Nichol's Dry Goods/The Red Front Store

Introduction

Text-to-speech Audio

Stop #9 on the Scott City Historic Walking Tour: E.E. Nichols built his massive dry goods store in 1900 at 408 Main Street. It was over 6,000 sq. ft. with a partial basement and an upper balcony area. This building became the McDaniel Auto Company in the early 1910s before being sold to Cliff Dickhut and renamed Dickhut Auto Garage. A true treasure, many of the historic elements still exist in DecMart Furniture including a 1900s elevator.

Images

Nichol's building as McDaniel Auto Company

Scott City Motor

Tire, Automotive lighting, Automotive tire, Wheel

Dickhut Auto Company

Elevator

DecMart Furniture Store

Backstory and Context

Text-to-speech Audio

E.E. Nichols built his massive dry goods store in 1900 at 408 Main Street. It was over 6,000 sq. ft. with a partial basement and an upper balcony area. He came to Scott County with the first settlers. While dry goods and groceries made up the principal lines of his store, he also handled clothing, hardware, coal, flour and feed and an entire line of State school textbooks.

Sometime between 1910-1915, O.W. McDaniel started the McDaniel Auto Company at the site and was later joined in the business by Cliff Dickhut. In 1918, he sold it to Cliff Dickutt and it became Dickhut Auto Garage. A newspaper clipping from February 1915 said, "McDaniel & Dickhut received a car load of Buicks Saturday and they are already sold."

There used to be a ramp in the back of the building where they would drive the new cars down into the basement and hide them until it was time to introduce the newest model. The front of the building had a circle drive with 2 gasoline pumps.

William and Zella Carpenter owned the building after Dickhut. It was later the site of the Scott City Motor Supply. In 1971, the Lewis family started DecMart Furniture Store and they purchased the building from the Carpenters in 1981.

This building gives the air of a more modern business and hides that it was built in 1900. It still has the original tin ceilings (which are gorgeous) and even the old elevator in the back; although it no longer works, it is still perfectly preserved! Bill Lewis continues to run his furniture business today and has kept the building in excellent condition. At 117+ years old, it is another amazing piece of Scott City history.

Sources

History of Early Scott County. Edition 1. Volume 1. Page 336,338. Scott City, KS. Scott County Historical Society, 67871.

Lawrence, Deb. EE Nichol's, Scott City History - Now & Then. March 24, 2017. Accessed January 21, 2021. https://www.facebook.com/groups/337658763076204/permalink/732109513631125

Lawrence, Deb. OW McDaniel's Auto Company, Scott City History - Now & Then. November 4, 2017. Accessed January 21, 2021. https://www.facebook.com/groups/337658763076204/search/?q=nov.%204%2C%202017

Image Sources(Click to expand)

Scott County Historical Society

Deb Lawrence