Community mourns loss of grocery store in Williamsville

WILLIAMSVILLE, Missouri - A fire late Monday night destroyed an entire block of buildings, taking out a historic building and the small town's only grocery store in the process.

Holmes Store burned to the ground, with nine agencies responding to the fire call at about 9 p.m. Monday night. Those crews worked for nearly 13 hours before leaving the scene, and leaving the store a total loss.

“When we arrive, the fire was in such an advanced state that we knew there was no saving the store," Williamsville Volunteer Fire Department Chief Bruce Street said. "It was a shock, seeing the store go up in smoke and knowing what a blow this is in this community.��

Street, who is retired from full-time work, actually worked at Holmes Store. He closed the store on Monday night.

“I couldn’t see any smoke," Street said. "I didn’t see any indication of any kind of fire or anything wrong, and about 9:10, my fire phone at my house got to ringing, and it said the old post office was on fire."

The building next to Holmes was nearly 140 years old. It had been a bank and the post office and various other things throughout it's history. It was currently an apartment complex.

“This was our town," Williamsville Mayor Sandy Joy said. "The lifeblood of our town, and so much community spirit came from this because we all loved it. To see this devastation, it’s very difficult for us.��

The town will now have to drive nearly 20 miles to get to the nearest grocery stores. Those are in towns like Poplar Bluff, Greenville and Piedmont.

The oldest part of the Holmes store was build in 1893. In the early 1900s, Bob Riddle's grandmother bought the store from the Wards and officially named it Holmes Store.

Since then, it stayed in the Holmes family in some way until just this last March when it changed hands.

“For me it was my family life," Riddle said. "Our family life revolved around that town my whole life.��

First his grandmother, and then his aunt and uncle ran the store for 25 years. That aunt is Joann Hicks, who was devastated to see such a big part of her life and community in rubble on Tuesday morning.

She raised her family there, and even passed it on to her family when she was done.

“It was wonderful," Hicks said. "People would come in every morning talk, have coffee, just spend time sitting there visiting. It was a visiting place.��

The store was called "the original Wal-Mart" by many of its patrons. It had everything the small Missouri town could need including horse feed, fishing lures, plumbing and electric material, paint and of course, groceries.

“Our biggest concern is how this is going to affect the town of Williamsville and the people of Williamsville," Riddle said. "We talked about this being a possibility of happening, but we knew how the people of this area depended on us so much.��

And the store still let its patrons charge to the store, taking care of anyone who walked in.

“We would give them whatever they needed until the end of the month, then they could pay it, or pay on it, or whatever they could afford to do," Hicks said.

Now the town is left trying to figure out where to go from here.

“It’s like a death, and we’re all grieving," Mayor Sandy Joy said.