Keepsake serves as reminder of thriving avenue business

Susan York shared this photo of a bottle opener from her parents’ possessions. While hard to read, it represents the Foley Tavern, which was located at 922 Mark Twain Avenue in the 1950s.

MARY LOU MONTGOMERY

A bottle opener, embossed with the now nearly illegible moniker of a Mark Twain Avenue tavern, has survived years of use and today serves as a lasting memento of an era long past.

This remnant of a popular tavern on Mark Twain Avenue serves as a keepsake from a business establishment long since gone from the landscape.

The Foley Tavern was located at 922 Mark Twain Avenue, near the intersection with the now nearly abandoned Ruffner Street.

Loretta Foley Wingfield, daughter of John H. and Blanche Foley, and wife of Leon 

C. Wingate, was granted a liquor and beer license in March 1955. It was subsequently renewed yearly until 1961, when she was granted a license to sell liquor by the package only.

The tavern, and later the package liquor store, were located in what appears to be - gauging from the 1913 Sanborn fire prevention map - to have been what started as a former horse stall at the far eastern edge of the Wingfield property, adjacent to Ruffner Street.

Loretta and Leon Wingfield purchased this property in March 1925, from her parents.

The legal description is Lot 27, Ruffner’s addition.

Prior to moving into the former Foley homestead, the Winfields had been living two doors to the east of the Foleys, at 916 Mark Twain Avenue.

Turn of the century

Unlike today, when competing stations along the avenue vie to sell gasoline to travelers and townsfolk alike, during those early years of the 20th Century, the landscape of Mark Twain Avenue, (earlier known as Palmyra Avenue), was dotted with a healthy mix of family-owned businesses and residential cottages.

In 1905, Bernard H. Moss, a Civil War veteran and experienced blacksmith, resigned as Miller Township justice of the peace, and moved from Withers Mill to the outskirts of Hannibal. He and his wife, Mary Francis, purchased the property, including a frame house on Lot 27,  Ruffner’s Addition, from George Schaub. The sales price was $1,000.

Mr. and Mrs. Moss continued to live on the avenue until Mrs. Moss’ death in August 1916. At that time, Mr. Moss sold the property to John H. Foley and his wife, Blanche M. Pierson Foley. The sales price was reported at $1,100. Foley was, at that time, working as a machinist for the Burlington Railroad. Their street address was 920 Mark Twain Avenue.

The Foleys, along with their four children, would continue to call these surroundings their home during the ensuing years.

The structures on Lot 27 consisted not only of a frame house, but also a small building adjacent to Ruffner Street, to the west. According to the map’s legend, this small building may have originally been a shed in which a horse was housed.

Now living at 920 Mark Twain Avenue, Mr. and Mrs. Wingfield would raise their family: daughters Linda, Kathleen and Carrie.

Next door to the west, the Wingates apparently expanded the shed into a small retail business building. This building first served as the Foley Tavern, the business name embossed upon the aforementioned bottle opener.

The small building that first served as a drive-up liquor store in the 1960s and early 1970s, went on to adopt several identities over the years after the Wingfields retired:

1959-71: Foley’s Drive in Liquor Store, 922 Mark Twain Avenue. C. Leon Wingifled residence, 920 Mark Twain Avenue. McCrutchen Service Station was located at 918.

1972: Powell’s Packaged Liquors, Daniel C. Powell, 922 Mark Twain Avenue; Simms Derby Station, 918, Robert E. Simms.

1973: The building at 922 was vacant; North Star Service Station was located at 918 Mark Twain Avenue.

1974: Smith and Son Siding was at 922; North Star Service Station was at 918.

1976-1977: Carroll’s Vac Center was at 922, Owen E. Carroll.

1978: Mark’s Record Rack was at 922; Peer Oil Company Gas Station was at 918.

1981: The building at 922 was vacant; Poco-Pack It, owned by John A. Peer, was located at 918 Mark Twain Avenue. 

1984: The building at 922 housed the Tee-Shirt Palace, Maralyn S. Jaynes.

1983: Buck Stoves of Hannibal was located at 922 Mark Twain Avenue, owned by John Morris. Located at 918 on the avenue was Poco-Pack It liquor and Peer Oil Co., gas station.

1987: The small building had been removed. The General Store (Mrs. Martha Bailey) was located at 918 Mark Twain Avenue.

In 2026, the property is owned and operated by Big River Oil Company.

Loretta Wingfield died in 1991.

Leon C. Wingate died in 2007, at the age of 93.

This is a 1983 photo of Mark Twain Avenue, from Steve Chou’s collection. At left is the building at the time occupied by Buck’s Stoves of Hannibal. Located at 922 Mark Twain Avenue, this building, or an earlier variation of the building, housed Foley Tavern in the 1950s.