75-81 E Market St

From the National Register nomination

Two-story building of stretcher-bond red/pink brick on the front, painted American-bond brick above a limestone foundation on the exposed east side, and a shed roof with stepped side parapets and a soldier course in the front parapet. In the second story are 1/1 windows. The two first-story storefronts have been remodeled; one (77) has a fake brick lining; the other (79-81) has aluminum and plate glass display windows, a recessed entry, and vertically channeled apron. A mid-20th century neon and metal sign for Gitchell's Studio Camera Shop projects from the façade. To the rear are two one-story cinder block additions, the east one with barred 6/6 windows and an angled corner. The service alley behind the building has concrete tire ramps that descend from S. Federal St. Architectural and map evidence suggest this building stood in the late 19th century, perhaps before 1885. Early tenants included a grocery, furniture store, boarding rooms (on the second floor), and-in 1907-an undertaker, sewing machine store, and restaurant. Here, in 1927, P. A. Armentrout sold watches, diamonds, jewelry, and silverware and Perry F. Spitzer sold paints, wallpaper, and picture frames (Spitzer remained in the building through the early 1940s). Gitchell's Studio Camera Shop, the occupant since 1945, had its start in Charlottesville in 1909 and moved to Harrisonburg in 1943. Frank Gitchell and John Gitchell Sr. headed the firm, which for a time was known as the Gitchell-Lee Studio. Prior to the Gitchells acquiring this building the upstairs was used as a house of prostitution. (Krista Gitchell)