Windmill mystery remains

Information not clear as to who built unusual structure

By PAULA BARR
Daily Journal Staff Writer

The windmill is gone, but part of its mystery remains.

It is clear who owned the land over the past several decades, and records indicate it was built in 1960. Still, it is not clear who actually built the unusual shingled structure near the Park Hills-Leadington line or why they chose the shape of a windmill.

The quest for information has involved many people.

After Xtreme Salon owner Shannon McCarty announced that he was tearing down the landmark next to the Daily Journal in order to construct a new beauty salon, it was unclear who had built the windmill, when it was built and when it closed. Readers were asked if they could solve the mystery.

Answers came by e-mail and phone. A few provided clues to the owners, but most readers shared their memories of the windmill and its predecessor on the site, the Green Castle. (To read blogs about the windmill station, see related story.)

Park Hills City Hall keeps business permits by company name, but had nothing under two names readers suggested - Windmill Gas Station or Ozark Gas. Staff did not know when the windmill had been built or by whom.

Two readers provided leads. Jill Arndt and Mary Sitton led to the gas station’s most recent owner. Each said Junior Fryman of Potosi had owned the station at some point.

Fryman provided additional information.

“I bought the Windmill in May 1986 from the Carter Brothers in Potosi,” he said. “I don’t know if they built it, though.”

The search for previous owners led to the St. Francois County Courthouse Annex, where Recorder of Deeds Steve Grider stepped in to help. Grider began at the assessor’s office, where he sought map information for the lot.

The property report card listed Fryman as owner and the Carter brothers’ Ozark Petroleum as previous owners. The card included a year of construction — 1960 — but no other details on the date or builder. Notations on the card provided clues to the location of additional information in the recorder’s office.

Back in the recorder’s office, Grider pulled heavy bound volumes of property transfer records. The red abstract books include notations that lead to orange aperture cards that hold microfilm of original deed transfers and deeds of trust (mortgages). The search took more than a half hour to trace owners of the lot back to 1952.

According to the county records, on Jan. 7, 1952, J.C. Laird Sr. and Elizabeth Laird of Bexar County, Texas, sold the lot to Wayne and Lucille Howlett of St. Francois County. At that time, the property held the Green Castle, a restaurant/tavern.

Local historian Jack Clay recalls eating suppers in the Green Castle as a child.

“There was a small barbershop there during the Depression, then the Lairds opened the Green Castle,” Clay recalled. “A lot of the miners went in there after work. Kids could go in there, but it was mostly older people.”

Clay did not know when the Green Castle was torn down and the windmill constructed. However, the Howletts were the owners in 1960, when the building appears to have been constructed, according to the records.

The Howletts sold the property in May 1969 to Joan and Charles B. Elder of Farmington. Two years later, in July 1971, the Elders sold the property to Lloyd and Margaret Bodenhamer of Cameron County, Texas.

The  Bodenhamers sold the property to Ozark Petroleum in June 1975.

After Fryman took over, he ran the business as a Phillips ’66 until he closed in 2002.  The property has stood empty since then.

When McCarty decided to buy the lot, Fryman said he had to hire someone to remove the tanks and check the building for asbestos before the sale could become final. The tanks were removed before Thanksgiving, and on Friday, the windmill was destroyed, clearing the way for new construction.

Paula Barr is a reporter for the Daily Journal and can be reached at 573-431-2010, ext. 172 or at pbarr@dailyjournalonline.com.

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