Carpenter Building 1923

Carpenter Building 1923. . Prior to 1892, a two story wood frame house stood here which was the residence of Gideon and Barbara Heavner. In 1892, the Heavner's sold the home and it was converted into a grocery store which was initially operated by J. Frank Latham and P.H. Kolegard, however in 1917 the business at this location was listed as Reger's Grocery. In 1921, Floyd M. Carpenter purchased the property and he tore down the wood frame structure to make way for the 3-story masonry structure you see here today. Mr. Carpenter owned the Acme Bookstore on Depot Street (now North Kanawha St.) and upon completion of this new building is that they did not build any side walls for the building, but used the outside walls of the adjoining buildings, which would have saved significant amount of money. In doing so they had to seal off 11-windows in the western wall of 12 East Main Street (Crislip and Simpson Building). The property was foreclosed on in 1926 by the People's Bank and while this property was in their trust they leased the first floor to G.C. Murphy's 5 and 10 Variety Store. This was the first location of G.C. Murphy's in Buckhannon and by 1930 they would occupy the three adjoining buildings. The second and third floor both had residual and commercial space. In the center of the building there was a sky light on the roof with a 5' square shaft directly under it, surrounded by windows on the 2nd and 3rd floors, to bring natural light to interior spaces on all floors.