William Marvel: False Front Education

Over the years, I've spent a lot of time in Kansas, where many of the main streets still wear much of their 19th-century look, especially in towns that have enjoyed the long-term advantage of only modest growth. I'm particularly fond of the brick buildings — mostly banks, or former banks — with corner entrances. In some places, there are still wooden stores with false fronts disguising the gable ends of their second stories.

False front architecture was not confined to the American West, but it was more popular there, especially in the early days of settlement. It offered an artificial sense of Eastern prosperity and stability to the business itself, and to the town's commercial district as a whole, when a consecutive string of them blocked the side views that gave them away. In many cases the two-story façade disguised a one-and-a-half-story business in flimsy financial condition. Many of those buildings therefore fell down, eventually, or were torn down. Those firms that did achieve ultimate solvency often invested in more substantial structures, later on.