The Warring Furniture company must have been very successful for a long period of time. After all, they occupied one of the very few three-story buildings that we have in Maplewood.
The Warring Furniture Building, at 7422 Manchester, as it looked in 2018. It has recently been used for audio/visual productions.
This 1915 ad from the Maplewood News Champion lists the address as 7400 Manchester.
7400 Manchester today is home to the popular Rich’s Hair Salon and Tiffany Diner. It was the original location of the Warring Furniture Company.
In 1920, Warring was still advertising their address as 7400 Manchester.
In 1923, Warring was still advertising their 7400 Manchester address. But apparently they were in their new building by 1925.
On August 12, 1925, John Buechner passed away. His obit says he was a builder and a contractor who built the old Warring Furniture building at Manchester and Sutton. This implies that Warring must have been in their new building at 7422 Manchester by then. His obit also states that he built the first brick addition to the Valley School.
This is an early image of the Valley School which was once located on the south side of Manchester directly across from our current city hall. I imagine that is Mr. Buechner’s addition on the right.
The new Warring building has some nice terra cotta. It is good that the parapet with the name survives. The ubiquitous egg-and-dart molding survives as well. I once took a photograph of some egg-and-dart molding on an architectural fragment in Rome. Now that’s a popular design!
Whoever built it did a good job on the Warring second building. Built to fit the lot, it’s not square. I’m hoping that the owners will see fit to remove the unsightly materiel from the first floor facade. Returning the facade to its original condition would be great and much appreciated.
They were at the new address, 7422 Manchester, when this ad was posted. Unfortunately I neglected to capture the date on this newspaper when I made the image. All I can say for certain is that they posted it before we had sliced bread!
They didn’t have to go far to the funeral. The Jay B. Smith Funeral Home is right next door.
Well, we’re nearly at the end of another one. Scary how fast they pass. Let’s all agree to try and make this place we live, earth, as good as we possibly can.
Happy New Year, everyone!
Doug Houser December 30, 2024
Doug,
The Warring furniture ad was placed during WWII times, based on the request to give money to the government and the part of the sentence “…… due to restricted transportation we all will be spending more time in our homes….”. Travel was highly restricted during the war.
Good detective work, Gary. Thanks again.
Thanks Doug, always fun to learn about our fair city from your archives.
Happy New Year
Nori
Thank you, Nori. Happy New Year to you as well.
Thank you for the interesting article. And a most Happy New Year to you!
You are very welcome, Patty.