McCurdy Lumber Co. Then and Now

400 W Chestnut St / Wyatt Earp Blvd.

It’s always fun to see an old photo of Dodge City and be utterly confused. There wasn’t a lumber yard at Third and Chestnut. Except there actually was.

The 1887 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map shows a mix of commercial and residential frame structures on that block, some of which were vacant. By 1892, many of those structures had been demolished. Only a handful remained by 1899.

Francis A Sturgeon had been in the lumber business prior to his arrival in Dodge. He opened a lumber yard at the northwest corner of Third and Chestnut in the Summer of 1901.

By August of that year, F. A. Sturgeon and Sons had received more than 100 carloads of stock and more were on the way. Construction of storage sheds was in progress at that time.

Francis died on November 1, 1904 at the young age of 58. The lumber yard was sold to the Missouri Lumber and Supply Company in January of 1905.

The 1905 Sanborn shows the Missouri Supply Lumber Co. with a mix of commercial and residential structures in the area. The business was sold again to the W. S. Berryman Lumber Co. that July.

John and Helen McCurdy bought the lumber yard in November of 1905.

The McCurdys expanded the buildings and created a much more organized enterprise.

In this photo taken from the Third Ward School looking southeast, you can see the backside of the McCurdy facility. This was when Walnut Street continued west beyond Third Avenue.

The Anawalt-Campbell Mercantile Company bought the business in September of 1909.

The 1911 Sanborn shows a further expanded lumber yard and the removal of all residential structures. It’s difficult to make out but this 1911 postcard shows the main building still bore the McCurdy name.

UPDATE: This photo was taken from a slightly better angle and shows some of the sheds on the property.

Anawalt-Campbell continued to grow during the teens. The 1918 Sanborn shows a large brick building taking up the entire block between Chestnut and Walnut Streets and Third and Fourth Avenues.

CEO Ben B. Anawalt died at his Wichita home in August of 1938. His son-in-law, Frank Frantz, continued managing the Dodge City location.

If you squint, the Anawalt-Campbell Lumber Co. sign is barely visible on top of the enormous building at the upper right in this circa 1957 photo.

Anawalt-Campbell closed their Dodge City location around 1960 and the building sat vacant for a couple years. It was then demolished and Fourth Avenue was closed to make way for Boot Hill Museum’s expansion of the Front Street Replica, which began in early 1964.

In this photo, you can see the west end of the demolition process with Fourth Avenue no longer a through street.

This is how the block looked in September of 1969.

And here’s the former lumber yard today:

As you all know, this block is a bit of a wreck right now but it’s also a good time to walk around and see the changes. I know the downtown merchants would appreciate the foot traffic!

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