Building at 217 West Main Street, National Register historic building in Missouri, United States.
The Building at 217 West Main Street is a two-story, L-shaped brick commercial building in the Italianate style, erected in 1874 in Sedalia, Missouri. A wing was added in 1906. Its facade carries a decorative metal cornice and three round-arched windows.
Built in 1874 as a two-story, L-shaped Italianate brick commercial building, it gained a wing in 1906. It is also known as the Open Door Service Center Building and housed a brothel in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996 and lies within the Sedalia Commercial Historic District.
Locals knew the address as a brothel in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a use that shaped its reputation on West Main Street. The building is also called the Open Door Service Center Building, the name tied to its later service use. Its three round-arched windows and decorative metal cornice are details a passerby can pick out from the sidewalk.
The building stands on the north side of West Main Street in downtown Sedalia, within the Sedalia Commercial Historic District. It is a private commercial structure, so visitors see the 1874 Italianate brick facade, the 1906 wing and the decorative metal cornice from the sidewalk. The three round-arched windows sit on the upper storey, where they are easiest to pick out from across the street.
The building is remembered for housing a brothel in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a use rarely noted in its National Register nomination. Its later name, the Open Door Service Center Building, marks a different chapter in the same brick shell.
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