203 Fifth Street

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Evaluation:

This is a contributing Fifth Street building within the historic district. It is a Classical Revival commercial style.

District Characteristic	Yes	No	Findings/Recommendations
Two-story brick with narrow mass	X
Larger, broader massing		X
Other key façade features	X
Architectural style		X	Classical Revival
Prominent location		X
Original façade materials		X
Upper fenestration pattern	X
Sympathetic Storefront Infill	X		The bricked in former transom level is the only major alteration.
Brick corbelled parapet	X		Very ornate reflective of style.
Cornice/coping (not metal)	X

Physical Description:

This two-story brick Classical Revival style building wraps around its corner (201) precursor. Its core measures 22 feet by 134 feet and it has an L-shaped footprint with two Maple Street storefronts as well as an upstairs hall, then offices and now apartments. Its brickwork is a redder color. Three broad upstairs windows have semi-circular soldier brick arches. A distinctive feature is the use of darker brick to highlight an arch cap, to form a saw toothed band with borders at the parapet base and as brackets for the stone coping. The date stone is centered within a square-cut pediment. The Maple Street facade originally had the same window arches (these have been shortened from the top). The darker brick forms a faux quoin treatment and also a band of strongly projecting bracketed arches form the parapet front. There is also a similar pediment without a circular insert with four stone inserts. Windows on this frontage are paired with two broadly separated sets.

Documented Alterations:

Both storefronts have been substantially bricked in with a too-red brick but this work predates 1968 at least on the south facade. The west transoms were then covered with paneling but the canopy was present with the current storefront. Permits note electrical work in 1966 and 1984. A curious raised roof section now gives this building a "theater" profile from the alley way.

Commercial History:

Business	Owner	Start	Stop	Notes of Interest
Olson-Larsen Galleries		1980	current	203 Fifth, established 1979
Jan’s Gallery	Jan Shotwell	1974	1979	See 503 Maple
Al From, law office		1949		New in July, 203 Fifth
vacant		1968
The West Des Moines Development Corporation and Chamber		1965
Brown's Jewelry and Marybelle's Beauty Salon	Frank E. Brown	1944	1955	From 226 Fifth December 1943
J. H. Swan, Real Estate		1944		New in July
Vacant		1943
Swan's Dry Goods (1925-37),		1925	1937

Valley Junction Wallpaper Co.
A. D. Reddish's dry goods
Upstairs office suites		1904		Raaz converted the hall into 16 suites and professional offices, adding six skylights, and linked the upper levels of 201 and 203 with an east end door (Express, August 12, 19, September 9, 1904). George Youngerman was the contractor.
	Herman Raaz	1900		This block was banker Herman Raaz's response to the construction of a second local bank and his removal from the Hawkeye Investment Company (Express, August 18, 1899). The architects were Proudfoot and Bird of Des Moines (Express, August 25, 1899). The 1893 and 1900 buildings were remodeled to conform to each other. This building contained a large upstairs hall.

419 Maple Street

Business	Owner	Start	Stop	Notes of Interest



Honey Sweet Gourmet Foods		1992
Mitcham TV & Appliance		1985		Found at 100 Grand in 1978 and 853 35^th in 1959
West Des Moines Beauty Shop		1960	1968
Cletus' Barber Shop		1955
WDM Commercial Club		1938
Jewelry bankruptcy auction		1937		December 15, 1937
Booster Express publishing		1929	1945
McLaren Furniture		1925	1929
Swan Millinery		1919
Thornbury Millinery		1914	1922
Arthur Thornbury Contractor		1915
Stalker Millinery		1910
Miller's Millinery		1909	1910

417 Maple Street

Business	Owner	Start	Stop	Notes of Interest

Hikchik Design/Urbanwear	Michelle LaBrecque, Randy Thomas	1991	2000
Glass Creations	Bev	1993	1997
Nummie Shoppe		1991		Furniture estate sales
Wooden Kingdom		1985	1990	furniture
Jamesa	Jim Williams	1989	1990
		1985		Retail office, $275/mo.
Sugar & Spice		1983	1984	Used children’s clothing, to 117 Fifth by 1985
Interior Expressions Inc.		1980
		1978		Rent for $175/mo
New to New		1978		household consignment
		1977		Rent for $140/mo.
The Village Peddlar		1970	1976
Swan Building, “411-417 Maple, 203 Fifth” Melodee Record Shop Elliott Business Machines Glenn Construction Co. WDM Beauty Shop Chamber of Commerce (in June 1962) Six Apartments Wilson, Maley & Stamatelos separate taxed entity (400 sq. feet)				A tax challenge for was “once known as the Swan Building” shows how complex this building was: Owner Don Wilson noted its unfinished basement and termed it a hollow shell. It consisted of three parcels, two two-story brick sections, one one-story frame section for a total of 5,228 sq. ft.
Glenn Construction Co.		1960	1971	Eugene Belz killed in place crash with the boxer Rocky Marciano, September 1969
West Des Moines Library		1960
Swan's Apartments		1937	1955	(all upstairs, six units,
West Des Moines Water Works				Express, July 19, 1951
Express			1951	Express, May 2, 1951
Swan's Hall		1944
Kenyon Construction Co.		1955
Garlick Jewelry	F. B. Garlick	1929	1937
Soltat Shoes		1919
Valley Furniture		1915
Shawhan Harness		1910