Parkhurst Motor Co. Then and Now

402-404 Front Street

In Dodge City’s early days, Front Street was the main drag and Chestnut Street (now Wyatt Earp Boulevard) one block north was barely even a side street. Many of you will remember when the reverse was true and the buildings with doors on both sides of the block only used Front Street for service entrances.

In the Spring of 1908, E. E. Smith moved his coal office into a new concrete block building at what became 404 Front Street. The lot had been empty for some time but it had previously hosted a series of frame structures which had been vacant more often than not. A scale was installed just to the east of the office.

Dr. Noble Melencamp purchased the property from Smith and in February of 1925, began construction of a large concrete block and brick building with entrances on both Chestnut and Front Streets.

The building was leased to Southwest Motor Company, which opened that Spring. Their showroom was located on the Chestnut side with a 25-car garage along Front Street. Also, that’s one heckuva typo.

Mark Parkhurst of Greensburg bought the dealership in August of 1927 and remodeled the building at that time for the Dodge City location of Parkhurst Motor Co.

This circa-1930 photo was taken from Front Street looking northwest.

C. R. Hill moved his Nash and LaFayette dealership to the former Parkhurst location around 1933.

Hill later relocated to a spot on Second Avenue and new occupant Gum Motor Co. held their grand opening in the summer of 1937.

Davis Electric Co. moved to the building in 1946 after Gum’s new location was completed further west on Chestnut. R. W. Miller also opened a radiator repair business in the old garage area.

C. E. Davis sold Davis Electric to the E. S. Cowie Electric Co. in the Spring of 1948.

Mullin Furniture opened their Economy Store in the west side of the building in August of 1949.

Around 1955, McKinley Automotive moved to the east side in conjunction with Reuben Schleining of Rube’s Electric Company.

McKinley and Schleining relocated to East Trail Street in the Fall of 1957.

The Mullin store vacated the building around 1958 and it sat empty until Hawley Bros. moved from the former Durr-Meng dealership in the Summer of 1959.

After Hawley Bros. relocated around 1966, the property was listed for sale. From that point, the building’s days were numbered. These photos were taken just prior to the block being demolished as part of the Urban Renewal project in 1970.

This is how the former site of Parkhurst Motor Co. looks today:

Making a convincing argument that this block looked better in the 1960s would require some serious mental gymnastics. Even though it’s only a roadway with landscaping, the area is obviously much more attractive today. My issue is with the property owners and local officials who allowed it to become a slum in the first place. There are high-traffic properties in this town where the process is repeating. Let’s arrest the decay while the history can still be saved.

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