The surprising interior of 217 West Main Street
Published 12:05 am Tuesday, November 10, 2026
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In the early 1990s, the building at 217 West Main Street was being operated as the Open Door Service Center.
It had a thrift store that sold inexpensive used clothing. The money raised was used to help poor people in a variety of ways.
Much of the work was done by women who volunteered to work in the store. A good deal of the work then involved preparing the building by cleaning it to make it ready for use.
After getting the first story ready for use, the women began to work on cleaning the upstairs rooms. They discovered that the rooms were identified by numbers painted on the doors.
The upstairs rooms reveal many things about life in the building. First, the rooms, which measure approximately ten feet by fifteen feet, would have been very uncomfortable.
The building did not have radiators, and only three rooms had chimneys, so the only way to heat most of the rooms was to use kerosene heaters, which actually did not provide much heat. In addition, since the heaters were unvented, they were smoky, making it difficult to keep the rooms clean.
Winter mornings were particularly cold and uncomfortable.
Although the windows were large, the building had little cross ventilation, so the rooms were wretchedly hot in the summer.
The absence of a bathroom prior to the 1906 addition meant an outhouse had to be used. This, however, was not unusual in Sedalia at the time.
The absence of a kitchen created a major hardship for the women who lived there. The residents had to eat their meals in restaurants.
While the building had electricity, the upstairs had few light fixtures. Kerosene lamps had to be used to provide light.
The closeness of the railroad tracks and the noise made by the frequent trains made life very unpleasant for the residents.
The major discovery the women cleaning the upstairs rooms made was the pencil writing they found while stripping the wallpaper off the walls.
The writing confirms that the upstairs rooms were rented to prostitutes.
The writing also reveals names of the women who worked there. It also shows the names of some of their customers, their occupations, and where they lived.
Rooms numbered 8 and 9 were located in the original part of the building, rather than the addition.
The writing on the walls in these two rooms confirms the building’s use by prostitutes from the 1870s until the mid-1930s.
Women may have been identified by the men who patronized them. These comments included “Bertha Best in the House,” and “Della best in this house,” and “Josie the best looker on Main Street.”
Patrons who left their names on the walls included the supposedly respectable C.W. Robbins, who taught penmanship at the Sedalia Business College. His florid signature show the style of penmanship taught at the college and expected of the educated businessman.
Other Sedalia men who visited the house included William Harrison and Georgie Shepherd.
Other patrons included Knob Noster banker’s son Rollo Kendrick, and Knob Noster widower Tom Redd. Still others included Leroy Evans and Charlie Chapman from Eldon, Missouri, C. McFarland of Longwood, Missouri, and H.B. Klumph of Youngstown, Ohio.
Railroad men who visited the building included Richard Settle, a boomer machinist from Moberly and Jack Lyons of the I. A . of M.
Other writing includes lyrics to hobo songs such as “All Around the Water Tank” and “The Dying Machinist,” whose lyrics were similar to those of the later popular song “The Big Rock Candy Mountain.
One drawing shows a corseted and stocking-clad woman wearing boxing gloves. Skulls and crossbones are drawn on her arms and thighs. The picture is identified as “The Prizefighter.”
The hallway reveals the name of “Birdie Sisler, Zeke’s Best Girl.” Her name appears several times in the 1906 addition.
Room 12 in the 1906 addition again names Birdie Sissler, and also names Kittie and Sutherland Fisher. Drawings of doves accompany the comment that “Dell is at rest.”
Most of the women identified only by their first names remain unknown.
The men who signed their names have only themselves to blame if they are identified.
Rhonda Chalfant is active in the Sedalia/Pettis County chapter of the NAACP and the Pettis County Historical Society.
