Looking South on Court Street from 6th Street
The west side of Court Street between 5th and 6th Streets was a bustling part of downtown Fulton in the early 20th century. At various times, the block boasted groceries, drugstores, dental and law offices, bookstores, a bank, and hardware, furniture, clothing, shoe and dry goods businesses. In 1884, City Hall briefly occupied the location, but not the building that is now home to Bek’s. A photograph from 1899 shows a different building in this location.
Of the businesses currently on this block, which one can trace its roots back more than a 100 years to those early days on Court Street? Our search leads back to 1863, when Thomas Patton became Fulton’s fifth Postmaster. Before the Post Office was completed in 1915, postmasters selected the site for postal services, often at their primary business or in a space rented for the purpose. During Patton’s two terms as Postmaster, several downtown locations can be documented as sites for the Post Office, including one, during his second term, listed as Patton’s Book Store.
Thomas and his wife Amanda had 12 children. As a teenager, Charles, the youngest, set up a newspaper stand at the Post Office managed by his father. He became Deputy Postmaster during his father’s second term and due to the latter’s failing health, was running the office himself as the term ended. We do not know when Charles first opened his bookstore, but when he died at age 81 in 1929, it was noted that he had owned his business for 63 years. By 1906, Patton Book Store was located at 519 Court Street. Olin Collett, one of Patton’s employees later became his partner and they renamed the store Patton and Collett Book Store. On Patton’s death, his share of the business was sold to Lyman Rood and the name changed once again, this time to Collett and Rood Book Store. When Collett and Rood died within a week of each other in the 1930’s, one of Collett’s brothers took over the bookstore’s operation, moving it to 523 Court Street in the mid-1940s. In 1954, Mr. and Mrs. Millard Stewart purchased the business, changed the name to Stewart Bookstore and broadened the inventory to include school and office supplies. In 1978, Mr. and Mrs. Dale LaRue became the store’s new owners. LaRue Book Store and Office Supply began offering printing services, gifts, and office furnishings in addition to supplies, and books. In fact, by the time Constance Oliver, the current owner, bought the store in the early 1990s, there were very few books for sale.
The oldest business operating continuously on the west side of the 500 block of Court Street is Center Court. Although it no longer sells books, Center Court is the descendant of Charles Patton’s bookstore, thanks to multiple owners who reshaped the business, adapting it to the changing needs of each new generation. Center Court’s addition of monogrammed and machine embroidered items celebrating Fulton, special occasions and events might even strike some as modern renditions of the souvenirs once available at Patton Book Store.
In the first decade of the 20th century, Charles Patton began selling high quality tinted postcards from Germany. Many of the postcards that we have featured bear the designation, Made in Germany. C. A. Patton, Importer and Publisher, Fulton, Missouri.