A place of memories: Steven and Ellen Frye reopened Eggers & Co. as a bed-and-breakfast

Steve and Ellen Frye are owners of Eggers & Co. General Store bed and breakfast in Farrar, Missouri. (Fred Lynch)

When Ellen Frye married her husband, Steve, it was always in the cards that they would buy property together.

After years of shopping and looking for the right place, the two settled on the perfect patch of farmland just two miles from where her mother grew up, in Farrar, Missouri.

The Fryes, who live and work in St. Louis, visit the farm every weekend, and plan to move to the countryside when they retire.

Many artifacts remain in tribute to the Eggers family at the Eggers & Co. General Store bed and breakfast in Farrar, Missouri. (Fred Lynch)

"When we came and looked at this farm, it was everything we wanted," Ellen says. "It had a house on it, it had outbuildings, so we purchased the farm, and it's two miles away from here [Eggers and Co. General Market]. Which means we started coming here every weekend and drove right on this road -- County Road 328 -- right past this store."

Nestled into the crook of County Road 328, Eggers and Co. fits so beautifully into the countryside that you'll miss it if you're not paying attention. Built in 1896 as the second general store in Farrar, Eggers and Co. has been a staple of the community for years.

Ellen remembers visiting the store when she was young, getting ice cream out of the storage room or a piece of candy from the candy counter if she was well-behaved. Her grandparents, Martin and Ella Eggers, owned the store with Martin's brother, Walter, from 1920 to 1966.

The store was later sold to some of its employees, and the name was changed to Farrar General Market, which was how it was when Ellen and Steve entered the picture.

The store was out of the Eggers name for 38 years, but after seeing the store and three-bedroom house attached to it, the Fryes knew they needed to buy the property and renovate it into a bed-and-breakfast.

The Drummers Room is upstairs at the Eggers & Co. General Store bed and breakfast in Farrar, Missouri. (Fred Lynch)

"I didn't really remember ever being in the house part, because when I was a child, my grandparents moved away and the house was rented out," Ellen says. "But when we looked around upstairs, we said to one another, 'This would make an awesome bed-and-breakfast.' And we always thought having a bed-and-breakfast would be a really neat thing. *... We purchased the building in November 2004. We bought it 'as is' because we were going to buy it no matter what."

With a wood heater, no air conditioning and the original wiring throughout the house, it was clear things hadn't changed much in the general store.

Since purchasing the building, Ellen has been constantly surprised to find her grandparents' belongings there, including her grandfather's desk, the original cash register for the store and a 1950s egg grader.

She's added even more of her family's history to the house, filling it so cohesively you would think that's how it's always been.

"We always wanted to preserve it back to its original look, so we got in touch with a professor at Southeast Missouri State University, showed him pictures, told him stories, and he encouraged us to join the National Register of Historic Places," Ellen says. "In 2006, we contacted a preservationist from Cape Girardeau, a contractor who helped us with an application for the National Register, and we were awarded that distinction in 2007."

The bed-and-breakfast is still part general store, and also is used for meetings and get-togethers.

Eggers & Co. General Store is a bed and breakfast owned by Steve and Ellen Frye in Farrar, Missouri. (Fred Lynch)

"I love having children come here because I remember coming to this place as a kid, and I want kids today to grow up and say, 'I remember this place,'" Ellen says.

Each room is decorated with a different memory, from her grandmother's pillow in the "Girls' Room," to her mother's typewriter and uncle's Farrar Ramblers baseall jersey in "Walt's Room," to the patchwork quilt made from the store's old fabric samples, now displayed in the "Drummer Room."

"I can tell a lot of stories about people, a lot of stories about this place, and I love doing that," Ellen says. "Especially for children. ... As a kid, I thought history was a really boring subject because it was all about memorizing dates and names of places and names of people, and it was hard to relate to it unless we could incorporate that. As a mom raising a family, taking them to places of historical importance where they could touch and see and experience -- I think it brings it alive and piques your interest."

Ellen explains traveling between St. Louis and Farrar as having a "split life," a concept most people find difficult to comprehend. But for the Fryes, it's what they love to do.

"We live close to our jobs and can bicycle to work, so we have this city experience of biking to work and neighborhoods that the house is literally four feet from the house next to ours ... but I also love the farm and this countryside. It's just so gorgeous every season of the year," Ellen says. "I love being able to raise vegetables, and then this whole side project of having the bed-and-breakfast is just plain fun, because you get to meet people from all over, host them, provide a venue for this area and tell the stories."

For more information on the store and bed-and-breakfast, visit eggersandcompany.com.