Kirkpatrick's Furniture

223-225 South Summit Street

E. Kirkpatrick, co-owner of a furniture and undertaking business, moved the business to the new McCowan Block building at 225 S. Summit St. in September 1905.

Earlier that year, McCowan, superintendent of the Chilocco Indian School, purchased two lots between Farmers State Bank and Morgan’s Music Store, the site of the new block.

After the two-story, 50- by 130-foot stone structure was built, Kirkpatrick led an Arkansas City Traveler reporter on a tour of the building as he was finishing arranging merchandise for the store’s opening.

Merchandise was being arranged on both stories of the building. The first floor was devoted to furniture, stoves, china, crockery ware and carpets.

The ground floor had no partitions between the different departments; they were presented in one large, open room. On the second floor, larger items were displayed in the front room. At the back, or west, end of the second floor were two 16- by 60-foot rooms to be used for undertaking purposes. The basement was to be a stock room.

E. Kirkpatrick was a partner in the firm of Kirkpatrick & Shaffer until 1911, when Shaffer retired.

Kirkpatrick bought out his partner’s share of the business and continued to run the store as Kirkpatrick’s Furniture until he died in October 1920. He was eulogized as a popular Ark City merchant and community builder.

The furniture store continued in business at 225 S. Summit St. until the mid- to late 1920s.

McLellan’s Department Store moved into the building in 1930.

The firm changed from a department store to a variety store by 1952, and by 1961, the firm’s name changed to the McCrory McLellan Co. McLellan’s remained in business until the early 1970s, when Brown’s Office Supplies, Inc., moved into the building from a previous location.

Brown’s had been in business in Ark City since 1996.

It later closed in 2010, and later that year, Willow Fashion, a women’s apparel shop, opened in this location and stayed in business for several years.

In about 2018 or 2019, Traver’s Furniture, located at 221 S. Summit St., expanded to the store next door, where it offers a gallery of flooring supplies.

This commercial vernacular-style building features a rock-faced finish, alternating narrow and wide coursing, and Chicago-style windows.