Considered on the decline in 1950, Carterville still had Route 66 traffic

This photograph of Carterville’s Main street was taken on June 7, 1950, at the corner of Main and Fountain streets. 

The Weeks Hardware building, where miners had bought supplies, can be seen on the left, followed by Samples Bodyworks on down the block. 

The Hudson service station can be seen on the right with the sign showing regular gas at 18 cents a gallon, which would equal about $2.05 in today’s dollars. Regular gas was about 93 octane at this time, ethyl gas contained tetraethyl lead, which boosted the octane even more.

Weeks Hardware Co. became the Southwest Supply Company in 1909 and operated in Carterville until 1917. The Boyd-Rice garage opened in the building about 1918 and in 1927 became the Carterville Garage. The Boyd-Rice Auto Co. Goodyear sign can be seen on the side of the building. 

In the 1930s, Harlan and Georgia Myers established a “drive-in” hotel in the building. A canopy, which can be seen in this photo, was added to the front exterior to shelter curbside gas pumps. The hotel operated until about 1938 when the building was sold to Harry and Loyce Riggs.

The building changed ownership several more times before it was sold to Fred Landreth in 1973 for the purpose of housing his gun cabinet manufacturing company, Morton Booth, which operated there until 2007.

Today, the Mong Su Dom Tai Chinese Karate Studios operates in the two-story building. The owner of the karate studio has removed the metal that covered the facade of the two-story building revealing the original storefront underneath.