1999: The year the sun set on the drive-in and other major changes occurred

Growth of a city brings changes. Some of those changes are easy to accept, and then there are some changes that tug at the heartstring as memories are demolished to make room for progress. 1999 brought many changes to Webb City, some good and some sad. The sadness of watching the Webb City Drive-in being torn down to make room for progress, with the building of a bigger Walmart. The first Walmart was built at Madison Street and Cardinal Drive in 1980. The Super Walmart added groceries and gas. The old Walmart was replaced by Atwoods, which has since moved and left the building vacant.

With the super WalMart came new businesses on Madison Street – a Taco Bell, Arby’s and May’s Drug Warehouse.

We saw a favorite foot-long establishment, Bill’s Drive-in, replaced by Wendy’s. Many hearts were touched when Bill served his last foot-longs on Aug. 14, 1999. Commerce Bank replaced the Taylor Made Demo Home that sat on the corner of 14th and Madison streets for many years. The house was moved to Oronogo Street.

Snak Attack was added to the new establishments on Madison Street, as well as Walgreens. Webb City was growing with the new businesses, but the residents on Madison Street held on tight to hopes of keeping the beautiful, shaded homes intact. The city initially established the Madison Street Overlay to protect those homes from Fifth to 12th streets. But the overlay has been rescinded.

With all the new businesses arriving in town, we also lost a few, one being the Consumer’s Grocery Store. They had arrived in Webb City in 1980 but left town in 1999.

Madison Street wasn’t the only area experiencing changes. Main Street had the opening of Hunter’s Lane, where Drachenberg Jewelry was located for many years. But 1999 brought a new jewelry store to Main Street, it was Rann’s Jewelry located by the old theater. As if the theater might feel left out, Gina and Rick Monson remodeled it and opened the Route 66 Music Theater in May 1999.

Anyone who grew up in Webb City remembered the Kress Dime Store; that is anyone with a nickel or a dime to spend. In 1999, that old dime store building became home to the Main Street Outlet Store. The Police Department made a big move, leaving the old city hall building, to move to 211 W. Broadway, where the old gas company and the original telephone buildings (donated by Dawson Heritage Furniture Co.) were remodeled to accommodate the move. The Boys and Girls Club moved into the old city hall building with an after school program.

Back to Madison Street, changes came in the way of traffic flow also. A new traffic light was put in at Fountain Road and Madison. In fact, a new street was built at Fountain Road to help traffic flow into Arby’s and May’s Drug Warehouse, not to mention the new apartments behind May’s.

1999 also brought the excitement of fundraising to enlarge the Webb City Library. Plans were to build the new addition as close to the architectural beauty of the existing style as possible. Webb City has one of the few remaining Andrew Carnegie libraries left that are still being used as libraries.

Even the Webb City Cemetery was improved in 1999. Through the Lemmons Charitable Trust, Webb City received a grant to improve the city cemetery at Oronogo Street and Cardinal Drive. A new fence and paved roads beautified the oldest cemetery in Webb City.

Bob Baker dedicated a howitzer to the city for Veterans Day. It was eventually placed on MacArthur Boulevard at Ball Street, on an extension of King Jack Park.

1999 also brought some wild weather. The year began with freezing rain and power outages as well as a foot of snow in March. April and May brought 10-inches of rain, lots of flooding. By July, Webb City had16 inches above the average rainfall. Then Mother Nature shut off the water faucet, and Webb City was under a water conservation order during August. The rain returned in the fall and 1999 ended the year with 11 inches above average.

The new middle school was completed in 1999, and the students carried their desks from the Sixth Grade Center, Eugene Field, and Mark Twain to the trucks for transporting them to the new school. Way back when the new Eugene Field was built, the students carried their desks from the old school on the northwest corner of Oronogo and Fourth streets to the new school building between Fifth and Sixth streets on Oronogo Street. Of course, the highway was not there at the time, and it was only a block and a half. Along with news of Eugene Field, Ollie Patterson retired in 1999 as principal of Eugene Field. She had been with the system for 26 years. Maxine Carlson retired from Harry S Truman Elementary School after 30 years with the district.