Brady Implement Co. Then and Now

400 E Trail Street – Dodge City, Kansas

In the 1920s, the area inside the Dodge City corporation limits was quite small. Driving east on the unpaved Santa Fe Trail Street, you would be in the County shortly after passing Juneau Avenue. Aside from the Santa Fe Railroad, the few businesses in this neighborhood were mostly industrial and agricultural.

International Harvester Co. needed a distribution warehouse to serve Southwest Kansas and points beyond. They chose Dodge City for their new location in late 1928 and selected a site on the north side of Santa Fe Trail just across the tracks from the freight house.

This new warehouse was longer than a city block and would service and ship the complete International Harvester line. It would also include an IH truck dealership at the west end, which was connected by a wooden platform.

The complex was completed in the Summer of 1929, just before Santa Fe Trail Street was paved.

On September 23, approximately 300 guests attended an open house luncheon served by the ladies of the Presbyterian Church.

International Harvester employed more than 50 people at the Dodge City location.

Nevins Implement Co., an IH dealer whose main location was at Fourth and Chestnut, used the complex from the mid-1930s until the early 1950s.

Brady Implement Company, Inc. was formed on December 15, 1952 by W. D. and Marie Brady. This new International Harvester dealership held a grand opening in the west building in February of 1953. The long building to the east was occupied by Minneapolis Moline in those days.

Photos: Ford County Historical Society Troy Robinson Collection

In addition to the full line of IH farm and home equipment, the Bradys also carried Graham-Hoeme and Schafer plows.

Around 1966, Brady Implement moved to its new location on Highway 283 just south of town. Dodge City Manufacturing, Inc. was formed in November of that year by Glenn Burnett, Dr. E. W. Shira, Cecil Maupin, Jr., Frank Epp, Carl Brecheisen, and Eugene Gurtner. This business occupied the former IH dealership until around 1976.

Newly formed Midwest Manufacturing and Supply, Inc. used the building from 1977 until a quitting business sale was held in June of 1980.

Curtis Machine Co. then used it as a warehouse for more than a decade. The facility has also been an auto repair shop. For the past several years, it has been used for chemical storage by the company occupying the rest of the old International Harvester complex, Omnium Manufacturing. Most of the windows and doors have either been boarded up or filled in completely.

This is how the former Brady Implement Co. building looks today:

You all know I love these old industrial buildings. This one is looking a bit haggard but at least no one painted all of the brick, unlike its long-suffering next-door neighbor.

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