​Looking Back: Graves and Ashcraft, the Residents

by Marcia Napier, Grain Valley Historical Society
 
As stated previously, Graves & Ashcraft plated 48 separate lots between Walnut Street, south to the railroad, and Main Street west to Capelle. While the 12 lots along Main (originally known as Broadway) and 5 lots along Front Street (originally known as N. Main) were part of the “business district,” the remaining lots were residential.

This small area, adjacent to the railroad, was where the first homes were built between 1878 and 1888, and where the first residents of Grain Valley lived before Yennie, Finnell, Wyatt, Davis Place, Cannon, Howell, and other additions were added to Grain Valley.

For the past two weeks I have mentioned the twelve lots along Main Street. A 1924 Map identifies buildings on lots 13, 14, 16, 17 facing Front Street, and on Lots 19 & 20 of Graves’ & Ashcraft’s Addition 1 facing Gregg Street. While I cannot be sure what was originally on those lots, I do remember the Clinton Gibler family living in the house on Lot 13 across the street from the old depot.

By the late 1940s/early 1950s there was no structure on lots 16 and 17 or 19. In 1974 Mid Continent built a library on lots 14 and 15 and lots 16 and 17 were used for parking. Today, the building is Valley Baptist Church.  I do remember a house on Lot 20. Mr. Seth Shippy was living there around 1953 when the house burned.  

Graves’ & Ashcraft’s Addition 2: The house on Lot 1 at the corner of Walnut and Gregg Street was where the Booker Family lived in the late 1940s. They moved to Oak Grove in 1954. The house was there for a few more years before it was purchased by the First Baptist Church and torn down to build Sunday School classroom space behind the church. The Faulkenberry’s lived in the house of Lot 4. Durwood “Hick” and Helen Kirby lived in the house on Lot 5 and 6 throughout the late 1940s and the 1950s. Edward and Hazel Harr lived there during the 1960s and 1970s. The house was torn down several years ago and the land is now a part of the First Baptist Church parking lot. The church now owns all of lots 1 through 4 and 16 through 19.

Graves’ & Ashcraft’s Addition 5 between the railroad and Front Street had only 8 lots. While I was not able to obtain much information about the homes there, I do know the house on lot 1 was once an old schoolhouse that was moved to the present location in the 1920s.  

The land was owned by Raymond and Mildred Frost who also owned the grocery store on Lot 9 in Addition 1. The George family owned several of the lots at various times.  According to the 1929 Grain Valley tax receipts, it appears they may have owned and lived on Lot 3, and F. F. Elliott owned and lived on lots 7 and 8.

As you can tell by reading the map, many of the lots were quite small, therefore families and individuals often purchased multiple lots.

1925 Map of Grain Valley
Showing the Graves’ & Ashcraft’s Additions
Photo credit: Grain Valley Historical Society