Historical Gallery

We have assembled a gallery of historical images of the Patton Block Center from the late 1890s until the turn of the new millenium. To see the gallery, click here.

07.25.

The Modern Era

About that time, a Kroger Grocery opened in the east room and a department store known as the Double Service Sales Co. was established in the west. In 1944, the department store was replaced by the Patton Block's longest-tenured business, Johnson's Wallpaper and Paint Store. The owner, Leonard Johnson, soon took over both of the ground-floor rooms and made several improvements to the building, including pouring a concrete floor in the basement where paint and wallpaper were stored. He...

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The New Century

By the turn of the century, a jewelry store and a restaurant occupied the east room and a dry goods dealer was on the west. The Sons of America reclaimed their third-floor meeting hall, only to be replaced in 1903 by the Military Tract Bindery, later to be known as the Forman Co.

In 1909, one of Monmouth's first silent movie houses, the LeGrande Theatre, opened in the lower east room. An advertisement in the Monmouth Review noted that there were "good pictures and songs every ni...

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Early Tenants

The location and appearance of the building must have appealed to the public, as Patton had no trouble attracting tenants and opted for the three-story plan. The first floor would be split into two rooms, with an exterior stairway to the second floor located in between. The west room would be occupied by a baker, Non Hood (his oven was in the basement); while a dry goods dealer from Kansas would open a store in the east room. The second floor would contain office suites, with sisters Anna, Id...

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