Business
In the last 150 years Independence has had many successful businesses. The downtown business district is about 3 blocks along Main Street.
The Independence Creamery is one of the Independence business buildings that is no longer standing. The buildings north of the creamery are currently owned by the Masonic Lodge. The history of the buildings, as told by local historian John Pfaff, is as follows.
The Masonic Hall is currently three buildings. The central portion, which houses the dining room, was built before 1890. The attached building north of that holds the fireplace room and the meeting room, built in 1914. The building south of the central building was built in 1904 and houses a meeting room upstairs that was used until 1914. Now it is being used only for storage.
From 1859 until 1892 the Lyon Lodge occupied rented quarters. First they rented in "Old Town", also known as Thorpe's town, just north of 'A' street in Independence. After the great flood in 1890 the Lyon Lodge rented upper floor of 194 S. Main. From 1892 they rented the center building until 1898 when they purchased the building from F. A. Patterson.
The south building was built by the Lyon Lodge in the gap between the original Lodge Hall and a two story brick building the south, then occupied by the Independence creamery. The construction utilized the exterior walls of the two existing buildings. New front and rear walls were attached to the two existing buildings. This new Lodge building was four feet taller than the creamery building. The four feet of exposed brick was covered with metal sheathing.
The creamery building eventually became a grocery store and was sold to Ed Taylor, the father of Dee and Dick Taylor. On August 20, 1961 the grocery store was destroyed by fire.
