400-402 Maple Street

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Evaluation:

This is a contributing Maple Street building within the historic district.

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
Prominent location	X		Corner location
Original façade materials	X
Upper fenestration pattern		NA
Sympathetic Storefront Infill	X
Brick corbelled parapet		X
Cornice/coping (not metal)	X

Physical Description:

This single-story brick/concrete block double storefront measures 50 feet by 98 feet. Each storefront has a centered entry and shorter flanking display windows. The front is unadorned apart from a wooden cornice set at the lintel level. Sidewalls are fenestrated on the core and the rear (1960) addition has garage doors on both sidewalls along with other openings. The brick is rose-light brown in color.

Documented Alterations:

The building was enlarged to the south with a concrete block addition in 1960 (permit dated July 20, 1960).

Commercial History:

400 Maple street

Business	Owner	Start	Stop	Notes of Interest
Rose’s Theatrical Shop		1990	current
Dressmakers		1995		Shoes dyed to match your dress, listed as 402 Maple in 1985
Exporters Inc.
West Des Moines Express		1954	1975+	The building included a 25 feet by 24 feet tenant space within its 50 feet by 80 feet plan (Express, November 30, 1953).
Construction		1954		A April 1953 fire destroyed the former Held/Morgan Auto Garage, a frame/stucco building (ca.1927) that housed the West Des Moines Express newspaper and the Colonial Petroleum company in the back (Des Moines Tribune, April 8, 1953). The newspaper immediately bought the lot and built this concrete block double front building

402 Maple street

Business	Owner	Start	Stop	Notes of Interest
The Negotiators		1995
James L. Bennett, attorney		1994	2000
WDM Express		1980
Johnson Enterprises	Terry L. Johnson	1991
Heartland Productions, Inc.	Russell Doughten Jr.	1965		Perhaps the first Iowa-based film productions company-filmed The Hostages around Des Moines with a working office at the State Fair Grounds, moving to here in November 1965.
Grodt & McKay, real estate and insurance	Paul O. Grodt and Roy Ellis McKay, Ray Hall real estate mngr.	1960	1965	McKay was the founder, the firm later figured in several key supreme court rulings relative to the ownership of fungible property.