135 W Market St

From the National Register nomination

Five-story building of American-bond brick with a limestone foundation and a metal-sheathed gable roof. The brickwork of the first and second stories appears different than that of the upper stories, an indication that the upper stories may have been added, or merely evidence of the use of different brick lots. Corbel tables run at the second/third and fourth/fifth stories, but not on the west elevation. Door and window openings are segmental-arched, and windows have replacement 1/1 sash. The front (north) end has a stepped gable parapet, a bricked-up freight door with a smaller beaded tongue-and-groove pedestrian door, and a principal entry with a modern Colonial Revival entry with sidelights and paneled pilasters. On the east side facing the tracks are three recessed freight entries with diagonal beaded tongue-and-groove doors and painted numerals (1, 2, 3) overhead. A large exterior steel stair structure, apparently very recent, rises on the south gable end. A two-story 1960s loading dock extends on the west side. It has a stretcher-bond brick veneer (presumably over cinder block) and a cinder block and steel pole loading platform and shelter. Harrisonburg's Catholic Church stood on this site until it was destroyed by fire in 1905. The building built in its place was used by the Merchants Grocery & Hardware Co. as a wholesale grocery warehouse during the early 20th century. The Wetsel Seed Co. purchased the building in 1959 for use as a seed warehouse. To adapt the building for trucks, Wetsel constructed a one-story three-truck dock on the west side in the early 1960s and later added a second story to the dock. Now Rosetta Stone language learning CDs. (Robert Wetsel; Thomas Wetsel)