Road Trip – Missouri (Part 6)

After our visit and thunderstorm/rain shortened visit to Baker Creek Seed Company and its Pioneer Village, we drove through nearby Mansfield Missouri before heading north.  I was going to check out the downtown area and I had a specific historic site I wanted to at least take a look at…

The old Mansfield Bank Building at 110 East Commercial Street was built in 1917.  I took the photo because it had that classic old time bank ‘look’, one that conveyed security and prosperity to depositors.  This is the main branch of HomePride Bank…and there are 4 other small town locations nearby.  This family owned bank was established in 1892 and it’s been serving the community for over 130 years now.  That’s quite impressive!

The site where Mansfield is built was purchased in 1881.  The town’s population has varied little over the past few decades.  As of 2020, it had about 1,200 residents.  Today it is known as the former hometown of author Laura Ingalls Wilder as well as the home of the Baker Creek Seed Company.

This old refurbished Frisco Railroad depot, with its ‘grounded’ passenger coach, apparently replaced at least one previous depot.  It currently serves as the home for the Mansfield Area Historical Society as well as a museum showcasing artifacts, photos and history of early settlers and their descendants as well as Laura Ingalls Wilder.  More will follow below as regards Laura Ingalls Wilder. 

I couldn’t determine just when this depot was originally built.  The older photo above is from the early 1950s.  The Historical Society is continuing to expand their collection in the museum…and from the look of the stairs going up to the passenger car, visitors may have access.  To learn more about this local group and the museum, go to Home - Mansfield Area Historical Society (mansfieldhistoricalmuseum.com).

I did find an old photo of the original railroad depot in Mansfield…or I should say, one of the two original depots in town. The railroad came to Mansfield in 1882.  Originally the town’s commercial district consisted of 10 blocks with two depots and their property as well as the railroad tracks running through the middle of the district.  The Kansas City, Ozark and Southern Railroad’s depot was on the south side of the tracks and the Frisco Railroad’s depot was on the north side.  Apparently, the Kansas City, Fort Scott and Memphis Railroad also served Mansfield at some point in time.

Mining companies were established in the area in the mid-1880s and by the 1890s Mansfield was growing fast.  Wooden sidewalks were even built. By 1914, the Mansfield Power and Light Company was organized and the ‘city came out of the dark’.  By 1920, Mansfield could boast of a population of 757 citizens!

What is the historical significance of this home in Mansfield with its blue window frames?  I don’t know if there is any…but we both loved the look of this house so Laurie took a picture of it!

I love bits of history like this about Mansfield that I borrowed from the Internet:

“…Mansfield is a town of about 750 people. It has a very picturesque location on the wooded hills, and is on the main line of the Kansas City, Fort Scott and Memphis R.R.  As this is the only road in this part of the state, an immense amount of business is transacted here. Nearly all kinds of businesses are represented here. Stock farming, and fruit culture the principle industry. There are good church and school privileges. The new school building, a fine brick structure stands on a mountain side and commands a fine view of the town and surrounding country. Three teachers are now employed and another department will be put in next year.” 

 

“The lead and zinc mines a mile from town employ about fifty men.

Land can be bought near the railroad for from five to twenty dollars per acre, according to improvement and location. Most farms have on them living springs where water flows out of solid rock, and afford water for both stock and house use. There is one spring about six miles from here running a good sized grist mill.”

 

Pictured above...the first photo...is the back of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Home and Museum on the outskirts of Mansfield Missouri.  I borrowed the photo of the front of the home from the museum's website.  If you live in the USA and are over 40 years old and you’ve never heard of Laura Ingalls Wilder or her series of children’s books, (read by many adults including both of us), either you live under a rock or you just don’t read much.  Another opportunity to know a bit about Wilder’s work would be to watch the popular old television series, “Little House on the Prairie”, which ran from 1974 until 1983.  That series was loosely based on her books.

Her 8 “Little House” books were published between 1932 and 1943, and they were based on her childhood growing up in a settler or pioneer family.  Laura Ingalls Wilder was born in 1867 and died in 1957.  Her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, may have collaborated in the writing of some of the books. (FYI Rose, along with 2 other female writers, Ayn Rand and Isabel Paterson, was one of the most influential advocates of the American libertarian movement.

In any case, in 1894 Laura Ingalls Wilder, her husband, Almanzo and their daughter Rose moved to Mansfield from South Dakota.  Laura and her husband lived in this area for the next 60 years.  They established a large and successful poultry, dairy and fruit farm.  Today their unique 10-room farmhouse is a National Historic Landmark and a museum that attracts tens of thousands of tourists every year.

Unfortunately, this is about as close to the museum as we got… It was late, it was raining and we had to head north to our overnight destination ASAP.  To learn more about the museum, you can go to Home - Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home & Museum (lauraingallswilderhome.com).

FYI – Ken Osmond, “Eddie Haskell” on the TV series “Leave it to Beaver” was a neighbor of the Wilder family when he was a youth.

From Mansfield we headed due north along MO Hwy 5 to Lebanon Missouri for our overnight stop at the local Hampton Inn.  It was only about a 45 mile drive…but rain was falling.

Once we checked in to our hotel, it was time for dinner.  I’d picked a restaurant where we could have diner but they were closed…poor job of researching!

By now the rain was just gushing down in sheets and the wind was really blowing too.  The closest place to eat was the Brick House Grill less than a block from the hotel.  We got a break in the worst of the rain and headed over for dinner.

I didn’t take an outside photo due to the rain.  The interior photo above gives you an idea as to how busy Brick House Grill was on this inclement night.  Besides us, and those at the bar, there were only 2 other tables occupied.  Now onto the food.  Laurie wasn’t too hungry and she ordered a quesadilla.  I jumped out there and ordered their ‘prime’ steak, cooked medium rare.  For a side I ordered corn on the cob and the steak came with “Texas Toast”. 

It took a while for Laurie to get her food despite a lack of customers.  But, my food wasn’t served when hers was.  Time passed and Laurie was almost done eating when my steak arrived.  It was an interesting shape…and it had been grilled beyond medium rare or even medium.  It was like a dark chewy brick.  I ate a bit of it and the waitress stopped by and made the mistake of asking how my steak was.  I told her and then she disappeared.  Then another waitress came by and told me that the chef was grilling another steak for me. 

I told her that I didn’t need it but she said that they were giving it to me anyway and we could take it with us!  What?!  So I stopped hacking at the brick in front of me and the next steak was delivered with comments that they were having trouble with the grill… Things went downhill further when I cut into this piece of beef and it ‘mooed’ at me with a cool blood red center.  She took it back to the fire…and I’ll just stop the story here.  It was not a good experience but the rain had let up and I managed to have a good night’s sleep.  FYI, the Brick House Grill can be found at Brickhouse Grill | Lebanon MO | Facebook.  

The Munger-Moss Motel is a blast from the past.  This vintage ‘auto court’, that’s what they were called in the early days, was built in 1946.  Today it is one of the few remaining ‘mom and pop’ motels on former US Hwy 66, more commonly referred to now as Route 66.  It was a rainy day for us...

It all began with the construction of the Munger-Moss Sandwich Shop in Devil’s Elbow Missouri.  It was built in 1936 by Nellie Munger and her husband, Emmitt Moss.  The sandwich shop was famous for its barbeque and it was a well-known stop along Route 66.  When the highway was relocated during WWII in order to handle heavy military traffic to and from nearby Fort Leonard Wood, the business suffered. 

A new owner moved the business to Lebanon and built the motel.  War time rationing was still being enforced and the lumber used for construction of the motel may have been purchased via the black market.  The government tried to find the owner to stop the work…but he stayed hidden most of the time.  Originally, the units being rented were cabins but as demand grew, more units were needed and they were built in the space left between the original units. 

The motel has been owned and managed by the same couple since 1971.  Each room has a different theme.  To learn more, go to the motel’s website at Munger Moss Motel | Home

Back when Route 66, aka the ‘mother road, was the route that ran all the way from Chicago to Santa Monica California, Lebanon and many other towns along the highway were littered with motels.  Not all of them have fared as well as the Munger-Moss Motel, which is almost right across the street from this derelict motel.

US Hwy 66 was established on November 11, 1926.  It covered a total of 2,448 miles and ran through the states of Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.  At least in Missouri, the road followed the ‘old wire trail’, aka the telegraph lines.  Today, parts of the route have been designated as National Historic Places and a number of museums can be found along the road.  In addition, old time structures such as gas stations, restaurants and store can still be found scattered along Route 66.  It is a tourist attraction in itself… Of course the hit song “Get Your Kicks on Route 66” and the old TV series called “Route 66”, both helped keep the nostalgia going…

Before we headed north from Lebanon, I decided that we should look up one of the places in town that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  This is the Ploger-Moneymaker Place, aka “Aambler” at 291 Harwood Avenue.  The 19^th Century high-style 2-story home was built in about 1870.  It’s most well-known resident was Professor F.W. Ploger.  He was an early mayor of Lebanon and he was Laclede County’s first superintendent of schools.  His daughter lived here until 1975 and her daughter and daughter’s husband owned it and maintained it after that.

Lebanon Missouri was founded in 1849.  A small settlement was created that was called “Wyota” by the residents, naming it after a local Native American tribe.  After some time, the name was changed to Lebanon after the urgings of a respected minister.  He wanted it named after his hometown of Lebanon Tennessee.  Actually, most of the early settlers in the area were hunters and farmer from Tennessee.

By now the rain was on us…once again pouring down from time to time.  As we moved north on MO Hwy 5, we came upon an “appropriately named town”, Laurie Missouri.  My Laurie was glad to see that a town had ‘been named after her’!  Laurie is just 2 miles north of a popular tourist spot named Sunrise Beach at the Lake of the Ozarks.

Laurie Missouri is a ‘new’ town but its roots go back to the Great Depression era.  In 1937, L.M. and William (Buster) Laurie bought an old building along MO Hwy 5 and began operating a grocery store and filling station.  A year later, Buster Laurie traded one of his horses for a year’s lease on a building right across the highway.  This became the Laurie Market.

The market was the only building in the area to have a phone as well as the only place that had a drilled water well.  The Laurie family allowed a number of nearby families to tap into the well and folks in the area would come to the store to use the phone.  In 1961, area residents petitioned for a post office, choosing the name “Laurie” because of the goodwill shown by the family store over the years.  Laurie Missouri was incorporated at a city in June of 1966.  In 1970 the census reported a population of 106 and in 2020, a total of 939 residents were recorded.  FYI, my Laurie has ‘laid claim’ to the town’s bank since it’s ‘her town’.

After passing through Laurie, we continued north looking for more adventures and historic places…

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave