| Year(s) Listed: • 2021 |
| City/Town: • Salina |
| Location Class: • Commercial |
| Built: N/A | Year Saved: 2020 |
| Historic Designation: • National Register of Historic Places (2008) • Register of Historic Kansas Places |
| Awards: • Honor Award |
| Contributor: Kansas Preservation Alliance |
The HD Lee Mercantile Company Building, the north building in the complex, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and Register of Historic Kansas Places in 2008. The entire complex is nationally significant in the areas of Commerce and Industry because of the building’s association with Henry Daniel Lee. Lee founded the HD Lee Mercantile Company and HD Lee Hardware Company, although ultimately, he is best known as the founder of the world’s largest clothing manufacturer, and the maker of Lee Jeans.
The building was vacant when the Overland Property Group/Flint Hills Holdings Co. purchased it in 2018. They developed a plan to repurpose the large warehouse building as a mixed-use building with a large commercial space on the first floor and fifty-three apartments on the floors above. The rehabilitation of this building is the first of two phases to convert the entire complex to an active resource that once again contributes to the vibrancy of this historic industrial core of Salina.