This three-story building has a Queen Anne style with large curved corner towers. The structure was built in 1891 by W. H. Mills, and the architect was Samuel Newsom. The H.H. Buhne Company purchased the Carson Block from the Carson family in 1923, and then coated the exterior in stucco, as shown in a June, 1924 Humboldt Standard article. The “modernization” was meant to cover “weathered” woodwork, and give the appearance of a “structure of stone.” Part of the interior of the building was used to house the Ingomar Theater on the third floor before it was gutted in the 1960s, and a dividing floor was constructed to allow for storage use. The building more recently housed the Discovery Museum, before the museum moved to a different location. On April 8th, 2016, the Carson block was reopened after a year long facade restoration and seismic retrofit.
For additional history on the Carson Block and the restoration, see the North Coast Journal Article: here
And for more photos, see here, here, here, and here.
