Mulkey Coal Company/The Country Store

Years before The Country Store, and later, Truckers Salvage, the building at 19 S. West End Blvd. was the Mulkey Coal Company in Cape Girardeau. This early 1950s photo by G.D. Fronabarger is probably a delivery of kerosene at Mulkey Coal. Tinsley J. Mulkey started the coal company in 1932. Mulkey expanded the building in 1958 and converted it into The Country Store selling general merchandise. [See ads below.] The store remained in operation until it became Truckers Salvage in 1980. The 1984-1986 city directories list Truckers Salvage, liquor and things. The 1987 directory lists Campus Auto & Tire Co. wholesale. The building no longer exists.

Below, the aerial photo shows The Country Store in the former Mulkey Coal Company building, across the railroad track north of the Sunny Hill Dairy building, with the smokestack, at left. To the east are A.E. Landgraf Oil Co., 20 S. West End Blvd., left, and Martin Oil Co., 10 S. West End. The Kimbel Truck Lines buildings are on the corner. Across West End to the west are Watkins Shell Service, 1401 Independence, later Williams Shell, owner John R. Williams, and Coburn's Gulf Service Station, 1402 Independence, owner Marion C. Coburn. The bottom photo shows Truckers Salvage, formerly The Country Store. The Boulevard Laundromat building is between The Country Store and the Shell station. [A close crop below the newspaper ads shows how the building had changed.]