This building appeared on the 1884 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, the first in the series of Dallas maps, in its current configuration as a two-story, masonry commercial building. While this building is not identified on any of the Sanborn maps with a specific name, it is referred to as the “Butler Building” in several contemporaneous articles about fires on this block and we will characterize it that way.
The building was built to accommodate two separately numbered shop spaces, one to the north at 869 Main and a south half at 877 Main. The architectural features of the unified building are discussed first in this narrative. Following that discussion, the uses and unique features of the south space at 877 Main will make up the rest of the narrative.
This building and two others on the 800 block of Main (827 & 837 Main), were two-stories tall and built from masonry in or before 1884. The rest of the buildings on the block were of wood construction. This building was developed in a relatively austere commercial style in the early stages of the Italianate design movement, but with features hinting at the ornate and exuberant elements of the style to follow in the next few years. These features on this building included a unified façade with a small sculpted cornice molding overhanging a full-length, horizonal dentil molding and, originally, six equally spaced, tall, thin double hung windows with modestly shaped, decorative lintels atop them. These tall, thin windows – characteristic of the verticality of the Italianate architectural character – fell victim to “modernization” trends in the early to mid-20th century when simpler, wider windows of the Arts and Crafts era emerged as the “must have” style. Thus, in several buildings around the square, the tall windows of the Italianate era were removed (likely at no small cost) and replaced with winder and more horizonal windows with multiple mullions and muntins which did away with various decorative touches such as the elaborate lentils and curves of the earlier Italianate era. Examples of these anachronistic window upgrades can be found on the IOOF Building (East) at 115 SE Court, on the New IOOF Building at 837 Main, the Blue Garden Building at 827 Main and this building.
In the summer of 1889, a big fire swept through the 800 block, doing great damage to the wooden buildings on the block. The masonry buildings survived and shortly thereafter, particularly in 1889 and 1890, the whole block was lined with increasingly elaborate, two-story masonry buildings, all of which some 135 years later still remain and make up the core of our historic district.
Turning to the history of the south building, 877 Main, on both the 1884 & 1888 Sanborn maps, the first floor was labeled as featuring “Merchandise/ General Merchandise”. On the 1888 map, the upper floor listed the “Good Lodge” as its occupant. This likely meant the Freemasons, an organization that was often nicknamed in those years as the “good lodge” due to their civic work.
By 1892, the main floor was labeled “Hardware” and the upper floor the “G.A.R. Hall”, doubtless a reference to the Grand Army of the Republic, a Civil War Union veterans’ organization prominent in Oregon during this era.
Both the 1902 and 1905 maps depict the first-floor shop space as a business offering “boots and shoes”, while the second floor was labeled as vacant. The 1913 map shows the first floor equally divided between a boots and shoes business and a jewelry.
Stockwell’s Confectionery and Cigars occupied the building in 1923. They advertised themselves as having the best candy around. This may have been the “confectionary” later mentioned on the 1939 map, the last map of the early Sanborn series. This map depicts the use of 424 Main as a restaurant and confectionary. Like the 1913 map, there is no mention of the use of the second floor, giving rise to the idea that it may have been vacant for many years, perhaps since the turn of the 20th century.
Since the 1939 map, the use of the store space on the first floor has been lightly documented, perhaps because there may have been periods of short business tenures possibly separated by some vacancies. The story picks up post-WWII when it appears from a poorly drawn map from 1950 that a restaurant was in the building, some folks recalling it favorably as the “Ideal Café.” How long it was there is unknown. From recollections, photos, etc., the following businesses subsequently occupied the space: Cross Coffee Shop; Gary’s 88 Discount Store (c. 1958); Tina Smith’s art gallery and framing shop (c. 2000); Allstate Insurance (c. 2009); and Zumalogic (c. 2013-16). After that it appears it was vacant for about eight years until Strive Athletics occupied the space starting in 2024.
Two renovated apartments are located on the second floor.
REFERENCES
- Maps Sanborn Fire Insurance
- Copies of photos from PCHS
- Polk County Records
- Advertising in Dallas High School yearbooks