Brady’s Grocery Then and Now

201 E Trail Street

Whenever I think I know my hometown, an old black and white photo proves me wrong. I’ve spent quite a bit of time researching Dodge City grocery stores but a 1965 flood photo of Brady’s Grocery had me stumped. I looked it up and noticed the business was operated by Patrick and Etta Brady. Also listed in parentheses was the name of their daughter, Anita. Now that name I recognized. Anita Brady graduated with my grandmother, Irene Beeson, in 1940.

The Brady family moved to Dodge City from Hutchinson in the mid-1920s. Patrick was an egg candler for Paden-Thompson Produce Company, which later became Fairmont Foods.

In the Fall of 1926, E. P. Orrill and Will Ricken constructed a stucco and concrete block building measuring 30 by 50 feet for their grocery and produce business at what was then 201 E Santa Fe Trail Street. Although the street name wasn’t officially changed until years later, it was commonly referred to as Trail Street even then.

Orrill and Ricken dissolved their partnership in March of 1927 at which time Ricken assumed full ownership of the business. He doubled the size of the building that July and sold the store to the Leniger family toward the end of 1927.

Patrick and Etta Brady, who lived just down the block on Woodland Avenue, bought the business in 1928.

They ran the grocery together with Anita and were later joined by her husband, Leon Hunter. After Patrick’s death in 1961, Etta continued operations until the flood brought business to a standstill in June of 1965.

Brady’s Grocery is shown here after the Arkansas River flooded 60 years ago this month.

Brady’s Grocery was listed for sale in the Spring of 1967 but it doesn’t appear to have been used commercially until the late 1970s.

Mr. B’s Auction had a couple spots on East Trail and they used the building for sales around 1979 to 1980.

Jack Leach opened a television, stereo, and electronic repair shop at 201 E Trail in 1984.

Leach died in March of 1989 and the building went quiet until being sold in May of 1994. Billae’s Del Real Billiards then occupied the entire block including the old grocery, tavern, and car dealership.

By 1997, those three buildings housed the first iteration of the Malibu Night Club, which came and went for a while. The former grocery and tavern appear to have been demolished around 2000 and the concrete slabs are used for parking at the club.

This is how the site of Brady’s Grocery looks today:

Even now, it’s difficult to grasp how much changed in the aftermath of our last great flood. 60 years later, there are still homes with layers of flood mud. So many old frame structures were washed away and many more were damaged beyond repair. Worst of all is the loss of the mighty Arkansas, which in my memory has only existed as a dry riverbed with an occasional trickle.

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