Built, Burned and Built Again: The Story of the Bennett Building

Today, most people pass the Bennett Building without a second thought. They see Dollar General, another familiar stop on the square, another modern storefront in a small-town downtown.

But the walls behind that sign have been something very different for nearly a century.

Dr. Joe Bennett remembers when the corner itself looked nothing like it does now. He remembers an aging frame hotel that once stood there, the contractor who replaced it with a new commercial building, and the arrival of Kroger as its first major tenant.

Most remarkably, he remembers helping build it himself.

“I was virtually raised here on the square,” Bennett said.

His family’s connection to downtown Harrison began nearly a century ago, when his father came to Harrison as a young pharmacist. It continued through the Depression, World War II, decades of downtown change and, eventually, a devastating fire.

When the building had to be reconstructed, a third generation of the Bennett family stepped forward to help bring it back.

A Young Pharmacist Comes to Harrison

Bennett’s father completed pharmacy school in St. Louis in 1925 and returned to Bentonville, where he worked at Applegate Pharmacy.

The Bennett family moved to Harrison around 1929, when Joe Bennett was still an infant.

His father borrowed $10,000 from a physician and purchased a drugstore on the square in the building now occupied by Three Wishes for Ruby’s Residents.

The timing could hardly have been more difficult. The stock market crashed the same year, and the country soon entered the Great Depression.

Bennett remembered his father as ambitious, frugal and unafraid of hard work. He filled prescriptions, sold over-the-counter medicines and operated a soda fountain.

His days were long.

“He worked from about seven until eleven,” Bennett said.

Years later, near the end of his life, his father acknowledged just how uncertain those early years had been.

“There was a time there, I just didn’t think we were going to make it,” he told his son.

But the business survived.

Building Along the Square

By the late 1930s, Bennett’s father had begun purchasing and developing additional property downtown, including the building immediately west of the future Dollar General location.

After World War II, he acquired the corner property where the Bennett Building now stands.

At the time, an aging frame structure known as the Self Hotel occupied the site. Bennett remembered it as a badly deteriorated building that looked as though it belonged in an old Western town.

The hotel was torn down, and contractor Charlie Garner was hired to construct a new commercial building.

Joe Bennett was home from college during part of the construction and joined the crew.

“I didn’t have anything to do there in the family, so Dad put me to work,” he recalled.

For Bennett, the building would never be just another piece of property. He had watched it rise and worked on it with his own hands. It was tied directly to his father and to the years he spent growing up around the Harrison square.

Before Dollar General, There Was Kroger

When the building was completed in 1948, its first major tenant was Kroger.

For longtime residents, that may be one of the most surprising parts of the story. The building has housed Dollar General for so many years that it can be difficult to imagine anything else occupying the space.

But Bennett clearly remembered the grocery store.

Kroger remained in the building for years and was still operating there after Bennett returned to Harrison in the 1960s to work as a radiologist.

The store eventually closed, and Dollar General moved into the building sometime during the early to mid-1970s.

It became one of the company’s earlier stores and remained a familiar presence on the square for decades.

The Fire

That long history was interrupted when fire severely damaged the building.

For Bennett, there was never much doubt about what would happen next.

“Emotionally, I immediately knew that I was going to build it back,” he said.

Rebuilding would not be simple. Construction costs had changed, insurance would not cover everything, and working through the process with a large national tenant presented its own challenges.

Bennett was 98 years old.

His daughter, Terri Jo, offered to take charge of the project.

He accepted.

A Daughter Takes the Lead

Terri Jo managed the reconstruction, coordinating with contractors and overseeing the many decisions required to return the building to use.

Her father proudly recalled how well she worked with the crews responsible for the electrical work, roofing, concrete, flooring, glass and other parts of the project.

The contractors regularly told him how much they enjoyed working with her.

“They didn’t have anything to gain by telling me that,” he said.

The new awnings had not been part of the original building, but they helped the storefront feel more at home on the historic square.

The Bennetts invested approximately $21,000 in the facade project, supported in part by a $2,500 Main Street Harrison Downtown Mini Grant. The project shows how a relatively small grant can support a much larger private investment while improving the appearance of downtown.

The building still serves the same practical purpose it has for decades, but its renewed exterior now feels more connected to the square around it.

Bennett believes the store is even busier than it was before the fire.

More Than a Building

The Bennett Building has housed a grocery store, a Dollar General and generations of everyday downtown activity.

But its history cannot be measured only by tenants and dates.

It began with a young pharmacist who worked long hours during the Depression and gradually invested in the town where he was raising his family.

It was built with help from his son, a college student home for the summer.

When fire threatened to end its story, that son chose to rebuild it, with his daughter, Terri Jo, leading the work. Their approximately $21,000 investment, supported in part by a $2,500 Main Street Harrison mini grant, did more than restore a storefront. It returned a longtime downtown building to use and gave it an exterior that better reflects its place on the historic square.

His father built it.

He helped build it.

His daughter helped build it again.

Today, the Bennett Building stands as a visible reminder of one family’s nearly century-long connection to the Harrison square, and of what can happen when private investment and downtown preservation work together.