Behind the Pettit Cleaners front, a building from the 1880s
The Streamline Moderne facade on East Eighth dates to 1947, but the building behind it is much older.
By Wade Ellison
The Pettit Cleaners Building at 114 E. 8th Ave. looks like it belongs to the years right after World War II, and the front does.
In 1947, Winfield architect William N. Canton gave the building a Streamline Moderne facade, the smooth, rounded look that was the height of modern style then. The original part of the building is much older, from about 1880.
It is a long, narrow building, 25 by 145 feet, part one story and part two.
The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005. It is one of the few good examples of that postwar look in downtown Winfield.