CALIFORNIA, Mo. -- One block off the Moniteau County Courthouse square is intact streetscape preserving both architectural and local history.
The Gray-Wood Buildings were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. The four brick storefronts were built in the late 1800s.
"Despite the fact that each building is different in its architectural detailing, as a unit they work well together to form an integral commercial complex to blend with the adjacent historic district," the nomination said.
The stone step at the front doorway of 407 N. High St. reads "J.P.H. Gray."
A pioneer physician in Moniteau County, Gray arrived from his native Virginia in 1840, later marrying Hester, the daughter of the Boonsborough-California founder Lashley Lucas Wood.
Gray bought the lots of 407 and 405 in 1869. Construction followed with 407, the first to be completed, containing his medical offices on the second floor and a store rented out on the first floor. He died in 1909, but the medical practice continued there under his son Dr. Lashley Monroe Gray until World War II.
In those later years, the first floor served as the Charles Tieman Jewelry. A few other short-lived businesses succeeded Gray and Tieman, before the building's second floor was converted to residential and first-floor storage.
The 405 N. High St. building was completed soon after 407; however, the second-story shares more in common with 403 and 401, suggesting it was either added or replaced in 1882. It shared a wall with 407 and access between buildings passed through the center of the main floor.
The exterior stairway to Dr. Gray's medical offices in 407 also served the second floor of 405, which were residential until the 1970s.
The ground floor of 405 was a restaurant for nearly 100 years. The first entrepreneurs were German immigrants C.C. Mueller and Fred Heinrich in the 1870s. The business passed to Mueller's son A. Eugene Mueller, who married Cordelia, the daughter of Dr. Lashley Gray. By the 1960s, the main floor of 405 served as a taxi stand.
A lion's head sits on the second-story window sill of 403. Both 403 and 401 were constructed by attorney and son of the town's founder, Lashley Fountain Wood, following the death of his cousin and business partner, Samuel Owens.
An exterior front entrance for both 401 and 403 boasts a large common staircase leading to the first floor of both buildings, where there is a large landing with a skylight providing direct access to four separate offices, the nomination said. Over time, these offices housed physicians, attorneys, dentists and the city's first telephone company.
James Buchanan opened Herfurth-Buchanan Mercantile Company and later Buchanan Drugstore in the ground floor of 403, where H.S. Stephenson Drugstore continued until the early 1970s, when it served as an antique and book store. The second floor was residential.
The Frederick Rohmbach Bakery and Restaurant occupied 401 for half a century, continuing in the family under Emil Rombach as an appliance store into the 1960s, before it housed an upholstery business.
"The significance of The Gray-Wood Buildings is found in their importance to the community ... in the areas of architecture, community planning, commerce and their associations with a number of prominent citizens," the nomination said.
Local tradition holds that William Meyer was the contractor involved with construction of all four buildings. Historic photographs reinforce that with a consistent architectural scheme, the nomination said.
Once common, many towns and villages have lost the cohesive quality of the historic commercial areas.
"It is significant for its purity as found in this complex of four storefronts," the nomination said.