COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS

DARDANELLE, ARKANSAS

 

In the vein of my last post, I thought I'd give some contrasting examples of storefront reuse, all found on South Front Street of the central-west Arkansas River town of Dardanelle, just south of Russellville.

 

This is another example of a turn-of-the-century storefront. The cast iron columns are still intact, as are the vents and the brickwork. The columns are quite elaborate, with fancy tops and bases and medallions between, but the original glass and wood panels of the removed fronts have been replaced with red brick, modern doors with security grates, and squidgy little awnings that look like they should be on tropical drinks.

The building was saved, but much of its character has been erased. At least they didn't paint the new brick, which they did on the original building. Painting brick, a no-no in my book, can lead to spalling, or delamination of the painted brickface. Rainwater gets to the unpainted mortar joints, which expand, and the brick can't move as it would if it was unpainted. This building seems to be avoiding that fate.

 

There is no evidence on the previous storefront of any brackets that might have supported the typical sidewalk overhang, such as are evidenced in these buildings just to the southeast of the modernized one. These buildings are more original, one with the transom windows still intact, though the another has steel instead of glass. The transoms allow much-needed light into a store whose overhang blocks it.

This lumber dealer covered over its transom windows with corrugated steel, though the overhang remains intact.

 

Just what influenced the rest of the downtown businesses to do this to the remaining storefronts in town, I can't imagine.

Yes I can. It was the seventies that did it.