OLD’N NEWS From Around the County

BRICK FACTORY

Do you have a picture of the brick factory that we could copy? Every so often we find a curious void in our collection at the History Center. This week it is the lack of any good picture of the Moberly Paving Brick Company that was located on South Williams just south of the Sterling Price Apartments. More dwellings are going to be built at the site, so the ground there is being cleared of trees that have grown up in the past 50 years.

We have two old pictures from an old 1909 Chamber of Commerce booklet that are very dark and show very little detail. Jimmy was the one that noticed that there were some pictures of football practice in the 1927 Moberly High School yearbook that show the brick plant in the background. There was a pond on the property. Jack Valentine remembers ice skating there in the early forties. Jim Boots’ uncle Ray lived nearby and Jim remembers wandering around the ruins with him when Jim was a kid. This area was called Lions Field in honor of the Moberly High School Lions. No, those high school kids were not Spartans, Greyhounds or Pups at that time. In fact, that is why we had a Lion statue in Tannehill Park, but that’s a different story.

DEPOT PARK CLOCK TOWER

Buck Kelly, the editor/publisher of the Moberly Daily Monitor for many years, had it right when he called for a town clock. His editorial on November 19, 1878 said that there was not a town of over 1,000 inhabitants in the country, excepting Moberly that did not have town clock. Quite an indictment for such a booming place as Moberly was in 1878. Buck asked “Will our city authorities see to it that the necessary trifling sum be expended for this necessity…” He also suggested that “in case of the failure of the council, will not the business men of the city contribute enough to purchase and place in position a time regulator which is so much needed.”

Buck Kelly said in his editorial that “without it, there is no harmony of time in the dwellings, and one must always be bothered by a watch, depend on the conflicting time pieces in the stores and shops, or guess as best he can about what time of day it is.”

It only took Moberly 127 years to follow Buck’s idea. Mayor Rucker’s suggestion that a clock tower be built at the location of the old depot at the east end of Reed Street was heard by members of the Moberly Rotary club. They stepped forward, raised the money and had the clock tower – with four clocks – built.

Now if we can just get it running…..

GIRL SCOUT EXHIBIT

The Girl Scout Council, that includes Randolph County, is celebrating its 50th birthday this year. People at the Council headquarters in Jefferson City have sent us a selection of older Girl Scout items for display at the museum. The display will be on exhibit for during November and December. We also have a large amount of pictures of local Girl Scouts that are unnamed. We had a lot of success with identifying people during the Campfire Girls exhibit. Come see the display and see if you can identify some of the girls.

FOURTH STREET THEATER MAKEOVER

If you have gone north past the Little Dixie Library lately, you’ve probably seen the repainted sign on the 4th Street Theater. The sign is just a small part of phase two of the remodeling project that is being undertaken by the 4th Street Restoration Committee and project director, Carolee Hazlet. Other parts of this phase include tuck pointing of the exterior brick and cleaning and repair of the white terra cotta front of the building. The Randolph County Historical Society owns the building and does the bookkeeping for the project. Donations are nearing the halfway point of the fund raising that is necessary to complete the project. Have you contributed yet?