Shockley Firestone Building, 816 Saint Louis Street, Springfield, Greene County, MO

Significance: A Commercial style concrete box with Mission Revival parapet detailing, this early commercial building was the first in what would be a series of commercial structures along the 800-900 blocks of St. Louis Street. The area had originally been built as a row of urban farmsteads of the fringe of fledgling Springfield, later a neighborhood made up of large Victorian houses on oversized lawns, and finally, after erection of this building, it has turned into a commercial highway district. One of two remaining 1920s commercial structures in the district, the building has been expanded twice by single-story rear additions and altered by the infill of the central bay from an open service area into showroom space and painting of the polychrome front facade into a uniform white.
Survey number: HABS MO-1254