Lange General Store
106 E. Main St. Steelville, MO 65565
By: Hannah Smith & Mackenzie Doss
- Puckett General is the earliest known store to occupy this building. The Puckett’s owned 3 adjoining buildings, using one as a dry goods store, and rented out the other two.
- The current building occupies the space used by 4 stores. A barber shop, a jeweler, a restaurant, and a butcher shop (there were three other stores behind these buildings).
- The next business that occupied the building was the Nudelman’s Shoe Store.
- After Nudelman’s, the Hutson’s bought the stores, they demolished Stough’s Meat Market that was behind the store, then extended the building.
- Today, the Hutson family still owns the building, but Todd Rehmert and his wife rent the building for Lange General Store.
- The store still has the same authentic flooring and counters. Todd and his wife had the brick wall sand-blasted for original brick to show through, the tin ceilings are not original to this building, but are from this time period.
- From the information we found, the building has been used as a video store, a furniture store, an art store, a barber shop, and a gift store.
- The current business, Lange General Store, dates back to 1908 when H.C. Lange, descendant of German immigrants, opened his first mercantile at Owens Mill.
- In the present store you can find an old fortune-telling weight machine and there are a lot of old signs in the store from an earlier era in Steelville history. You also have the chance to buy hand crafted, old time toys and handmade goods.
- Today, the store is filled with barrels of candy. There are more than 100 bottles of pure sugar cane soda pop kept cold in a vintage 1940’s cooler.
