Storie Building

The Storie Building is one of four adjacent buildings at the north end of the west side of the square that were built during 1904 to replace earlier buildings destroyed in a great fire during early January of that year --- the Lockwood Building, the Storie Building and the Mallory Opera Block, which occupied four lots.

Dr. D.Q. Storie, a druggist and physician, had been in business in this location for many years prior to the fire and by 1904 had replaced his single-story wooden store with an elegant, narrow, three-story brick building that rivaled the Mallory Opera Block in detail although not in size. That was the Storie building that burned during January.

The Chariton Herald reported in its March 3, 1904, edition that "work has been begun by D.Q. Storie on clearing away the debris from the site of his burned store building, prepatory to building the new one. The work of clearing on the other ruins will begin soon, and building will commence within a few weeks."

On Dec. 8, 1904, The Chariton Patriot reported that, "The Storie building is not yet quite complete but will be in a few days, when the lower floor will be occupied by the Storie & Patton Drug Co. The entire upper floor will be occupied by Dr. D.Q. Storie Jr., as offices."

The four new buildings, although distinctive, were designed to harmonize --- perhaps by Chariton architect O.A. Hoaglund. We know that his design for the new Lucas County Home had been selected by county supervisors that year, but the four new commercial buildings cannot be officially attributed to him.

The four buildings are marked by elegant, but restrained, detail and harmonizing shades of pale brick. As built, the cornice of the Storie Building was crowned by a cartouche that projected high above the roof and was elaborately framed in brick. Only the lowest portion of the cartouche remains now, however, and the building has within the last year acquired a rather alarming coat of red and yellow paint.