing East Main Street and one facing Huber Street. A canted front entrance to the building on the southeast corner of the building links these two facades. The Main Street facade features a remodeled storefront surmounted by a pent roof with shake shingles. A limestone lintel and stringcourse separate the first and second floors. Limestone quoins edge both of the corners of the upper floor. This quoin work echoes the same architectural motif as found in the Union Block at 100-102-104 East Main Street at the west end of this city block, so that both of these edifices act as bookends to those commercial properties in between. Shaw's Block-Jones County Courthouse (nonextant), across the street to the east at 200 East Main Street, also featured limestone corner quoins, so that this motif provided a visual continuity of premeditated design along Main Street. This is most unusual among Victorian commercial streetscapes in Iowa. Two 1/1 double-hung windows are situated in foreshortened window cavities at the 138 building, capped with limestone hoodmolds with pendants. The same hoodmolds cap the building's windows on the east elevation. A frieze with two inset panels and a cornice with dentils cap the building. The Huber Street facade of the building repeats this architectural design. The orange/red-colored brick used for this building is characteristic of locally fired brick in Anamosa, the brickyard for this operation being only a few blocks away.

-National Registry Entry

ITALIANATE DESIGNS - EXTANT Shaw & Schoonover Bank
138 East Main Street
Built in 1880, stone hoodmolds & quoins, brick frieze & denticulated brick cornice

-National Registry Entry

In December 1873, William T. Shaw and Lawrence Schoonover formed a partnership and established the private bank of Shaw, Schoonover & Co. The founding of this firm during the time of the national adversity due to the panic bespoke confidence in the future and the strength of the local economy.

Lawrence Schoonover already had ended his private banking operation in 1897, when he merged with the Anamosa National Bank.

-National Registry Entry

Address: 138 East Main Street Anamosa, Iowa 52205 Year: 1880 Website: [Web Link] Current Use of Building: Hair Salon

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