Prior to the age of the bypass and the supremacy of automobiles, neighborhood stores were commonplace. Much like their rural cousins, the country store, neighborhood groceries served the folks who lived and worked in the immediate area. Both types of stores are increasingly vanishing.
Rarely do I find a neighborhood store still in operation in Kentucky, and many former stores have either been torn down or renovated into dwellings so thoroughly that little remains of their original function.* The Calloway Market, however, still stands, instantly recognizable as a commercial building. Within its quiet interior hovers, along with the dust motes, generations of stories.
The Calloway Market, Winchester, Kentucky.
A neighborhood store means even more right now, as many parts of Kentucky remain trapped in a landscape of snow and ice. I would happily navigate a snowy sidewalk to walk to a local store!
This two-story frame building with a shed roof and two-story porch, was built between 1919 and 1926, likely by Algin Burgher. Calloway Street was improved with concrete and the addition of a curb and gutter in 1922 and 1923, so that road work may have prompted the construction of the store building.
In 1919, Burgher purchased a house and lot at the corner of Alabama and Calloway Streets from the Aldridge family for $800. The store would later be built on the rear of this parcel. Alvin and his wife, Mary Ivy, were living in the house in 1930. The 1.5-story frame T-plan house, which is first shown on the 1907 Sanborn Fire Insurance map, was valued at $1,500 in the 1930 census.
The Algin and Ivy Burgher House at the corner of Alabama and Calloway Streets.
The house has a gable on hip roof, with wonderful little Palladian windows set into the shingled gables, and a wrap-around porch. It could well be earlier than 1907, but that this is the first Sanborn map to show this section of Winchester. It was originally a six-room house, with one bathroom, and front and back porches.
Section of the 1926 Sanborn Fire Insurance map showing the house and store.
The store is shown much in its original configuration, but the front gable, one-story wing to the left was originally a garage – maybe for the vehicle used to deliver groceries! A one-bay wide hyphen (with a large display window like those in the store proper) connects the grocery to the garage. The store also had a large storage room, meat house, and a dairy department with “all the necessary equipment” including lights, sink, and concrete floors. The Burghers rented the store for $78 a month.
Detail of the store’s original sleeping porch, with turned and chamfered posts.
The store itself had a five-room apartment on the second story, with a bathroom and sleeping porch. I suppose that means the second story porch on the facade may have originally been semi-enclosed. An exterior stair on the side elevation leads to the second story apartment.
The former garage, attached to the grocery, is seen in the foreground of this photograph. At least two small additions extend from the rear of the garage section.
The first mention I could find of a business in the building is 1923, when Morris & Green were proprietors of a store at 112 Calloway Street. By 1926, the store was known as “The Home Market” and was owned by R.T. “Bob” Mastin. The Home Market moved to the corner of Broadway and Maple Street in 1932.
Ad from the November 5, 1926 edition of The Winchester Sun.
Alvin and Ivy Burgher, perhaps weary of Kentucky winters (I understand that!) and seeking warmer temperatures, made the decision to move to Florida, and auctioned off their property in 1935. In addition to the house and store, many of the fixtures and goods from both buildings were sold. The store had two meat saws, four counters, two broom racks, and two cake tables. In the house, Alvin and Ivy decided to sell their player piano, two 9×12 linoleum rugs, electric sweeper, and four 8-inch porch columns, 10 feet long. (Where did those columns come from?!)
From the December 6, 1935 edition of the Winchester Sun
Bush’s Grocery was operating in the store building in 1937, and during the World War II years, it appears to have been Akin’s Grocery Store.
Detail of the storefront facade.
The business sold in 1949, with “Kindred’s Market” taking over the Calloway Street building. This appeared to be short-term lease, as by July 1949 the Kindreds were bidding farewell to their customers, and Cecil Gravett purchased the grocery and meat market.
The grocery business seems to have been as tough as the restaurant business is today. In March 1952, the Cecil Gravett Grocery and Meat Market – a “real money maker” – was listed for sale. Mr. Gravett, president of the Clark County Farm Bureau, was going into farming (and that’s definitely harder than either enterprise!). In 1954, Robert “Bob” Vivion, a former manager of the local A&P, purchased the grocery.
From the August 19, 1954 edition of the Winchester Sun.
A number of Winchester residents still remember Bob Vivion’s Grocery. When I started gathering information about the store building, his name came up several times, along with the recollection that during his tenure with the store (from 1954 to around 1963) an Ale-8 and a candy bar cost $.10!
Bob’s business was later known as “Bob Vivion’s KY Food Store,” with the tagline of “Winchester’s largest little store.” Country ham was another specialty at Bob’s.
From the October 18, 1962 edition of the Winchester Sun.
Bob Vivion brought a partner, Milton Borchers, into the business in 1962, and by 1963, the store on Calloway Street became known as “Uncle Milt’s Market.”
No matter the name, this building has been a fixture on Calloway Street for around 100 years.
I lost the newspaper trail of the store after 1965, but I know that it operated as the “Calloway Market” from at least 1992 until 2000. Butch and Hazel Mogerson ran the store during that time. Customers of Calloway Market recalled Hazel serving up chili dogs, soup beans, and barbeque. In 1935, the store had a 12-foot soda fountain. I don’t know if that survived all of the different businesses over the years, but I like to imagine patrons sitting at the soda fountain, enjoying lunch and a good gossip.
If you weren’t eating or visiting, maybe you played pool at the Calloway Market, or just stopped in on your way home to pick something up for supper. Hazel and Butch maintained a bulletin board inside the store, with photographs of neighborhood residents, a Calloway Market family.
I don’t know how long the store has been closed and the building empty, but I hope that the building is at least maintained. That way, perhaps someday soon it will get another chance at life. Maybe another neighborhood market? It’s a wonderful building, but more than the shape and materials of the structure, the store on Calloway Street is an expression of community.
*Yes, I am very familiar with Wilson’s Grocery on Cramer in Lexington, Kentucky. That’s my old neighborhood, and I walked there many times. Please share any historic neighborhood store you know that is still standing!
We grew up on Kentucky Street and walked past here everyday when walking to Hickman Street School. It was also where we bought our sliced bologna and cheese, a loaf of bread and a carton of Ale8’s. This was our reward for our chores on Saturday mornings. It was better than a money allowance and the best of times. It was also owned by my family at one time and was The Chism Grocery…
What years did your family own the grocery?
Yes I remember Calloway Marketi about lived there. Hazel and Butch were like family trying to keep the kids out of trouble . That’s when the pool table came . They were the best people I know.. Hazel would make u up a big sandwich or whatever you needed. Joe Brewer and I lived in Alabama . We stopped in everything day . Years later I took our first born son to meet then that was in 2002.
I grew up on Kentucky Street. Me and all my friends would go play pool all the time. It’s a corner stone for that neighborhood. I was sad to see it close.