An especially good picture

This photo of Main Street, taken by Bill Bishir, is a favorite of mine because of the many changes that have occurred since it was taken in the ’30s. He got the picture by climbing to the roof of the third-floor portion of the Newland Hotel before it was removed.

The buildings in the foreground are between Church Street and Broadway. The only building still standing today is the Middlewest Building.

This picture is great for a “Do You Remember?” story. Let’s go.

Do you remember the building up front with all the advertising showing on the side? Do you remember that the row of buildings was known as the Donehoo Block (between Church Street and the alley)? All of these buildings were built in 1883, including the Middlewest Building, following a fire that wiped out the whole block of wood-frame buildings. (Dr. Thomas Donehoo had built his frame buildings and decided after the fire of 1883 to replace his buildings with brick.) The city also passed an ordinance requiring buildings built downtown to be brick or cinder block, no more frame buildings. The sad part is that we still lost lots of the brick buildings to fires in the historic district.

Do you remember that in the center of the Donehoo Block, 11 S. Main St. was a motion picture house known as the Empress? Do you remember that tragic night (Dec. 22, 1982) when the Donehoo block was destroyed by fire again. That fire, nearly 100 years after the buildings were built, destroyed the Main Street Bar, Webb City Sentinel and a building owned by Cardinal Scale. The new south wall of the Middlewest Building is a reminder of how close it came to being destroyed, as well.

It appears that the Coca Cola sign took a few years to accumulate.

Looking over the top of the Donehoo Block, do you remember the old National Guard Building at 109 E. Broadway, which was destroyed by fire in 1963? The beautiful structure was built in 1901 as a livery stable.

Looking at the skyline at the edge of the city, note how close the chat piles were to the city.

They say a picture is worth a 1,000 words, and this is one of those pictures. I am so glad that Bill Bishir took his photography talent so seriously, and I am so thrilled that his lovely wife, Virginia, shared his pictures with us.