Odd Fellows Block is a historic building located in

Afton, Iowa Afton is a city in Union County, Iowa The population was 874 at the time of the 2020 census. Its peak of population was in 1880, at 1,231 residents, when numerous European immigrants and migrants from the eastern United States settled here for the ...

, United States. The historical significance of this two-story brick commercial building is its use of the

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...

style for a commercial building. The storefronts on the first floor feature a highly decorative storefront

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

and cast columns. The second floor has tall and narrow windows that are capped with ornate hoods. Across the top of the building is an elaborate detailed

. The details on the western portion of the building are more restrained, which is in keeping with its later construction date. The building was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 2014.

References

Italianate architecture in Iowa Buildings and structures in Union County, Iowa Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Union County, Iowa {{UnionCountyIA-NRHP-stub