This may look like a solid stone facade, but it’s not!
The Central Building on Van Buren Street is unique in that it is a parged (coated) brick building, in which the brick structure is covered with a stucco-like coating that is then formed to look like stone blocks. If you look closely in a couple of places, a bit of the coating has chipped off revealing the regular brick underneath.
The building corners, and down the middle, there are real stone quoins (blocks) that project slightly from the façade in alternating sizes. These quoins continued all the way to the sidewalk, but with storefront changes over the years, only the leftmost are still original. The ones on the right corner were recreated fairly recently.
Check out the parged brick and stone quoins on the Central Building when visiting the Farmers Market this Saturday morning.
Thank you to Nathan Bilger for providing the recent photos and valuable insights into the architectural history.
The Whitley County Courthouse is just one stop on our Downtown Historic Tour. Download the app and take the tour! www.distrx.com
