Snapshot of History by Mike Avitt

Let’s see if we can finish our tour of the Mount Ayr square buildings this week. The building that houses the Mount Ayr Record-News at 122 W. Madison was built in 1977 by Bill Warin and Verd Bailey as their law office. Production Credit Association moved here in 1980 and the Record-News located here in…

David Pugh took this photo in 1994. It shows Extremes Pizza at 114 W. Madison and Cunning Co. Inc. at 112 W. Madison. Aunt Jennie’s Attic occupies 114 W. Madison today and has been there since 2005. John Blauer built the first brick building on this lot in 1897. Mr. Blauer owned and operated a…

BY MIKE AVITT We continue around the square with a look at 104-110 W. Madison. In this week’s picture, you can see 104-108 W. Madison all have the same brick facade. These three storefronts were built by Sellards and Merrill in 1893. I believe Sellards owned the two buildings on the west and Merrill owned…

We continue going around the square beginning with the Mount Ayr Christian Church. The current church building, at 201 W. Monroe, was built in 1981-82 and dedicated March 21, 1982. The previous church here was built in 1913-14 and burned in February 1980 while being remodeled. To my knowledge, the current building is mostly unchanged…

This week’s photo was taken about 1895 and shows A. A. Huggins’ new building he operated as a farm implement business. Built in 1891, an elevator allowed Huggins to place farm equipment upstairs, as well. In this photo, John Wall & Son have their grocery store in the northern one-third of the building. H. U.…

This week’s photo shows the facade of the Abstract & Title Co.at 115 S. Fillmore office being remodeled. Dr. T. I. Moffet erected this building in 1946. Now back to 111 S. Fillmore, the current location of Ringgold Insurance Services. The Wilson Estate built this double storefront building in 1931 and the Mount Ayr Post…

This house was built for Mr. and Mrs. James R. Fisher in 1916. The Fisher’s son, Orr Fisher, painted the famous “Corn Parade” mural in the garage of this home. Orr also painted murals and scenes on the interior walls and floors of the house. After Orr’s parents passed away, the house was sold to…

I keep forgetting to tell you Tony Mercer has added more digitized newspapers to the website ringgoldcounty.advantage-preservation.com. Many different newspapers covering several decades. Recently, the Ringgold County Board of Supervisors hosted an informational meeting to encourage the formation of a Ringgold County Historical Preservation Commission. This issue comes up about every fifteen years. I remember…