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stories on the lower floor and living quarters and offices above. The corner store <br />occupied about 2/3 of the lower floor space. Elmore Hinman operated Redwood <br />Groceteria here between 1920-1932, which was the town's first self-service <br />market. Redwood Pharmacy was here from 1939-1962. Holmquist Hardware <br />moved here in 1963 after their store burned down across the street. From 1910- <br />1919 Jamieson had his plumbing store in the smaller shop, then he moved into <br />the small brick building behind this one. The first tenant in the upper floor corner <br />office space was Robert Brown a local carpenter-contractor. <br />Like many stores of the time, 901 Main Street, mixes simplified classical features <br />(pilasters and cornices, for example) with a standard, two-floor, commercial <br />layout, dating back to the nineteenth-century. Many commercial buildings along <br />the main streets of small towns featured first floor shop fronts with broad <br />expanses of plate glass and clerestories to allow more sunlight into rooms. <br />Second floors often had bay windows to add space and light to upstairs offices or <br />apartments. The use of clerestories and bay windows was especially important <br />before the advent of electric lighting. The building has an irregular, additive sort <br />of composition, that suggests the architect may have recombined decorative and <br />plan details drawn from architectural pattern books. 901 Main Street is one of the <br />few commercial buildings along Main Street to retain its bays, and stands as a <br />nice remnant from the pre-World War I phase of Redwood City's history. It offers <br />richness to a chronologically diverse downtown streetscape. <br />Sources: <br />•City Directories of Redwood City, 1907-1976 <br />•Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps 1897, 1907, 1919 <br />•Richard Schellens Collection, Redwood City Library Local History Room <br />•San Mateo County Deeds, Vol. 131, pp. 305-306; Vol. 137 p. 216 <br />•Photographs of Main Street, Redwood City, Archives Collection, Redwood <br />City Library Local History Room <br />•Manuscript: "The Hinman Family" by Barry Hinman <br />•1985 Oral History Interview with Loren Holmquist Crockett and Emma <br />Dupont Holmquist <br />•Photographs of Main Street, Redwood City Library Local History Room <br />Page 45 <br />7.B. - Page 56