61 Court Sq

From the National Register nomination

Classical Revival four-story building with a buff stretcher-bond brick facade and a concrete foundation. The shed roof has stepped parapets on the sides and a heavy metal cornice across the front. The third and fourth stories have three recessed bays containing triple windows. The first and second stories were remodeled in the Post Modern style when the building was converted to graduate student housing about 2000. The first/second facade has plywood and metal piers with quarry-faced granite bases and also remnants of mid-20th century signage advertising awnings, shades, furniture, and floor coverings. On the south side are multiple paired and single windows and, above, a free-standing sign with "Denton" spelled out in large metal letters with recessed faces formerly illuminated with incandescent bulbs. The side and rear elevations have remnant painted signage. A second-story skywalk dating to 1950 connects to the former floor covering warehouse at 50 S. Liberty St. The skywalk has a concrete frame and stretcher-bond brick enclosure. The Denton furniture business was established in 1905 and built this large store building in either 1921 or 1922-23 (accounts differ). Unbroken display windows formerly spanned the front second story and illuminated letters like those that survive on the south elevation stood above the front parapet. The upper floors were converted to apartments in 1932. In 1955 these apartments–eighteen in number–were known as the Denton Apartments. In the 1960s an abstract modernistic facade was added to the front (this was removed after 1995). Now JMU graduate student housing. (Suter and Lyon, Images of America: Harrisonburg, 29-30)