By Part of the original highway, leaving Galena eastbound toward Missouri. Route 66 cuts through only the very southeast corner of Kansas, 13.2 miles, from east of Galena through Riverton and south through Baxter Springs into Oklahoma. The MKT depot in Galena is a museum. Eisler Brothers Market in Riverton. This building has been around since …
Weir
The old Simone’s Dept. Store. Part of the Pepsi Generation. The really cool old Texaco station. Simone’s Market. Apparently the Simones are still Pepsi fans. There was a lot of activity in this grocery store – maybe because of, or in spite of, the fact that it was Labor Day Saturday. Weir has about 752 …
South by Southeast
Weir, Kansas Today’s Flyover People column: South by Southeast.
Hillsboro
Several weeks ago, on the way to Great Bend, we stopped in downtown Hillsboro in Marion County and took photos. Hillsboro is the home of Tabor College which is affiliated with the Mennonite Brethern denomination. Hillsboro (pop.2,731) is a pleasant, clean town along U.S. 56 between Marion and Lehigh. There are German families named Jost …
Fill ‘er Up
Looks like an old gas station to me. A few years ago, this became Jack’s Tobacco (next to King’s Liquor.) It’s on E. Sixth in Emporia. And, catty cornered across Sixth Street is this less-appealing former gas station. It has that cottage-style Phillips 66 look. People who have been around Emporia longer than me will …
Valley Falls
The town that once was Grasshopper Falls is, these days, called Valley Falls. Grasshoppers were likely appreciated – until about 1874. After that, not so much. (Some of you non-Kansans may not have heard tell of the grasshopper plague that year.) Found this in Kansas: a cyclopedia of state history, embracing events, institutions, industries, counties, …
Kinsley, con’t.
Home of the Kinsley Coyotes. Second floor windows – with paintings – downtown. The Edwards County Sentinel. Old ad for Kline’s Milk. A lot of towns have worn out ads on the sides of buildings. Who knows how old they are, 40 years? Yessiree Bob, it’s another old Phillips 66 gas station.
Sylvia, Pop. 297
There’s a nice-looking grade school in Sylvia. To see an old picture of the old school, check out this from WSU’s Special Collections. A closed cafe. I liked the blue aqua seafoam-colored awning and the Pepsi-Cafeness about the place. It has 1962 written all over it. I’ll bet they once sold returnable bottles of Pepsi …
Plevna
As you may have already noticed, I’m fond of old gas stations and garages. (And courthouses – because those are fun to use in playing Mystery Courthouse.) My dad used to have a woodworking shop in Pawnee Rock in a building similar to this one. It had the angled, covered driveway with the pillar on …
closed
An old gas station in Longton.
Another gas-free station
Almost every town has the remnants of an old gas station. Here’s another in White City.