Description:

Contributing two-story brick commercial building with three storefronts on the first floor and apartments on the second floor; rectangular in shape; shed roof sloping down toward the rear (north); brownish red brick, flecked with dark orange and cream, exterior with stepped parapet above roofline on facade; west wall has painted stucco exterior; three rusticated brick piers support iron plate on which second-floor façade rests; brick pilasters project above the parapet to form small tower; brick quoins rise above corner piers; central arch beginning at the second-story sills rises above the parapet and is capped with cut stone; large plate glass display windows on first floor along sidewalk with transom lights above covered over; second-floor windows grouped between the pilasters; segmental arched windows on second-floor of west side; stone foundation. Located one-half block from the Courthouse Square on north side of West Lexington Avenue; lot slopes down gently to the west; west wall abuts an alley. Alterations: storefront display windows remodeled; transom lights covered.

History/Significance:

William F. Street built this building in 1908 by incorporating the rear and side walls of the previous building on this lot. Street, a native of St. Louis born in 1860, became a master brick mason there before arriving in Independence around 1883 during the height of the city’s building boom. He became a productive and prosperous brick manufacturer and contractor. For many years, he worked closely with Chris Yetter, prominent Independence builder. Together Street and Yetter remodeled the imposing Waggoner estate in 1899, renovated the Jackson County Courthouse in 1907, and constructed the Masonic Building at South Main and West Kansas streets, the east half of the Eagles Hall on West Lexington Avenue, and several commercial buildings in the Independence business district, as well as a waterworks building at nearby Wayne City Landing.

Active in politics and social activities, William Street served on the Independence City Council from 1903 to 1905, ran as a Democratic candidate for mayor of Independence in 1908, and held memberships in the Masons, Knights of Pythias, and Eagles. He and his wife, Sarah Elizabeth Holdsworth Street, raised seven children, including Frank, Annie (Luff), Ida, Ella, Arthur, Maurice, and Thelma. Street died in 1910 at the age of fifty, two years after completing the Street Building.

Over the years, the Street Building has housed a variety of commercial shops. Around 1911, Own Dry Cleaning occupied 210 West Lexington. The Postal Telegraph Cable Company and the Kansas City Star newspaper were located at 212 West Lexington. An interior stairway led up to second-floor offices and small apartments. In 1916 a tobacco and newsstand shop along with a tailor shop stood in the western shop space (212 West Lexington). A restaurant was located in the easternmost space (208 West Lexington), and 210 West Lexington stood vacant. The second floor apparently continued to be used for offices and boarders, including two city constables in the late 1920s. In 1930 the Marinello Shop occupied 212 West Lexington, and the Sentinel Publishing Company, which produced the Independence Sentinel, was at 208 West Lexington.

Historical Information Provided by The National Park Service History Archive

http://npshistory.com/publications/hstr/index.htm