The Massie Variety Store is a historic commercial building located at 110 South Main Street in New Canton,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

. John Webb built the two-story brick

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...

building between 1848 and 1850 as a mercantile store. Webb sold the building to Amos Morey, who added Melville D. Massie as a partner; by 1872, Massie had become the store's only owner. The store became one of the largest in the region by the 1890s, and it had taken on other roles in the community. An

opera house An opera house is a theatre building used for performances of opera. It usually includes a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and building sets. While some venues are constructed specifically for o ...

operated on the upper story from 1865 until the 1900s, and Massie served as an agent for local farmers who traded their products along the

Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad was a railroad that operated in the Midwestern United States. Commonly referred to as the Burlington Route, the Burlington, or as the Q, it operated extensive trackage in the states of Colorado, Illin ...

. Massie's son Harry began renting the storefront in 1918; in the following decades, it served as a drug store, ice cream parlor, grocery store, and

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

before closing for good in 1948. Roger Dudley purchased the building from the Massie family in 1962 and converted it to a toy store; his business, later an antique store, operated until the 1980s. The store was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

on August 20, 2004.

Notes

{{National Register of Historic Places National Register of Historic Places in Pike County, Illinois Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois Commercial buildings completed in 1850 Italianate architecture in Illinois