Evidence of this relatively tall, single-story wooden building first appeared on a Sanborn Fire Insurance map in 1892. It is not depicted on the 1888 Sanborn map, and it has a wall tightly adjacent to the Sterling Furniture/New Rio Theater next door, a building that was constructed in 1890. This indicates that it was likely constructed c.1891, though it is very possible that it was a remodel of an existing wooden building on the site as early as 1884.
The first known use of the building c.1892 was as a shop that specialized in “boots and shoes.” By 1902 it had become a bakery and remained so until sometime before 1913 when it became “sample rooms,” almost certainly for the Sterling Furniture Company store next door. On or before c.1919, it became the “Hart Bros.” cleaning and pressing business as depicted in the above photo. In 1939 it was listed as a “tailor” shop, possibly continuing in some form of the clothing business. In following years, it was also a laundry owned by Mercades Patterson Dalton and then followed by a succession of small soda fountains, coffee shops and restaurants over the years.
Through at least the summer of 1915, the upper façade of the building featured a remarkably tall, false front parapet wall. By 1919 this tall roofline was reduced in height to the curved roofline evident in the above photo, indicative that the underlying structure of the building retains its original character. As part of an extensive remodeling of the first floor of the entire east end of the block (the alleyway to Jefferson Street), in the 1970s, the building received a tan Roman brick fascia, then a popular “modernizing” motif. However, in that process, and possibly earlier remodels, the lower half of the building lost its historic character and making it a good candidate for a future revival.
REFERENCES:
- Images of America, Dallas
- Library of Congress Sanborn Maps: https://www.loc.gov/collections/sanborn-maps/?q=dallas+oregon