Purdin Mercantile Company

I took a day off work and drove 125 miles to reach this building.  I remember first seeing it during a photography trip in 2010, and I have been enchanted by the prospect of coming back to photograph it ever since then.  The painted signs, advertising groceries, hardware, furnishings, clothing, shoes, and other miscellaneous goods, still stand in strong, easily-legible relief against the brick front of the building, preserved by the fact that the front of the building faces north and is therefore perpetually in shadow.  Purdin, Missouri is north of Linneus, a misspelled attribution to the notable botanist and father of binomial nomenclature Carl Linnaeus.  Linneus is north of Laclede, and Laclede is just north of Highway 36.  And yes, I'd like to go back and photograph this structure again. 

Mercantile, Purdin

The Purdin Mercantile store, Purdin, Missouri.  Up in Linn County.  I photographed the side of this building on a shooting trip last spring.  My primary purpose was to photograph the rural churches of northern Missouri, but  photographing small towns and brick signage was an ulterior motive.  The front of this building was even more elaborately painted, but was in shadow when I visited.