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History
Built around 1892 by the Ballenger Stove Company, the building at 29 S. Ninth St. first housed G. F. Troxell’s furniture company. Its basement had a more unusual tenant: a soda water bottling company tapping a natural spring on the site, carrying on the small bottling plant that Frenchman Rene Butel had run there for years before the building went up.
Around 1930, an all-new facade with extensive terra cotta ornamentation transformed the building, one of the only existing buildings in the area to receive that much terra cotta in a remodel. Soon after, it became home to Columbia’s only Safeway grocery store into the early 1950s. Later tenants included Paramount Recreation, a billiards hall on the lowest level, and Mueller’s Florist on the ground floor. It was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.
The Project
Our first project in Columbia, Missouri cultivated our passion for renovating historic properties in the downtown area. The Paramount Building on the corner of Ninth and Cherry had been mostly vacant when it was acquired. A historic preservation project led to this building becoming an attractive location with two new eateries and a dozen office suites.
From Soda Spring to Downtown Landmark
- Pre-1892
A natural spring
Rene Butel runs a small soda water bottling plant on the site.
- ca. 1892
The Ballenger Building
Built by the Ballenger Stove Company for G. F. Troxell’s furniture store, with soda bottling carrying on in the basement.
- ca. 1930
A terra cotta facelift
An all-new facade with extensive terra cotta ornamentation, rare for a remodel in Columbia.
- 1930s–50s
Columbia’s Safeway
The city’s only Safeway grocery store until the early 1950s.
- Later
Paramount Recreation
A billiards hall on the lowest level, plus Mueller’s Florist on the ground floor for many years.
- 2004
National Register
Individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
- 2005–06
Our first rehab
A historic rehabilitation reversed late-20th-century changes and turned a near-empty building into a vibrant part of downtown, one of the first downtown historic rehabs of the 21st century.
History courtesy of Deb Sheals, City of Columbia Map Project inventory form for the Columbia Historic Preservation Commission (2011), drawn from the building’s National Register nomination.
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