S.H. Kress & Company

321-323 South Summit Street

S.H. Kress & Company opened its new “five and dime” department store at 321-323 S. Summit St. in September 1910.

The Arkansas City Daily Traveler said of the grand opening: “Crowds of men, women and children thronged the store ... W.D. MacAllister’s orchestra furnished music for the occasion, which was a very enjoyable feature of the opening.”

The Kress store remained in business in Ark City until about 1970.

In the early 1970s after it closed, the Dart Dollar Store opened at 321-323 S. Summit  St., but it moved out within five years. Dart Dollar held its store closing sale in February 1974.

Roger Sparks, who began in the music business in Arkansas City as a young man in the late 1960s, moved his store to the 300 block of South Summit Street in 1975.

In 1984, he purchased an adjoining building at 321 S. Summit St. to open The Movie Store, a local video rental business. In May 1999, Home Town Rental-Purchase opened at the 321 location and operates there to this day.

The architecture style of the two-story brick building is late 19th and early 20th century Classical Revival and Neoclassical.

The upper-story brick façade has corbeled quoins, four bays with paired pilasters, keystones over the windows and a denticulated cornice.

The storefront is configured with a wide central display, window flanked by twin recessed entrances.