Four buildings associated with Samuel Bernheimer, an Austrian Jewish immigrant, and his son, Jacob Bernheimer, line Walnut Street. The earliest, the two-story brick Italianate building (c. 1872; 210 Walnut), is where Samuel Bernheimer established his mercantile business. Original cast-iron elements include storefront columns and entablature, hood molds, and a dentiled cornice; the original wooden entrance survives. Jacob Bernheimer built its two-story neighbor (208 Walnut) as a telephone exchange in 1899, with an elaborate pressed-metal cornice and a cast-iron storefront.
Bernheimer’s Mississippi National Bank (1901; 213 Walnut) is an exuberant example of classicism on a small-town scale where baroque ornament combines with polychromatic brick and stone in an arresting display of color and detail. Original metal grilles protect both the first-story windows and the central, fanlit entrance door. The eclectic two and-a-half-story irregularly massed, wooden Bernheimer House (1901; 216 Walnut; pictured) shows significant Arts and Crafts influences. Stained glass and shell mosaics from the Kokomo Glass Company adorn the half-timbered front gable, the attic window gable, and portico gable.