The Beaconsfield Supply Store is a one-story brick building in rural

Ringgold County, Iowa Ringgold County is a county located in the U.S. state of Iowa. As of the 2020 census, the population was 4,663, making it the Iowa county with the second-smallest population. The county seat is Mount Ayr. The county is named after Maj. Samuel ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Built in 1916, it became the birthplace of the

Hy-Vee Hy-Vee, Inc. () is an employee-owned chain of supermarkets in the Midwestern and Southern United States, with more than 280 locations in Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and soon Indiana, Kentucky, ...

chain of stores when Charles Hyde and David Vredenburg opened a general store together in 1930. The building was later used for a variety of purposes, including a

telephone exchange A telephone exchange, telephone switch, or central office is a telecommunications system used in the public switched telephone network (PSTN) or in large enterprises. It interconnects telephone subscriber lines or virtual circuits of digital syst ...

. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2007. The building serves as the community center for

Beaconsfield Beaconsfield ( ) is a market town and civil parish within the unitary authority of Buckinghamshire, England, west-northwest of central London and south-southeast of Aylesbury. Three other towns are within : Gerrards Cross, Amersham and High W ...

, which, with 15 residents as of 2021, has been described as the smallest incorporated city in

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beaconsfield Supply Store Hy-Vee Commercial buildings completed in 1916 National Register of Historic Places in Ringgold County, Iowa Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa 1916 establishments in Iowa