Category: Ozarks

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Phillipsburg General Store

The Missouri Alliance for Historic Preservation (Missouri Preservation) announced its 2017 list of historic Places in Peril on Friday evening, August 25, 2017 at a special “Unhappy Hour” event at the National Building Arts Center in St. Louis. Listed at #9 is…the Old Phillipsburg General Store in Phillipsburg,MO


Few small town buildings are as iconic as the old general store. The Phillipsburg General Store was constructed in the last years of the 1800s. It survived for many years as one of Phillipsburg’s largest buildings and now has the distinction of being the only historic building remaining in the village. The building also sat next to the railroad tracks, and trains supplied the store with the many provisions needed for the villagers and local farmers. Sugar and flour, crackers and other needed items were bought in bulk and put in sacks to take come. Dolls and garden supplies, tools, as well as rabbits and chickens were purchased in the store and taken home in wagons pulled by horses. In later years the adjacent Route 66 brought many tourists to this tiny town. The upstairs served a variety of the community’s social needs, containing a small theater, an office where a lodge was located and where the Woodsmen of America met, as well as other groups like the American Legion. After the lodges were gone, ladies set up quilt blocks where they constructed quilts for many families in the community. During the 1990s some rehabilitation work was completed on the old store and part of the building was used again for quilting and antique sales. But in the meantime, a building that has been cut off from the railroad and its iconic roadway is in danger. A roof leak in the rear of the building has caused extensive They hope to attract a buyer that is interested in renovation of this small town icon. Contact the owner: bcbender3@yahoo.com or 417.664.6520

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The Cane Hill Store

This is the Cane Hill Store, which sold numerous items for many years including butter churns. Back when a fellow named Jack Roy was a boy, Cane Hill had two stores, a barbershop, a mill, a school and a post office. Cane Hill also was home to the Buttercup Churn and Mixer, a patented product manufactured by the Pyle-Roy Mixer Company, which advertised a new deal for the housewife. The churn, which sat on the lid of a standard glass mason jar, offered a convenient alternative to other methods of churning butter.
I can give the churn my thumbs up, we were lucky enough to find one.

Roy’s father, Guy, worked with his two brothers, Lonnie and Clarence; his father, W.H. Roy; and his brother-in-law, Virgil Pyle, who invented the churn. Guy Roy lived in a white house just up the road from where Roy lives today, near Cane Hill. That’s where Roy’s father, grandfather, great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather all lived.

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Brighton, Missouri

Old men sat on it’s porch while the women went in to purchased their flour or perhaps hard candies for the children. Walking by, I seemed to smell the pipe tobacco and feel the heat coming from the old cast iron stove on a cool morning. The Brighton, MO General Store and Mercantile now wastes away, just a shell of it’s once vibrant focal point of Brighton.

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I Had An Eerie Feeling

Kind of an eerie, creepy feel… this place felt damp, wet and yet warm and cozy in Greene County. Probably Grandmothers home where Thanksgiving dinners or Christmas parties were shared so it was left to rekindle memories I’m guessing. I liked the setting though. I had been by this pace many times as a kid. It’s close to a place we called Foleyville where my Great Uncle and his family lived. To the west of this house was a man-made pond and when I mean man-made it had hand poured concrete retaining walls. Most hidden from the road it always sparked my imagination of giant bass just waiting for me to catch.