Sunday, March 3, 2013


COMMERCIAL BUILDING

KNOB, ARKANSAS

 
A fine example of early 20th century commercial architecture in a tiny northeast Arkansas town, this two-story storefront is just about all that's left of the older buildings in Knob, which is actually located in a the flats. I particularly like the corbelling (korbelling?) of the brick courses under the front parapet; the brick above is a harder, redder variety that is meant to take weather from two sides. Note the cast iron columns between the windows on the first floor.

Other than the brick and steel, nothing of the original fabric remains. The upper windows, probably wood one-over-ones, have been replaced with plate glass (where they haven't been bricked in), and the storefronts have been modernized. The store on the left has been particularly badly treated, what with the brick filler and the ultimate insult to this fine structure, a standard steel door unit in a wall of oriented-strand-board (OSB). Unpainted OSB, at that.

 

At least the building still exists.

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