William V. McConnell opened this mercantile store for a business that lasted until 1973. The two-story facade dominates the west side of the square with a prominent pressed-metal cornice supported over double brackets. Quasi-Ionic colonnettes on pedestals rest between each single window on the second floor. Although the ground floor has been modified, the remaining pressed-metal components were selected from the Mesker and Bros. of St. Louis catalogs. The large cornice extends onto the adjacent brick building (c. 1890; Knights of Pythias Lodge No. 193).
At the end of the block at 101 S. 4th, the former Masonic Temple (1923) is the only classical structure on the square. The second and third floors of the brown brick structure are ordered by monumental pilasters and with Tuscan-like base and capital moldings formed in purpose-molded brick. The lodge owned the property from 1845 to 1985 and still uses the third-floor hall with its original nineteenth- and twentieth-century fittings and furniture; the original dining hall on the second floor is also intact.