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Merchants Grocer Co. and Peoples Bank were located on the east side of Courthouse Square in Searcy. The bank was chartered July 6, 1889 with a capital stock of $30,000 and folded during the depression, September 30, 1931, according to the Historical Society records.
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21 Comments on Merchants Grocer Co & Peoples Bank Searcy Arkansas
Patricia, it is a nice building in the newer style. I should have taken a photo of it. Lazy me.
Raven, do you think that has been done deliberately.....eliminating roosting places! Shame on those architects!
Charles, that Raven is ravishing in her green!!!
She is pretty in green isn't she?
Barbara, you have taken a now picture of The Security bank and presented in in your August 25, 2008 blog here. I'll duplicate the pic here.
The building that replaced the wholesale grocery looks like this now.
Good old Goggle Map.
Don, is this where the old stuff was? For some reason I thought it was where the main bank is now, not these buildings. You are a jewel to help me on this stuff. Thanks!!!!!!!
Trivia: The Merchants Grocer Co, later Searcy Wholesale, was mainly a warehouse. Behind those front windows was an open office about 15 feet deep and the width of the building. Behind the office on the north left side was a large vault and beyond that was all warehouse with a loading dock on the east side.I worked there part time around 1949-50 putting Arkansas cigarette stamps on each pack. After the stamps were afixed I put the cartons back in the large boxes put them in the vault.
I dont remember the building having a second story.
Bob, you've answered my question, I believe. The Grocer turned into Searcy Wholesale which was owned by the Rands, so my husband says. And the location was on the corner where the First Security main building is now? Right?
I didn't know cigarette stamps had to be manually affixed to a carton! What a great job for a kid. Today that would be politically incorrect, wouldn't it. LOL
It would have been so nice if some one had found a use for the old building. It had a charm to it that just calls out. Maybe it's just me ... Am I showing my age when I make statements like these?
Sorry, Barbara, you're on the wrong end of the block. Searcy Wholesale was on the north end of that block. It was across Race Street from the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and kitty cornered from the Rialto theater. Next to the church is a small brick building that once housed a cleaners-- Darden's I believe.
Someday I'll tell you about attending first and second grade on the site that shared the west half of that block with the church and the cleaners. Boltons acquired that property for their garage and dealership when the Primary School moved to the old high school building at Elm (1st) and Academy.
(This may be a duplicate.)
Barbara, there were already changes in those old buildings in 1947 as shown in Paula's picture. Here's part of it showing the new Security Bank front and to the left the wholesale grocery front had already changed. There was a barber shop and Walkers Photography Studio in that group of buildings.
I remember in 1945 when I lived on Main St. across from the First Methodist Church, the back of the Wholesale Grocery was part of my playground. I watched the trucks come in and unload.
I can't remember a front part of the Wholesale Grocery on Spring St. unless it was more down toward Race St. I think Bob remembers that better.
Suesan, the old buildings may look better in pictures than in person! That's the way of old old houses. They look nice but are awful to heat and cool and maintain. Thanks for comment.
Bob, that is the location of the main First Security Bank now. What Don had in his pictures is the rest of the block. He'll probably do us one of the main bank shortly. The little building was an abstract office for as long as I've been here, almost. Now it is the home of United Way. I need to put that little building on a blog.
Don, I think we all agree on where it was. It was at the corner of Spring and Race, right?
Mea culpa, Barbara. Agreed. I should have checked Google street view. That new bank building looks pretty nice too.
Bob, maybe Don will put up a street view of the right end of the street or the North end of the street! Thanks for contributing.
At one time, if I remember right, between the Security Bank (on the south end of that block)and Searcy Wholesale (on the north end of that block) was the White County Motor Company, before it moved out on the new section of East Race. I notice that the bank shown in the above picture is Peoples Bank. Anyway, I think that building must have been torn down for White County Motor Company building to replace it.
Bob, I went to the first grade in 1940 in the old high school building and you didn't. What was the year that the primary school moved to the old high school building? I guess that was freed up when the new high school was built.
Harold Gene, thanks for joining this discussion of where this was and what it became. Car dealerships were small then and may have been better considering what has happened in the past few years.
O.k. Barbara, here's your Spring St. starting at E. Race showing the new Security Bank and the buisness row down to the old Security Bank at Arch St. This pic is sort of a stitching of Google Map images. Hard to do because of the perspective change as we go down the street. Also did some editing. Whew!
Harold Gene, White County (Ford) Motors was located next to the old Security Bank building on the south end of the block. There was a barber shop, and perhaps one other building, between Ford and the Peoples Bank building. The distinctive bank building stands out on the horizon in this picture taken from the roof of the high school in the late 40's. http://activerain.com/blogsview/887934/Scene-from-old-downtown-Searcy-Arkansas-Ford-Buick-Place
I believe that the primary school, grades 1 through 3, were relocated in 1941. i remember being in 3d grade there where I was introduced to the fantastic technologies of stereoscopic viewers and wax bed mimeograph machines. So you graduated in 1952?
Don, I knew you could do it!!! And I hoped that you would!! How many computers did it take. : )
Bob, we're about to get this location defined aren't we? You guys are great at giving us pictures and locations and history!! Thanks to all of you!
No,I graduated in 1953 so I started primary school in 1941. That must have been the first year the primary school was in the old high school. I didn't know that. Mr. Wilson was my first grade teacher. Your reference to "wax bed mimeograph machines" reminded me:
My mother taught 2nd grade, started the year after I was in 2nd grade. Anyway, she use to make line drawings for her pupils to color in class. I would "help" her at night at home to do this. She would draw a picture backwards on a sheet of paper with a special purple pen. Then she would make some sort of a jell solution and pour into a shallow pan. The she would place the drawing down on the jell aand remove. The image could be seen on the jell aand when one placed a blank page on the jell and rubbed it, the image would be transferred to the paper. One would make about a dozen copies before the image had "sunk" enough into the jell that it wouldn' transfer good enough anymore. The jell was sort of transparent and you could look down into it and see all the previous images. I've wondered what the process was called and how it worked.