Weeks Hardware Building

326 W, Main, Carterville, MO
Phone:

East < GO > West

The red brick three story 1900 Weeks Hardware building had something special to offer travelers in the early days of Route 66. Eventually the hardware company left the building and at some point was replaced by a hotel, not such an unusual happening. So what was the "something special"? Keep reading ...

OK, here's the good stuff! see that garage door in the center of the back wall? Hotel guests drove through it and used the old freight elevator inside to lift their cars to the parking garage on the second floor of the building, that was unusual!

Weeks Hardware was established in the 1890s to manufacture and sell mining equipment throughout the mining district. They claimed to be "The largest [mining] supply house in southwestern Missouri".

Somewhere along the years several feet of the tower and its pyramid shaped roof above the entrance on the angled corner were removed, as was the peak that has obviously been cut off on the parapet. The missing peak matched the smaller version on the right. The more traditional original storefront has been remodeled over the years. There is some ghost writing below the upper windows on the front of the building as well as on both the east and west walls just below the top edge of the parapet.

Photo(s): 2016