Location: 

30 - 40 South 9th Street

History of the Building:

An 1890 newspaper advertisement announces a “new grocery” in the “Wheeler-Jones Block.”  This was the grocery of H. G. Nelson & Son.  Among the many businesses also located in this handsome structure have been other grocery stores and drug stores.  The 1916 City Directory lists Haines & Glen Drugs and W. M. Hayes, Grocer, at these addresses. 

The building itself is wrapped up in the history of the Abner B. Jones family.  Jones was a prominent farmer and sometimes office holder of the county government.  His son, John C, and his daughter, Louisa B., inherited this property.  Louisa was the wife of Harvey Wheeler, thus the ownership of “Jones and Wheeler’ is listed.  A daughter of the Wheelers, Nancy, in turn inherited interest in the property, along with her husband Charles B. Ward.  The partnership of “Jones and Ward” is attached to the property well into the twentieth century.   
 
John C. Jones improved his own fortunes modestly but steadily throughout his life, becoming a successful banker in the firm of the Wainwright Trust.  In that business he was also in partnership with Charles Ward.  Apparently they were close friends as well as neighbors, living across from each other on South Ninth Street for many years.

The building declares some of the Neo-Classical features that were popular for commercial and public buildings of its period.  The brick relief on the wall, at the cornice, is a typical Roman Classical reference, as are the flat-arched brick headers over second-story windows.  The finished stone finials along the roof are an especially nice flourish.  For such a distinguished building, the lack of a name-and-date label is a little out of character for its time.  It is, however, one of the best of its style—and well-preserved—in the historic downtown.