Check these out

Flyoverpeople.net is PR native Cheryl Unruh's chronicle of life in Kansas. She often describes Pawnee Rock and what it has meant to her.

The Santa Fe Trail Research Site, produced by Larry and Carolyn Mix of St. John, has hundreds of pages dedicated to the trail that runs through Pawnee Rock.


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Photographic history of store by post office

This series of photos shows the shop just west of the post office during several of its incarnations. Photos are provided by Don Ross, Barb Schmidt, Leon Unruh and Cheryl Unruh. The building to the immediate left of the shop was for a while a school lunchroom and apartment. To the right of the shop was an insurance office and a bank, and later the bank became the post office.

1920s? Now nearly forgotten on Pawnee Avenue on the western edge of downtown, these buildings once were extremely important to Pawnee Rock. The store on the right probably was the T.P. Nichols meat market (and later the City Drug Store). The building formed an L around the Farmers and Merchants Bank (the current post office, unseen to the right). The two-story building appears as a drugstore, and the first floor (maybe even during this period) later was used as the school lunchroom. The schools were a couple of blocks away. The Pawnee Rock Herald, which has its job-printing job in the basement, also used a building (unseen) to the left of the two-story building as its office. This photo may have been made in the 1910s. The Herald folded in 1937.

1920s? The T.P. Nichols family had a clothing and shoe store on Centre Street early in the 20th century, but it also sold meat from this store on Pawnee Avenue. This storefront, just west of where the Farmers and Merchants Bank was (where the post office now is), later became the south entrance of a drugstore. Don Ross sent this shot of the store and the butcher.

1920s? A parade through downtown Pawnee Rock, possibly between 1910 and 1920, included an entry from the Santa Fe Garage. The buildings in the background, starting behind the first car, are: Farmers and Merchants Bank (now the post office), a small office (now part of the post office), the Pawnee Avenue entrance to the drug store (later a dress shop and city office), a building later used as the school lunchroom, and the one-story white building that was for a while the home of the Pawnee Rock Herald. All the buildings in that block are still standing, although the old Herald building and the two-story building are not in good shape now. The placard on the car being towed says: Never too bad for us to fix.

1940s: Pawnee Rock's drugstore used to wrap around the old Farmers and Merchants Bank, which occupied the building that's now the post office. In the photo at left, three girls walk past the south entrance on a sunny day in the 1940s. At right, Lila Lee Oller and Joan Spreier (now Smith) horse around on the rail. The entrance is just west of the post office. Don Ross took and submitted these photos.

1979: In 1979, the Pawnee Rock library was in the building. Barb Schmidt made this photo.

2006: In 2006, the shop west of the post office appeared to be a second-hand shop.

2011: A second-hand shop just west of the post office in Pawnee Rock doesn't have a regular sign, but it does say "Garage Sale" on four sign cards. Cheryl Unruh took this photo last weekend.