Day 9 & 10: More Missouri

There was some sketchy weather on Day 9 so the photos are pretty depressingly gray. I’m combining two days for this post. Check out those gray skies in the background – the kids & Ronald McDonald in Bethany:

The bread slicing machine was invented in Chillicothe:

This Art Deco building with polychrome, glazed terracotta tiles is in Kirksville. There are a bunch of missing black tiles around the horizontal window. I’m not optimistic that those can or will be replaced:

Miller’s Rexall is in Macon. The interior (shot thru the front door when they were closed) looks so wonderfully old school. Check out that neon clock:

Speaking of old school — this still-operating combo Firestone tires business and appliance store is in Vandalia:

I’m always relieved to see Crescent Jewelers in Hannibal is still open and these marbled vitrolite tiles are still there:

Duval & Reid Menswear in Moberly opened in 1928. The building now houses an Italian restaurant but they kept the letters above the storefront and display a lot of vintage photos of the store in the left window:

One of the vintage photos in the window:

This jewelry store is also in Moberly. There are some missing tiles upper right but it’s still a pretty amazing building:

Just across the border in Keokuk, IA is this round motor bank with round canopies. It was built from 1969-1970:

How about a couple of former gas station? This one in Marshall has been vacant for decades. I love these simple, little box stations with tile roofs:

This former station is in Centralia. Most of these 1920s/1930s canopies are half the length — but this one could accommodate two cars (three if you count access to the pumps in front of the canopy).

The Keokuk Plant sign in Keokuk, IA was installed around 1925 when the Union Electric Company bought the building:

Around 1997, those letters at the bottom were replaced with the Ameren logo:

This company in Chillicothe opened in 1954. These signs might be from the 1960s. The ribbed white plastic background with affixed letters was common then. Around 2015, the blue panel was painted turquoise. There was previously an oval Carrier neon sign where the Lennox sign is now (replaced around 2016). The horizontal panel for the website was also added around the same time:

This sad-looking sign is in Carrollton. I managed to find a postcard showing that this was the Starliner Motel originally:

This Western wear store in Higginsville opened in 1969. This sign might be from then:

This sign in Concordia was built in 1951. It had been stashed in the attic for decades and replaced with a boring plastic box sign. New owners found it in 2021 and had the neon restored and the sign reinstalled:

This sign in Sedalia hangs above a long-closed nightclub/bar:

Two more special signs for this post. The Hotel Strand in Chillicothe was built in 1925. This sign or a similar one was there by 1931. The porcelain enamel panels have very rare patterning and the letters are embossed. In addition, the original service ladder is still there:

The Hotel Bothwell in Sedalia was built in 1927 and was originally part of the Sweet Hotel chain in Kansas and Missouri. Blowing up a postcard image, it looks like the original sign had bulbs instead of neon. And it was an “I”-shaped sign with Sweet on top and Bothwell at the bottom: