The Kienlen-Harbeck Building was built by Eugene Kienlen who used it as a saloon and rooming house for gold miners.

It is one of the first brick buildings erected in the commercial core following the 1899 fire which destroyed two blocks of wooden buildings. With its cast iron columns and galvanized sheet metal facade, the Kienlen-Harbeck Building embodies the characteristics of the late commercial Italianate Style. It is a well-preserved example of catalog-order architectural iron produced by the Mesker Brothers Company in St. Louis, Missouri.

The survival of the corner tower, with its Second Empire Baroque roof, is remarkable. In the West, features above the roofline of commercial buildings of this vintage usually were removed in later years in consideration of local building code requirements.

The building is named for its builder, Eugene Kienlen, and Emil Harbeck who bought the building in 1919 for his butcher shop.

Adapted from the NRHP nomination submitted in 1982.