Fore those who care about such things, I saw a commercial a couple of days ago on Channel 3 which said the Old Lee-Gray Chevrolet building is to be the new location of Moncrief Furniture. That will be a big store for a small town! Some may know that my father started what became Moncrief Furniture with the Forest Furniture Market around 1950. It was between Berry's Cleaners and Calhoun Feed and Seed.
Re: Lee-Gray Chev. Bldg.
Posted by Shawna Askin Alexander '67 on July 1, 2018, 9:33 pm, in reply to "Lee-Gray Chev. Bldg."
Now that's a bit of Forest history that I did not know (or maybe just didn't remember) Robert. Thanks for sharing.
Robert, I did not know that. I remember a furniture store in that location but didn’t know about your father being there. What was the store called then? I’m not familiar with Moncrief at all. Is it in Jackson now?
Daddy named it Forest Furniture Market. He ran it for just a couple of years and turned it over to Bill Tullos. (Also went by Harold Tullos.) He ran it for a long time. After he died, I guess it changed hands some, always with the same name. Mr. Moncrief, if my memory serves, bought it and kept the name for a while. (Again, if memory serves, he had been Co. Supt. of Ed. and got defeated for reelection, and that's when he got it.) Some time later, he changed the name to Moncrief Furniture. It stayed at the same location for several years, then moved, and is now moving again.
The Moncrief Furniture Store now owned by Bingham Moncrief and the Forest Furniture Market originally opened and owned by Benjamin F. Hays (father of Robert E. Hays) are two completely different locations (although both on same street). Both stores have two completely different histories. Present day Moncrief Furniture Store at 201 and 209 East First Street is owned by Bingham Moncrief. This Moncrief Furniture Store was opened about 1992. Bingham Moncrief is a former Scott County Superintendent of Education. Starting sometime about the mid-1940s or maybe earlier, Cassel P. Stegall (b.1900-d.1954) and his wife, Emma Lee, had Stegall’s Dixie Parts Store (a store similar to Western Auto) in this 209 East First Street building. In the rear of the Stegall’s Dixie Auto Parts Store was an open-air alley-way. Just south (in back of the parts store) was a 10 to 15 feet open-air alley-way and past that alley-way was Stegall’s Muffler Shop. Eventually Cassel Stegall put a roof over and enclosed the alley-way and the cars entered the rear of the muffler shop from Front Street for muffler repair. Cassel and Emma had only one son, Roby Stegall, and he was an attorney. Cassel Stegall died in 1954 and his son, Roby Stegall took over the auto parts store in the mid-1950s. Eventually after that, Roby Stegall closed the auto parts store and opened Stegall’s Furniture Store (no connection to Benjamin F. Hays’ Forest Furniture Market) in this same 209 East First Street location. Jim Brown from Homewood purchased the Stegall’s Furniture Store from Roby Stegall probably sometime after about 1977 and he then changed the name to Jim’s Furniture. In December 1992, Bingham Moncrief (he is married to Lorene Brown, sister to Jim Brown) bought the Jim Brown furniture store and renamed it Moncrief Furniture Store.
Benjamin F. Hays, husband of renowned FHS teacher Martha Hays, and father of Robert E. Hays, was the founder of Forest Furniture Market in about the early 1950s at the 265 East First Street location. Benjamin F. Hays operated this furniture store business for several years in the early 1950s and then he turned the business over to one of his employees, William ‘Bill’ Harold Tullos (born 1927-died 1968) who owned/operated the Forest Furniture Market until Bill Tullos’ death in 1968.
Hays’ Forest Furniture Market was just east of the Stegall Seed and Feed Company (Troy Stegall, proprietor) building. Troy Stegall is a brother to Cassel P. Stegall who had an auto parts store at 209 East First Street which later became the Moncrief Furniture Store. This 209 East First Street location later became Stegall’s Furniture Store.
This can get confusing — and is likely more than some want to know — but the main thing to remember is the Hays Forest Furniture Market and Stegall Furniture Store (later Moncrief) were never connected in any way.
JB...the feed store you mentioned...was it Stegall’s before Calhoun’s....or not related at all? I don’t remember a Stegall’s Feed Store ....but definitely a Calhoun’s Feed Store in that same area.
Kaye, We both (you and I) are correct. Before and up to 1941 it was Stegall’s Seed and Feed Store at 245 East First Street. In 1941, it was purchased by J.E. Calhoun and then known as Calhoun Feed and Seed Store. I had mentioned the Stegall ownership in regards to the connection of the previous ownership of the Moncrief Furniture building (Cassell Stegall who owned Stegall’s Furniture at 209 East First Street) and his brother Troy Stegall who owned the Stegall Seed and Feed at 245 East First Street before it was Calhoun Feed and Seed at that 245 East First Street location.
245 East First Street (South side of East First Street) In 2018, this building is owned by Fountain Hardware and is currently used by Fountain Hardware for storage. Prior to Fountain Hardware owning this building it was the location of the Forest Furniture Store (not the same as Hays’ Furniture Market). Before the Forest Furniture Store, this building was the Calhoun Feed and Seed Store. J. E. Calhoun opened his Feed and Seed Store in 1941.
Stegall Seed and Feed Company (Troy Stegall, proprietor) was at this same 245 East First Street site in the late 1930s and up to about 1941. According to an article in an old archived Scott County Times newspaper, the J. S. Riser Hardware opened in October 1940 “1 block south of the Post Office in a building just east of Stegall Seed and Feed Company (Troy Stegall, proprietor)”.
I think I’ve got that right, but it can get confusing.
It can indeed be confusing. I’m glad you’re the one keeping up with all this kind of stuff. It gives me a headache, but somebody needs to do it. I won’t remember it past 10 pm tonight anyway.
I do know I loved the Calhoun Store. In the mid-fifties, my friend Glenda Nell Calhoun (RIP) and I would walk home from school and stop by her dad’s feed store. After we played around on the feed sacks and got all itchy, her dad would give us a cold Coca Cola and, yes, a pack of Nabs. Then she and I would gather up our books and walk on downtown, turn left, and cross the railroad tracks to my dad’s grocery store. And guess what. We would complain of being hot and tired, and my dad would give us another cold Coca Cola. He’d let us put a few pieces of candy into those small brown paper bags. That would be our second after school snack in half an hour. The candy was selected piece by piece from one of those large, glass front candy cases with sliding doors on the back. Pretty soon our mothers figured out two little girls were having too many Cokes and snacks on their way home from school. It was good while it lasted.
Re: Lee-Gray Chev. Bldg.
Posted by Lu Ann Gould on July 1, 2018, 12:49 pm, in reply to "Lee-Gray Chev. Bldg."
I remember Berry's Cleaners! I had forgotten about it until you mentioned it!