This picture is of the Burchfield Block
http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/209818
This next one is of the first Post Office dating between 1890-1900
http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/209832
Good show. Keep them coming.
The photo of the burned out second courthouse you posted previously reminded me of something at the time but I could not place it.
After thinking about it, the photo would pass for a picture of the bombed out buildings in Richmond, Virginia, at the end of the Civil War.
I believe the interior picture of the Howard Post Office was the second post office, rather than the first post office. The first Howard Post Office was established one-half mile north of the northeast corner of the present town site of Howard. J.O. Allen was the postmaster. In December 1888, the post office was moved to its new quarters in the rear rooms of the new Howard National Bank building.
Looking at that picture of the Burchfield block makes me think that the building that had West Grocery Store might have been the Burchfield building. Has anyone determined, yet, what side of Wabash the Burchfield building was??? I haven't looked in my research, but I still think the Burchfield building burned down because there was a story about it being on fire and Ulrich Burchfield had to climb out of the second story with a ladder to escape the fire. I'll dig that out someday.
The Burchfield Building (the old courthouse) on the West side of Wabash burned down in 1896.
I still contend the Burchfield and Momma building(s) in the Santa Claus post was not the old courthouse and may have been the building(s) torn down a couple years ago on the east side of Wabash.
The Burchfield and Momma building(s) in the Santa Claus post were constructed in 1884 five years after the old courthouse came into being and two years before the old courthouse ceased to exist as a courthouse. Sometime after the county vacated in 1886, Burchfield took over the old courthouse and by 1896 fire trashed it.
In the building that was torn down two years, there was at one time a grocery store in there.
I do not recall the name.
Both my grandmothers shopped there.
One of my grandmothers would leave a list with the grocer.
When she returned from other shopping or visiting on the street, her groceries were gathered, sacked or boxed, and itemized with the amount due.
The other grandmother lived in an apartment that Robin Haines church now occupies.
She did not buy groceries like most folks do.
She ran down to that store before every meal and purchased what she needed.
I believe the grocery store that eventually John West owned was "The McKinney Bros. Grocery" back in the 30's, but I can't remember the name of it in the 40's. In the late 30's/early 40's my Mother and Daddy shopped there. Harvey VanBuskirk worked for them as did his daughter Helen. Then John and Leta West owned it, and then the last owners were his Grandson, David and wife Dana Denton. The Masonic Lodge and The Order of The Eastern Star had their meeting rooms above it on the north side of the building, and across the hall on the south side were two apartments., that was in the 60's when we moved back to Howard, and then they were blessed with the new Lodge above the Cox building when George Cox left them his estate.
Come on, Frankie Winn... jump in here -- your brother Neil had the grocery just north of there --- but who owned this one? Fill us in here.
I'm not Frankie Winn, but I can offer this information. Before John West had the grocery store, it was Bartlett's Grocery. When Bartlett's sold out to John West, they then purchased the Jewelry store from Moon-Gill. The jewelry store was located on the west side of the street about where Jean Gray is now.
Do not know what is going to happen to Jean's place or the old barbershop but Jean Gray has been in a nursing home in Andover for the past several weeks.