Welcome to Marshfield.

“I’m sick of being a twin, and no one being able to tell us apart! I’m going to find a way to be - to be me!”

Someone upsold the developer a bit of stone. Not a lot. But enough.

Obviously an addition, and I usually suspect the four-window one is the most recent. Times are good, you expand, you go big.

NOLL.

Misspellings in the original:

Although occupied by aa single merchant, the Noll building was constructed in two separate stages. The north most portion was constructed in 1887 after the fire of June of that year; the south most was constructed between 1887 and 1891. Mr. William Noll directed his sown, Frank, to open a hardware store, as well as a warehouse for storage in 1887.

Two parts? Seems small.

Next door:

“As Mr. Noll will tell you, a stone accent doesn’t cost very much, and adds a pleasant note of distinction.”

GREISINGER.

Nothing much comes back on Mr. G. It’s not a C; I do get a hit on A. M. GREISINGER in the local paper, but it’s just rote government stuff.

Why, I do believe the building eventually had two owners.

I’m sure they meant well.

They did keep the name block; it says LAHR, 1887. The Lahr family lived upstairs - Mr., Mrs., nine kids. The missus died up there in 1913.

As I usually say: some “modernizations” still look modern, even though they’re twice as old as others.

Someone got a little eager, looking through the catalog of off-the-shelf decorations.

Classical pediments and the mail-order pseudo-Sullivan cartouches.

That’s . . . interesting.

The new cornice has a stylized version of the old cornice; bonus points for that. The rest is over-scaled and cartoony, but it gave the old downtown a lift, I’m sure.

As we like to say: Whoa.

Arrives in a big box. Where do you want it, Mac?

“I say medians and planters will bring back downtown, and I’ll fight any man who says otherwise.”

With a name like that, you know it’s not really a bank.

But what a gift to the street! Let’s end with some close-ups of the figures.

Every downtown should have stylized cows somewhere.