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History
of
103
& 105 North
Main
.
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| Waterbury
& Friends is located in two adjoining buildings. They are
located
at 103 and 105 N. Main Street in Charles City, Iowa. The
buildings are
very rich in history. Each half of the existing building was
built as
separate buildings. The 105 portion was the first building build
on
the north side of the One Hundred block of Main Street. John Legal
built it in 1892 as a drug store. You can see the drug store
symbol in
the cornice of the upstairs windows. It was a rather plain but
functional building. The original tin ceiling is still in
place. The
double doors that are used were removed from the upstairs
apartments.
John Legal ended up moving his business to the 107 building next
door.
This is where most locals know of the Legal Drugstore as it was a
fixture in that location until the building was torn down in the
1980’s. The original drugstore was kept intact and is now located
at
the Floyd County Museum. The 103 portion of the building was
built at
the same time of the 101 building in 1896. Originally the 101
building
was a bank and the 103 building was a general store. Because the
103
building was built with the bank, its tin ceiling matches the bank and
is much fancier than that of the drug store. Sometime in the
1940s it
is believed that a hardware store purchased both 103 and 105 buildings
and removed the interior wall separating them. They added the
arches
and the mezzanine to the rear of the building. If you look at the
center of the building you will see two different types of wood were
used for the flooring. You will also notice that the tin ceilings
are
different. The entire interior was renovated when Waterbury &
Friends located here. All of the plumbing, heating & cooling,
and
electrical utilities were updated. All of this was done with an
eye to
preserving the history of the building. |
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