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Alpha Reference: O <br />Historic Name: None <br />Address: 917-921 Main Street <br />Construction Date: circa 1925 <br />Parcel #: 053-135-120 <br />This is a variation of the 847-849 Main one part commercial block, albeit in a <br />pseudo-Gothic mode. The building is symmetrically divided into two identical <br />shops whose fronts consist of large display windows with canted inset entries <br />and expansive overhead transoms. The crowning parapet is broken into panels, <br />the center ones having a quatrefoil plaque, articulated by moulded string <br />courses. These are set between three buttress-like wall piers, which rhythmically <br />order and unite the block with torches or finials of acanthus leaves punctuating <br />the divisions of the bays. <br />This one part commercial block, a type defined by Richard Longstreth in The <br />Buildings of Main Street, (1987), shows the distillation of the 'full-blown' Gothic <br />mode from its more familiar presence on skyscrapers and larger commercial <br />structures in major urban centers to a more elemental adaptation in the growing <br />suburban downtown areas of the 1920s. Unlike its neighbor at 847-849 Main, its <br />entries have been altered. Throughout the years, since it was constructed, there <br />have been many different tenants in this building. <br />Sources: <br />•City Directories of Redwood City 1909-1950 <br />•Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps of Redwood City 1900-1950 <br />Page 47 <br />7.B. - Page 58