c. 1890. 131 2nd St. (northeast side of 2nd St. between Main and Center aves.)
This typical two-story brick commercial building has a cast iron first-floor facade. A plaque on the easternmost pilaster identifies the manufacturer as “Geo. L. Mesker & Co., Iron Works, Evansville, Ind.” Presumably, the owners also ordered the metal lintels above second-story windows and the bracketed cornice from the same supplier. The Mesker Company, one of America's leading nineteenth-century manufacturers of cast iron architectural components, shipped storefronts and other elements all over the country. This is one of their only known West Virginia facades, although the company had a number of commissions throughout the state.