Building Description Bank of the Iroquois Building - Hoevet Funeral Home, Iroquois South Dakota

The Bank of Iroquois Building is located in the town of Iroquois in Kingsbury County, South Dakota. The building is located south of Highway 14 in what is historically the town's commercial district on a corner lot at the intersection of Washita and Quapaw Streets.

The Bank of Iroquois, constructed in 1887-1888, is a two-story brick building with a basement. The foundation is made of cobbles from local rock, including granite, quartzite, and limestone. The building has a flat parapet roof with slightly projecting pilasters and a brick corbel table as a frieze. The parapet on the southern half of the west elevation is approximately two feet lower than the rest of the roof and does not have the frieze. Below the frieze is a row of rectangular panels, created from slightly projecting bricks, which runs the full length of the building. These panels are repeated again in a row that separates the first and second stories of the building. The panels are similar to those located below the frieze at the top of the building but in a smaller scale. Corbelled pilasters, which rise slightly above the top of the parapet, are located at each corner of the building, including the corners of the mitered corner entrance. There is also a corbelled pilaster where the parapet lowers on the west elevation. The brick detailing on the corbelled section of the pilasters matches the brickwork of the plinths in the frieze.

Along the lower approximately two-and-a-half feet of the north and west elevations of the building is a double course of bricks. Additionally, at the street level on the north and west elevations, the tops of the brick arched hood moldings of the basement windows are visible. The basement window openings below the hood molding have been filled in with cement. The building is also covered with historic and current graffiti. Names and dates, going back to the 1910s, are engraved into the brick walls.

The north facade of the building is divided into two bays by a pilaster. The pilaster, however, does not rise above the parapet as the corner pilasters do. The eastern bay of the facade contains a storefront with a centered, recessed entry flanked by large, oversized display windows on the first story. The display windows have wood frames dividing the window into four lights with a recessed wooden panel below. The recessed entry has angled sidelights that are divided into two lights, with the top section being arched, and a recessed wooden panel below, just as on the display windows. Where the sidelights meet the front display windows on either side of the front entry are cast iron posts which support a cast iron projecting cornice above the storefront that divides the first and second stories. The cornice is embellished with a row of geometric motifs. The cast iron posts are engraved with the name "St. Paul Foundry Co." The front stoop for the entrance is constructed of metal and runs the full width of the storefront. The metal, which sits atop a layer of brick, extends out from the building approximately a foot, creating a "ledge" or bench beneath the display windows. The second story of the eastern bay contains three arched, double-hung wooden windows with brick segmental arches creating a hood molding and brick sills. Visible above and between the windows are remnants of a painted sign, but the letters are too faded to read.

The western bay of the north facade contains two arched, double-hung wooden windows with brick segmental arch hood moldings and brick sills. The exterior of the windows have been covered with aluminum one-over-one storm windows with the arched opening above filled-in with wood that has been painted red to match the bricks. The original arched windows are still intact behind the storm windows and are visible from the interior. Above the windows, and located below the row of rectangular panels, is a row of brick dentils. The second story of the bay contains two windows that are identical to those on the first story.

The mitered corner entrance contains the round arched entry. There are two shallow steps leading up to the entry. The first step is concrete, but the second step is constructed from the same metal as the stoop of the storefront on the north facade. The doorway has been filled in with wood, but the round arched glass transom window above is still intact. The entrance is topped with a brick, round arched hood molding with a keystone. Above the entrance is the row of rectangular brick panels with the brick dentils below, the same as on the north facade. Above the row of panels is a set of coupled arched windows. The windows are tall, narrow, one-over-one windows and share a brick segmental arch hood molding and brick sill.

The west elevation is divided into two bays by the pilaster that marks the parapet's transition to a lower height on the southern half of the elevation. The northern bay of the elevation contains three arched, double-hung wooden windows with brick segmental arch hood moldings and brick sills on both the first and second stories. The stories are divided by the row of brick panels. The exterior of the windows have been covered with aluminum one-over-one storm windows with the arched opening above filled-in with wood that has been painted red to match the bricks. The original arched windows are still intact behind the storm windows and are visible from the interior. The first story of the southern bay of the elevation has three arched, double-hung wooden windows and a wood paneled pedestrian door. The door has an attached screen door and is topped with an arched transom. The second story contains four arched, double-hung wooden windows that line up with the windows and pedestrian door below. All of the windows on both stories and the pedestrian door have brick segmental arch hood moldings and brick sills. The exterior of the windows have been covered with aluminum one-over-one storm windows with the arched opening above filled-in with wood that has been painted red to match the bricks. The original arched windows are still intact behind the storm windows and are visible from the interior.

The remnants of several painted signs are still visible on the west elevation. In the rectangular brick panels in the frieze, near the top of the building, are painted the words "Farmers & Merchants Bank", with one letter in each panel. In-between the windows on the second story are painted the signs, "Real Estate", "Real Estate Loans", and "Established 1884".

The south elevation has an attached, outside covered stair that leads to the second floor, which is accessed through a wood paneled pedestrian door at the street level. The stairway is constructed of vertical wood siding that is partially covered with tarpaper and has a corrugated tin roof. Attached to the stairway, and the building, is a clapboard shed with an end gable roof with asphalt shingles. The south elevation of the shed has three double-hung windows and a wood paneled pedestrian door.

Located to the east of the shed on the south elevation of the building is a wood paneled pedestrian door with its original hardware, flanked by arched, double-hung windows with brick sills. An arched transom that matches the arch of the windows tops the door. The transom has been filled in with wood. On the second story are two arched, double-hung windows with brick sills that are inline with the windows below. All of the windows and the door have a flush, double-brick arched lintel. Also located just to the east of the shed is a set of wooden stairs that leads down to the wood paneled basement door. Extending south from the building at the southeastern corner is a single row of concrete blocks in the shape of an "L" that used to be the foundation for an attached garage that has since been torn down. Parts of the roof are still attached and hanging from the side of the shed, and the garage's roofline and tar marks are still visible on the south elevation, between the first and second stories. The garage, which was added in the 1970s, was torn down several years ago due to deteriorating condition.

The east elevation has a stepped roofline and two pairs of double-hung windows on the second story, near the south end of the elevation. Each pair of windows shares a single window opening, and they are not arched as the other windows in the building are. The remnants of tarpaper from a previously attached roof from a no longer extant adjoining building is located on the north end of the elevation.

There have been minimal alterations to the building. The front entry door was filled in with wood at an unknown date. In the late 1970s, the exterior of the windows on the north and west elevations were covered with aluminum one-over-one storm windows with the arched opening above filled-in with wood that is painted red to match the bricks. The original arched windows are still intact behind the storm windows and are visible from the interior. The alterations do not distract from the integrity of the building because the architectural features are still visible. The arched openings for the windows and the arched hood moldings have not been covered over, just filled in with wood where the storm windows left a gap. Additionally, the front entry door frame and opening is still intact and visible.