"I'm puzzled by how the apartments fit…"

A number of people have wondered about this ~
"I'm puzzled by how the apartments fit - elevation-wise - with the mezzanine. Are they a third floor altogether? And if so, is there something west of them?"

~ so here's an attempt to explain.

Once upon a time, around 1876, the Bryson Block was brand new. It was two stories high, in the usual manner with a main floor, a basement, and an upstairs. When it was new, it was only 66 feet deep, so it didn't fill the lot all the way to the alley. It housed two retail shops - a grocery in the south half, and a dry good store in the north half. Gentlemen's sleeping rooms occupied the second floor. We know this information from reading newspaper ads and the Small Talk column in the Washington County Press

A one story brick ware room was attached at the rear of the dry goods store. However, there was no such room behind the grocery. Instead, the Sanborn Fire Maps show a small wooden storage building by the alley.


Sanborn Fire Map, 1885 (the oldest fire map I have) The numbers in the corners of the buildings tell how many floors; the little circles are for stove chimneys, the lines dashed through the exterior walls represent windows.

A two story brick addition was built at the rear of both shops, probably around 1894 or 1895. It absorbed the one story brick ware room and extended the building all the way to the alley. The date is conjecture - based on an 1895 news clipping that says the owner is installing a metal ceiling in his fine new building. The 1897 Sanborn Fire Map shows the addition, but the 1892 map does not.

At this point, the second floor is just like any other second floor - a layer of rooms above the main floor. The tall windows with arched tops are the second floor. That's where the apartments will be located.

In 1927, J C Penney Company arranged to move from their store next door into the larger building, and at the same time, remodeled to suit their needs. An article in the March 29, 1927 Washington Journal mentions that "a sort of mezzanine floor has been constructed to accomodate the office, which is equipped with the latest devices necessary, including ten cash carriers."

What did they do in 1927? Starting about 80 feet from the front of the building, the second floor walls, flooring, and joists were removed, leaving a huge cavern in the back of the building with a ceiling over the main floor which was about 26 feet high - all the way to the roof. Within that space, a mezzanine and second balcony were constructed, along with the staircases. The mezzanine floor was constructed lower than the second floor; ceiling height in the front of the main floor, under the apartments, is about 12 feet, but it's only 8 feet under the mezzanine.

One more clue exists -- the last two second story windows on the Main Street side of the building (west end) are not part of the apartments, but are now visible from the main floor, although they are unnaturally high in the wall, and are located over the stairs to the mezzanine.

What's west of the apartments is the mezzanine, but they are separated by a wall and by 15 feet of open air. On the apartment drawing, that wall is the west wall of Apartment 2. If we pulled the drywall off, we'd be looking at the mezzanine railing, just 15 feet away.

The Main Floor drawing shows a dotted line through the middle of Commercial 2 - that's the end of the second floor - its west wall.

If you are still curious, come in and see. Most afternoons, when the front door is propped open, we're there.