Wholesale Row - St. Joseph, Missouri - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

http://dnr.mo.gov/shpo/nps-nr/77000800.pdf The Wholesale Row Historic District is contained within Block 42 in the original town of the city of St. Joseph,Missouri. It is a commercial district, originally developed for wholesale use and later used partially for manufacturing.

The area on the western edge of the central edge of the central business district is two blocks north of the Market Square Historic District which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places prior to its almost total demolition by the local Land Clearance for Urban Renewal office in 1973. A fragment of the Market Square district survives in the revised National Register entry, Missouri Valley Trust Company Historic District. To the northeast of the district is the Buchanan County Courthouse, constructed 1873-1876, also enrolled in the National Register of Historic Places. To the east, west and south of the extant buildings were former commercial buildings of similar architectural style which have been demolished, thus reducing this grouping of late, nineteenth century warehouse structures and making it all the more urgent to recognize the examples which remain in this downtown area which is experiencing a rapid rate of clearance.

The district includes five (now four) High Victorian Italianate warehouse buildings:

1. (no longer standing) Noyes-Norman Building 209-211 N. 3rd St., constructed 1872. It is the earliest of the extant buildings in this wholesale district.
2. R.L. McDonald and Co. Building, also known as the Big Smith Building, 202 N. 4th St., constructed 1880. This building is now unoccupied but is undergoing appropriate renovation by an investment company which owns it.
3. Englehart-Winning & Co. [south] Building, 212 N. 4th St., constructed 1880 and now unoccupied.
4. Englehart-Winning & Co. [north] Building, now the Boston House and Window Cleaning Co., 216-218 N. 4th St., constructed 1884. 5. Brittian-Richardson & Co. Building, now unoccupied, 224 N. 4th., constructed 1882.

These warehouses are constructed of red brick with trim of stone, wood, cast iron, terra cotta and pressed metal. The exposed end walls on the eastern half of the block (Jules Street to the north and Francis Street to the south) have fully developed facade treatment. The rear facades have windows, but are plain. As the site slopes downward from east to west, the basements of the four buildings on the eastern half of the block are at ground level on the west alley passing behind them.