Sherwood Manufacturing
Company Building

Third Street Social

In 1946, the Sherwood Manufacturing Company erected a small industrial building on the east edge of the commercial district of Lee’s Summit, Missouri to house their growing business. Typical of the period, the building was a simple box with hollow clay tile walls, a brick façade and a steel-barrel truss-roof system.

In 1950, local resident Joseph Arnold purchased the building and donated “Arnold Hall” to the city for use as a community gathering space, although this was not to be. Over the next 60 years, it served many functions, from manufacturing to storage to restaurant to City Council chambers. After the new City Hall opened in 2005, Arnold Hall sat vacant. A proposal to incorporate the building into a performing arts venue collapsed with the economy in 2010. Five years later it caught the attention of local restaurateurs Andy Lock and Domhnall Molloy, who were looking for a unique space to house a new restaurant.

Arnold Hall provided a beautiful blank canvas for the project. The exposed masonry walls, steel trusses and wood roof deck provided the perfect backdrop for a modern dining experience. Rosin Preservation instantly recognized the opportunities – the building shares many similarities to its own company headquarters. Working closely with the architects at DRAW, Rosin Preservation helped the restaurant team secure historic tax credits as they transformed the forlorn building into a downtown gem, with a new bar, banquettes and private dining spaces to complement the building’s historic features. The project also stripped 1990s-era stucco from the exterior walls to expose the historic block and installed period appropriate windows and doors.

The rehabilitated Arnold Hall quickly became a new hot spot in downtown Lee’s Summit, strengthening the vitality of the surrounding historic district, and finally fulfilling Joe Arnold’s wish to create a community gathering space in the old industrial plant.