It's Still not a Golden Arch, but it is a Mystery Solved!

You may have read my blog from July 27 regarding the mystery of the origin of the arch in the picture above. As the title to the post indicated, I suspected it was a  case for Ask Doc Knox. Well, my faith was well founded. The mystery has been solved by the all-knowing one. If you didn't read the original post, go to the link above and read it before you read any further.

I'm waiting for the new readers to return. . .

Now I'm going to give you a choice. If you want the full and eloquent version of the answer before I ruin it for you click here. If you want my watered down version, keep reading. This is a spoiler alert. You have read the original post, right?

Still with me? OK, the building at 2 Market Square was probably built in the 1880's. It was never considered a remarkable building and was eventually covered over in the 1950's to make it look "modern." After the covering was removed and the "Mall" era was in swing for Market Square, an architect suggested many ideas to make the building more interesting. The arch was the only one the owner would allow. It was added in the 1980's.

So now we know. We've solved the mystery of the Blackberry Car and the TreeGator and now the lonely arch. What other mysteries lurk downtown that beg for our attention?

Things that make you go . . . well, to Doc Knox

Last month I wondered about what turned out to be a TreeGator. It is an object designed to slowly water trees and Mr. (or Ms.) Anonymous correctly gave us the ID. I can update that report to say that there is still only one TreeGator to water several trees and, alas, not only can the city only afford one, it appears they can no longer afford the water to fill even that one: It has remained deflated throughout our recent mind-numbingly torrid spell.

My attention has turned to another object that I imagine I've passed a few thousand times without noticing it. There are many flourishes on the buildings downtown. It is a compliment to the people who built the buildings that they didn't simply make them functional, they at least attempted to make them aesthetically pleasing, if not beautiful. Still, this particular architectural addition confounds me.

It's an arch. Normally I'm a fan of everything arch-related. I think they are beautiful inside or outside of a building and I love them in nature. This particular arch doesn't seem to rise quite to the level of beauty I've come to anticipate from a nicely done arch. Maybe you've passed it without noticing, as well. Here is a wide shot:

It's at the southeastern corner of Market Square above Reruns. It doesn't really look like the wonderful little additions the architects or builders added to most of the buildings downtown. If anything, it looks like they had some extra bricks and couldn't think of anything else to do with them. Here's a closer look:

Was it added later, perhaps, by someone looking to make the building prettier or somehow more noteworthy? This question probably can't be answered on the Internet. I'll welcome guesses below, but I'm thinking this may be a case for Dr. Knox. I've submitted the question and I'll let you know if we get an answer. Can any of you beat Dr. Knox, himself?