Feature 205: 112-114 North Liberty Street (in 2011)

Classification: Contributing.
Historic Name: Buchanan Building and McCoy Building - Building #1.
Architectural Style: Modern.
Construction Date: 1951.
Period 4 of Harry S Truman's Life: Attaining National Prominence, 1934-1953.
Tax Identification: 26-230-11-16.
Legal Description: Old Town, block 11, part of lot 50.
Description: Two contributing two-story masonry commercial buildings; rectangular in shape; two flat roofs behind shallow parapet; brick and concrete exterior with bold, light horizontal bands above and below second floor windows; large plate glass display windows; two recessed entrances; one of which is a diagonal corner entrance facing West Maple Avenue with the street address of 201-203 West Maple [Feature 246].
• Alterations: Changes made to the exterior of these buildings within the past fifty years have been relatively minor.
History/Significance: This two-story tandem commercial building was constructed in 1951 during a period of robust new construction and remodeling activity on the Courthouse Square. These replaced two other buildings on the site, a two-story Queen Anne style building with a projecting bay window on the second floor (replaced by a flush window by 1950) at 112 North Liberty Street known as the Buchanan Building (after James F. Buchanan, an abstractor), and the three-story Italianate style McCoy Building at 114 North Liberty Street [Feature 206]. Historic photographs depicting 112-114 North Liberty Street in February 1950 and December 1951 (as well as the 1962 Sanborn map of the Courthouse Square) show the new 1951 building that replaced the Buchanan and the McCoy buildings. In 1951, Sturges Jewelry Company occupied the ground floor commercial space and the Personal Finance Company rented the second floor of 112 North Liberty Street. Leighter's did business at 114 North Liberty, at the corner of West Maple.