Farmer's Supply Company

 

Photo from the Armstrong Archives

From the late 1800s to the early to mid 1900s, this north side block of Broadway between Main and Chiles Streets was a busy, commercial area.  The 1908 Sanborn Insurance Map shows a steam laundry, livery and farm implement store, boarding house, and grocery all located there.  The Farmer’s Supply Company building was originally Dallas Chinn’s Steam Laundry, but by 1914, that business had been replaced by a second livery stable.  Most likely during the 1920s both livery stables went out of business when the horse and buggy gave way to the automobile.  The Farmer’s Supply building continued as a seed grinding and farm supply business until it was bought in 1967 by the city and torn down in order to move the police and fire departments to a new site.