Snapshot of History by Mike Avitt

By Mike Avitt This week’s picture features the Mount Ayr High School that was built in 1895. It only lasted seventeen years and I am often asked why a building this beautiful was so seemingly short-lived. This school building replaced the one built in 1875 and sat at the same location as future high school…

By Mike Avitt I took this week’s photo on January 25, 2011, showing the north side of the 100 block of East Adams Street in Mount Ayr. This week we’ll look at some of the history of 102 and 104 E. Adams. The building at 102 E. Adams has a door on the left and…

I recently posted this picture on Facebook and got quite a few replies. I’ll give you a brief history of the Maloy High School. Maloy’s Centennial Book says a school was built in Maloy in 1895. I didn’t find any information concerning that, but in 1917, the same year Delphos built a new schoolhouse, the…

By Mike Avitt The information with this photo says the picture was taken in 1899. Mr. Reger would live only two more years. William Alfred Reger was born February 18, 1852 in West Virginia. He came to Mount Ayr in 1870 and married Mary Ellis, daughter of Francis Ellis, the man who started the Mount…

I spoke about Hy-Vee’s early history at the Mount Ayr Public Library during Ayr Days celebration and the Lamoni Chronicle newspapers are now digitized and online so I have some additional information to share. Hy-Vee’s co-founders, Charles Hyde and David Vredenburg, were both raised in northern Harrison County, Iowa around communities such as Woodbine, Magnolia,…

BY MIKE AVITT Orr Fisher took this photo of “Willie” Willey in, I believe, the mid-1930s. Orr painted Willey’s portrait on one of Willie’s visits to Mount Ayr. Willis Ray “Willie” Willey was born in Mount Ayr on September 15, 1884 along with his twin brother, Willard Roy Willey. Willard was the father of Gerald…

By Mike Avitt Today we will look at 117 North Taylor Street in Mount Ayr. The building is currently That’s What She Read, a romance bookstore and event venue. The building was constructed in 1893 for Eugene Vorpe. Mr. Vorpe did the carpentry work and George Smithson laid the brick. Smithson’s other works include the…

BY MIKE AVITT A man named Grover Hahn visited me at the Mount Ayr Depot Museum this week. Grover’s grandmother was Lillie Rusk who lived just south of the Methodist Church in Mount Ayr. It was an interesting and productive visit which resulted in some donated items and the inspiration for this week’s article. Grover…

BY MIKE AVITT I took this week’s picture with a black and white disposable camera in 2004. The scene has changed a great deal since I took this photo and it is changing again soon. Ground was broken on Wishard Chapel’s new church building the second week of July 2023. The current church building was…

Most people remember this building as either Main Motor Co., Western Auto, or Farm & Home. This week we’ll look at several short-lived businesses that also called this building home and there were many. The building was constructed in 1946 for Gail Dalton and Wilbur Lynch as D & L Motor Co. at 116 N.…