by Michelle Korgis-Fitzpatrick
copyright June 2002-03
If you have ever been interested in searching historical documents, wondered what it would be like to look back in on the past, or even wonder what history holds that we may have never known, but always wanted to know, then now is your chance.
Recently, I have gone through some clippings of different news paper articles and have come across all types of interesting stories, pictures, etc. Included are photos of some very old buildings that still stand, which, is a reminder of the past.
Some of these pictures are not all within Christian County, but right outside of the county line and are a very interesting part of southwest Missouri history.
Northwest of Christian County lies the small community of Halltown. As you can see, (bottom photo), what use to be an old general store has now been converted into an antique shop. Even though it now houses an antique shop, when you walk in the front door, you can feel what it was like to walk into the past.
A two-story building has nothing but old memories tucked inside its walls.
Stairs creak as you walk up and down them, an old musty smell of days gone by, crams the air freshly, and your imagination takes you back to the way it used to be when citizens from miles around traveled to shop for supplies.
Compared to today’s stores, this old general store still holds a lot of memories.
"They were going to tear it down, then, I had decided to rent it and convert it into a antique shop," said the owner.
To see it for yourself, take a drive to Halltown and look through the piece of southwest Missouri history.
Our next search is an old house located in Christian County, near Spokane in the old town of Reno.
The house, built in the style of it’s day, I would have to estimate it as being only about 500 sq. ft.
Compared to the houses that are built today, most generally run around 2,000 sq. ft.
Yet, these old dwellings hold a significant amount of history inside of them.
The people who once occupied these homes were probably proud to even have it. Even if they didn’t have the money or the time to build a bigger house, they still survived in these little homes with some of them having numerous amount of kids. Whereas today, people usually have to have bigger homes, either because we want to, or because it’s just the standard living quarters of today’s society.
Other older buildings of many different types are still standing within Christian County, but with the process of new buildings coming up and the old ones going down (due to man or mother nature), they will always be a part of our past that will never be forgotten.
I will continue with the history of Christian County, A Trip Back Into Time, next week, including more information, pictures, and a talk with Wayne Glenn, a known local writer of Christian County.
(Published in the Ozark Senior Living, August 2002)
