Looking Back: The Loring Home

​by Marcia Napier, Grain Valley Historical Society


Built in the mid 1920s, the Loring Home is one of the oldest structures still standing in Grain Valley.

It is located in what was the original town with the legal description being E ½ lots 33 & 34 Block 2 all vac 2nd Street LY S & AD (whatever that means) To me, it is the “old Loring House behind the tattoo parlor." When the 4 ½ acres, given to the town by James Lucas, were platted in 1878, the owner was D. M. Majors. The land had five more owners before 1908 when Ed Storms purchased the property.

The Recorder of Deeds office did not date when Mr. Storms sold the land to William H. Loring, however on June 7, 1916 he purchased lot 19 and lot 32  from Warren Webb Mercantile Co. I believe he also purchased Lots 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, & 38 from Mr. Storms  on this same date. Mr. Loring, and his wife Ada, now owned all of the lots on the east edge of the original town.

Lot 19, on the north side of the Chicago & Alton Railroad tracks became Loring Hardware. The store was purchased by Charles & Mildred Napier in 1949 and renamed Napier Hardware in 1956 (when the final payment was made on the mortgage).

As for the home, the current realtor tells me it was built in 1923. William Loring was born in 1857 in Massachusetts. His wife was born in Vermont in 1859. They were married in 1882. By 1900, according to the United States Census, they were living in Kansas City and William worked as a grocer. The 1920 census list their address as Broadway Street in Grain Valley. There are many references to our current Main Street being called Broadway in the late teens and early 1920’s.

​I’m guessing they probably received their mail at their hardware store on Broadway.  I have been unable to find any record of the William and Ada Loring ever having any children or other family in Missouri. Mr. Loring died in 1930. Mrs. Loring ran the hardware store with the help of Abner Haynes until her death in 1942. They are buried in the Grain Valley Cemetery on Seymour Road, north of Grain Valley.

​Photo credit: Grain Valley Historical Society