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Show Form No T0-300a (Hev. 10-74) UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THH INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE 1 0 8P? 1979 NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES INVENTORY -- NOMINATION FORM COISm NU ATI ON SHEET_________________ITEM NUMBER DATE ENTERED 7 PAGE 2 ____ Jessie Knight, one of the many Provo residents made wealthy by the mining boom in the nearby Tintic region. To the east of it facing Center is the three story Gates-Snow Building, that has a stamped sheet metal front shipped from St. Louis in 1890. On the northwest corner of Center and University is the Provo Commercial Savings Bank, a 1904 two-story structure whose Victorian style and corner tower compliment that of the Knight Block across the street. West and north of the Bank, facing Center and University streets, are seven ^ Victorian loft structures of brick with excellent cornice detail in stamped metal, carved stone and terra cotta. All are two stories tall except for the highly textured three-story facade of the Romanesque style Excelsior Building (1890). The remaining eight significant buildings are scattered down Center Street. All are two or three stories tall and most are built of brick. They include the Victorian Commercial style Hines Building (1889) and Davis Millinery Building (1890); the unusual Tudor style Bullock's Billiards Building (c. 1890) ; the Renaissance Revival influenced Taylor Brothers Furniture (1890, first remodeled in 1902) and the Firmage Building (1939) ; arid the Classical Revival influenced facade shared by the Golden Rule Store (1910) and the Farmers and Merchants Bank (1908). None of the significant commercial structures have their original first stories, and several have had upper stories altered during extensive remodeling that took place throughout downtown Provo in the 1950's and 60's. In addition to the twenty significant structures, there are twenty-one buildings whose presence contributes to the Historic District. These are mostly one and two stories tall, are often newer, and are less ornate or more heavily altered than the buildings considered significant. Examples include the two story 1907 Provo Public Library (corner Center Street and 100 East) rebuilt in the Art Moderne style in 1939; a simple Victorian loft building (116 West Center) covered in 1956 by a metal panel front that has an unusual second story display window; a two story tile-roofed Spanish Colonial structure (232-36 West Center) built in 1921; a one story 1913 Classical Revival barbershop (274 West Center) given an "Old West" second story in 1978; and a one story 1919 auto showroom (241 West Center) with a glazed tile Art Moderne front that probably dates from the 1930's. Scattered among the forty-three contributory and significant buildings in the Downtown Historic District are thirty-six which do not contribute to the District and two which are considered to be intrusions. These are either older buildings which have lost their historic characters through extreme remodeling or newer buildings which are incompatible in design and feeling to the older structures. Examples include the adobe and brick 1878 Freshwater |
