In 1880, Joseph Dickinson had a new building built on the southeast corner of Main and Ninth Street. As was the norm, the first floor was for retail, the second was generally offices, and originally the third floor was a public meeting room with “a 15-foot high ceiling.” Dickinson was in the money lending business, and his office was on the second floor, as seen in the 1888 newspaper advertisement below. The ad is for the merchant tailor John Peltz, who occupied the first floor, but just visible above that is “J. Dickinson & Co. Loan Agency.”
Soon after the building’s completion, the first retail occupant was Charles H. Pogue and his business partner, George Miller, who had just started a hardware store. Their business would grow and quickly outgrow the Dickinson Building. They soon moved their expanding business to Fort Wayne Ave. and the company would eventually be known as Miller Brothers Wholesale Hardware Co.
Early occupants of the third floor included the Young Men’s Christian Association, which moved in as soon as it was ready in late 1880. In 1884, the first 18 members of First English Lutheran Church used the YMCA room to form their new congregation. They worshipped there for about a year until they purchased a lot on the southwest corner of South A and 11th where they built their first church.
In the late 1890s, the retail store became a drug store and remained so for much of the 20th century. From Fields’ to Alford’s to Conkey’s, and in 1927 the Indianapolis firm of Hook’s Drugs opened its first Richmond store in this building.
In 1963, Harry Voyles, Jr. purchased the building and moved his existing bookstore into the first floor. It became known as the Readmore Building, and the Readmore Bookstore flourished there from 1965 through 2001. Another owner renamed it Readmore Etc, from 2001 until 2008.
From 2008 until 2025 it was largely vacant, until Richmond Neighborhood Restoration purchased it and converted the upper floors into apartments and the ground floor into a business-ready space.