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Throwback Thursday: The Commercial Street Well
By: Eric D. Tudor
Back in 1868, when “New Downtown Lebanon” was just getting on its feet, one of the first necessities was—you guessed it—a well. And NO, before you ask, this was before the magnetic water craze took over. This original water source had two key purposes: #1 to provide water for the horses and workers hauling in building materials and #2 as a vital backup in case of fire—because let’s be honest, those quickly rising wooden buildings were basically kindling.
The well was originally located at the intersection of Commercial and Jefferson, just west of what would later become Sam Farrar Drug Store. Fast-forward a few decades: the first automobiles (shoutout to Benz Motors, 1886) didn’t start rolling into Lebanon until the 1910s-1920s, meaning horses and cars shared the dirt roads until the 1930s. Sometime after that, the downtown well was capped, forgotten, and left to history… or so we thought. Then, in the 1980s, the well collapsed in front of what was then Central Bank, now First State Community Bank, sending city crews scrambling to fill the hole and repair the street. Just goes to show—you can cover up the past, but it has a way of making itself known again! #ThrowbackThursday #DowntownLebanonMO #HiddenHistory #ThePastResurfaces
