Ark Valley Foundry Then and Now

721 Sunnyside Avenue

I walked past this building every day on the way to and from Sunnyside Elementary School back in the (ahem) early 1980s. Aside from ducking inside to buy glass bottles of Coke from the vending machine, all I really knew about its history was that it had been a foundry.

My grandmother, Irene Beeson, told me a story about the property prior to the building’s construction: “A band of gypsies camped across the street from our home. I had heard that they stole children so I stayed in the house until they left.” One day when we were walking around the Big House, she pointed to a spot on the north side of Beeson Road where the old foundry building currently stands. That was the “Gypsy Camp” and she really had been quite terrified that they were going to kidnap her.

This plat map from 1925 is a little confusing because Sunnyside Avenue is labeled “Beeson Road.” You’ll notice the lot was owned by the Riley family and Florene Riley was one of Irene’s best friends.

Although the county website lists the building’s year of construction as 1920, that appears to be a typo. I have been unable to locate records of this structure existing prior to the mid-1930s.

A. D. Shore, previously of Kinsley, opened the Shore Foundry sometime between 1937 and 1938. Shore’s machine shop was located across Sunnyside to the east and it was destroyed by fire in November of 1938.

Plans were underway the following spring to build a new machine shop at the north end of the foundry.

The machine shop operation was discontinued in 1943 and the company held a massive sale.

Because Shore sold the equipment piece-by-piece, the sale process was a long one and ads continued through December of 1944.

Henry Zrubek, owner of Zrubek Tractor and Supply Co. in Pratt, bought the property and established the Ark Valley Foundry. By 1947, he also operated Ark Valley Implements at 501 W Trail Street.

Ark Valley’s one-way plow was an innovation of which Zrubek was especially proud.

Zrubek also owned the old airbase at Pratt and manufacturing was moved there in 1950.

That operation was short-lived, however. Zrubek Tractor, Auto Supply and Implement Co. held a public auction on April 19, 1951 at the old air base. Zrubek became a resident of Dodge City that year.

The photos below are from July of 1958, with the first image taken from the driveway on Sunnyside looking north.

Henry died suddenly at home in April of 1972 and the building was vacant by 1974. It sat empty for a couple years and by 1976 was home to Hamilton Roofing, Acoustics, Inc., and Rylko Fence and Supply.

By 1979, the Gwaltney businesses were joined by Metcalf-Mishler Refrigeration, operated by Tom & Becky Mishler.

In 1980, the building was occupied by Pat’s Bookkeeping Service, owned by Pat Christensen, and Gary’s Refrigeration, owned by Gary Kamphaus.

At some point in all of this reshuffling, Kamphaus had created at least one apartment in the building. By 1984, the apartment was the only space in the building that was occupied. Amazingly, the building had three occupied apartments in 1987 and by 1991, there were four apartments and three “houses.”

A fire in May of 2000 caused significant damage to the building’s roof and interior.

When I was a kid, the building still had windows and glass doors along the front. All of those openings have been buttoned up over time, which tracks with its current status as a warehouse, but also gives it a somewhat menacing appearance.

These photos were taken about a year ago:

All these years later, it’s difficult to recall exactly how things were laid out in the before times. If I remember correctly, we accessed the vending machine using the second walk-through door from the right. The guys found it amusing, my parents not so much.

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