104-106 E Main

1929 - J.C. Penney Store

Commercial, single-story parapet front
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This is Cherokee's only single-story automobile-influenced chain store example.  The original building was designed with two stories but the existing building represents what was finally built.  The storefront of this building is largely hidden behind a new stone storefront but it appears that the original storefront was executed in stone without a clerestory or transom area, or at least a lower one.  A stone band surmounts the storefront and is in turn capped by a stone cornice line.  The building interior is visually impressive.  The ceiling level is quite high and there is a raised mezzanine area across the back of the store.  The building has iron column structural supports and had four wire-glass skylights.
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This single story double-front commercial building is of interest because of its size and its period.  It is a singular local example of the broad single-story automobile-influenced storefront but this is only because the second story was removed.  The stonework is similar to that of the American Theater located immediately to the east. George Wall purchased the Millard Building in July 1914 along with the Beebe lot adjoining it to the east.  The lots were "in a very desirable location" in the opinion of the Cherokee Times.  By mid-1919 he planned to incorporate the two-story Millard block into "a modern brick building to cover the entire lot," completely replacing the front of the old building.  As late as  1924, two separate buildings remained. 

​The J.C. Penney Store purchased 107 East Main, immediately across the street to the south, in July 1925 having "for several years sought a suitable location in Cherokee."  Four years later it finally had a "building of suitable capacity" when it leased this building.  The store contained 4,600 square feet.  When finished this was "the largest storeroom in Cherokee and what is said to be the finest J.  C. Penney Store in Iowa."  W. L. E. Appleyard and Associates served as the contractor, financier and owner operator of the building.  The new store opened on September 14,  1929.  It then leased the new building to Penney's which occupied it until 1985.