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.

Alleyway, Columbia

Behind the old Pure Lounge location, downtown Columbia.

Gans Creek Wild Area

One of my few fall hikes this year yielded this image, and not many others.  The colorful foliage was very limited this year, most of the maples and hickories showing signs of blight or leaf rust.  This dogwood bucked the trend.

Virginia Creeper, Flat Branch Creek, Columbia

Cafe, Laddonia

While the cafe in the foreground is now shuttered, the grain from outlying farmers still flows into Laddonia's elevators.  Just east of town a biorefinery has recently been built.

Laddonia

Northeast of Mexico, I've repeatedly stopped in Laddonia to photograph the now mostly vacant downtown. 

Coca Cola bottler, Mexico

Hymnal, Bethlehem Baptist Church

This was the first rural church that I photographed in earnest.  Located in northern Boone county at that time, now it has been dismantled and removed to a spot north of Boonville for reconstruction. 

Alley brick sign, Boonville

Stained glass awning, Boonville

Boonville still manages to preserve an incredible array of building styles and architectural history on its Main Street.  This was taken last April, after a very comfortable stay in the Hotel Frederick.

Buffalo Motel, Buffalo

The neon sign luring weary travelers to the Buffalo Motel on Highway 65.  A recent trip through Buffalo found this once beckoning beacon--alas--extinct.

Abandoned lead mine

Weathered siding at the lead mine complex near Frederickstown. 

Church window, Cooper county

Taken inside a beautifully fenistrated Lutheran church in Cooper county.  A later visit revealed that half of the windows had been broken out by vandals, temporarily replaced by plywood. 

Floodgate, Alley Spring Mill

One of the floodgates at the Alley Spring millpond.  Taken on a photography workshop with Oliver Schuchard.

Liquor Store, Lebanon

Taken just a block or two off of Route 66 in Lebanon, during my Missouri highways portfolio.  I had driven by this liquor store before, but had not stopped for a photo.  I think the rain tipped the scale. 

Audrain County farm, sunset

A scene I found while traipsing around an old cemetery in Audrain county.  To me it was the perfect, alas nostalgic, symbol of the American agrarian ideal.

Light switch, abandoned gas station, Franklin

I was completing a portfolio on Missouri's historic highways, venerable routes such as highway 40, route 65, highway 61, and route 66.  I discovered this patch of beautiful color beneath the oft-flooded, mud caked walls of an old gas station on highway 40, in the middle of the Missouri River bottoms, just a few miles north of Boonville. 

Highway 61

I was very lucky to find this sign and this sunset at the same time and place, an old gas station on Highway 61, north of Bowling Green.

Mt. Carmel Church, Saline County

This image was taken inside of Mt. Carmel church, just south of Miami, Missouri.

Theatre facade, Moberly

A carved facade from a vaudeville era theatre in downtown Moberly, Missouri.