8 minute read
The Transformation of Warrensburg’s Iconic Mule Barn
Open ye gates. Swing wide ye portals.
These were the words Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company President David R. Francis chose to announce the opening of the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis. It was there — amid international marvels of civic engineering, science, art and invention — that Johnson County, Missouri, resident Walter Jones made a name for himself.
Walter had been breeding and training teams of mules that excelled in competitions against other draft animals. These massive mules made a big impression on farmers attending the fair. Walter and his brother, Perry, consequently invested $26,000 in building a barn at the intersection of Miller (now College) and Depot (now Railroad) streets for the purpose of selling their mules.
When the Jones Brothers Mule Barn opened in 1912, word had spread about the strength and reliability of "Missouri mules." World War I started two years later, and the brothers went from selling about 100 mules a month to shipping via the nearby railroad an estimated 6,500 across the country between 1915 and 1916. Many of these mules were then shipped overseas to haul artillery and ammunition through the battle trenches.
After the war, the Jones Brothers expanded their mule barn by building a long hay storage shed, a blacksmith shop and a smaller pen to house sick animals. However, the end of the war meant fewer sales overseas. Domestic sales also suffered as trucks and tractors became more feasible and affordable for Warrensburg residents. In 1932, amid the Great Depression, the brothers sold the barn to Edwin Cassingham, who replaced the mule stalls with displays of the latest farm machinery and automobiles.
“That was the knockout blow for the mule business,” says Jason Elkins, who, along with business partner Connor Harrington, purchased the property in 2008 from the grandson of Edwin.
The one thing that could compete with the mule that this building was built for was the automobile, and this second business that came in decided to become an International [Harvester] truck dealership. It was pretty ironic that the automobile wedged its way in where the mules once stood.
Another irony is that the mule barn closed its doors the year before Prohibition ended — without an inkling of the transformation that would take place nearly 100 years in the future.
Rebuilding History
Jason says he envisioned the mule barn as a brewery from the start. Although he has a degree in Chemistry and worked 20 years in the pharmaceutical industry, he says the science of brewing just isn’t his calling.
“It took the right tenant to come together with the right idea and the ability to run the brewery,” Jason says about Andy Weldon, ’13, ’16, who will be head brewer of the Mule Barn Brewing Company, opening later this year.
Mule Barn Brewing has already been selling a few beers on tap at Checker Tavern, a pub on Culton Street also owned by Jason and Connor. Renovated in October 2024, the tavern was among the approximate 75,000 square feet that their business, Quarry City Properties, has had simultaneously under construction in downtown Warrensburg. The name is a nod to Warrensburg having been dubbed “Quarry City” due to the abundance of sandstone mined from two quarries north of town, Pickel Quarry and Bruce Quarry, which both opened in the late 1860s.
Quarry City Properties earned Warrensburg Main Street’s 2023 Best Historic Preservation Project distinction for their work on the Magnolia Mercantile building next door to Checker Tavern. Beginning in January 2023, they gutted the entire building down to the original brick walls and stamped tin ceilings. In the process of repairing the floors, they discovered an underground storage area that might have been a cistern or ice pit for the saloon that existed there in the 1880s and 1890s.
Instead of a saloon, the building now houses a wine and whiskey bar and adult soda fountain. Customers can grab a drink and shop for upscale women’s clothing, handmade jewelry, blown glass and other work from regional makers and artists. In the back of Magnolia Mercantile, a painting of a mule team galloping away from a steam train looms large over an old-fashioned general store.
Doors to the Future
Jason is a member of the advisory boards for both Warrensburg Main Street and Missouri Main Street Connection, the state regulatory organization that oversees all Main Street organizations in the state. It was through Missouri Main Street Connection that Warrensburg Main Street was awarded funding in the summer of 2024 from the National Park Service’s Paul Bruhn Historic Revitalization Grant Program.
To qualify for the grant, properties must be located in a community with a population of fewer than 50,000 and must either be listed on the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places or be eligible for listing at the national, state or local level of significance.
Jason went through the rigorous process of getting the mule barn listed on the national register in 2011. Contrary to popular belief, not every 100-year-old building can earn this distinction. The mule barn qualified because of its prominence and historical significance to the regional economy as well as the global effort during World War I.
A building across from Warrensburg City Hall, just south of the railroad tracks on South Holden Street, was Jason’s “first true red-brick building restoration,” beginning in 2006.
“I always wanted to buy brick buildings and put my love into restoring them,” he says. “I was willing to take the risk that comes with that. I was always building things with my father, and there was lots of construction on the farm. I even moonlighted as a carpenter in college.”
Jason’s background is mirrored in graduating UCM senior Brice Triplett, who is the youngest member of the Quarry City construction crew working to restore the mule barn.
Brice grew up on a farm in Phillipsburg, near Lebanon, Missouri, and started working with his family remodeling and flipping rental homes when he was 15. At the beginning of his junior year in UCM’s Risk Management and Insurance program, he met Jason and was hired to help with the restoration projects downtown.
Construction on the mule barn ramped up in the summer of 2024, and Brice has enjoyed seeing the building open up. The hardware store only used about half of the building, and the rest was boarded up to save on air conditioning. Opening the 50 windows that had been shuttered around the upper section of the building shed light on the barn’s history and possibilities.
“I think it’s pretty cool to be able to restore a piece of history,” says Brice, whose career goal is to become a catastrophe relief insurance adjuster. “I’ve always liked historical buildings and always wondered what was inside of the mule barn. … From when I first saw it till now, it is a totally different environment.”
Brice’s work on the project has expanded his skill set to include masonry, which is one of Quarry City’s specialties. He also learned the importance of keeping a renovation “period correct” — for example, sourcing upcycled older wood instead of using new lumber in structural repairs.
Restoring the Jones Brothers Mule Barn is Quarry City Properties’ biggest job yet.
“This is a large project; for Warrensburg — massive,” Jason says. “There’s 35 feet to the ceiling — big, grand wooden beams — you’re going to walk in and feel this industrial vibe.
We’re going to have a grand opening, and it will be grand. It will be something this town and county will be very proud of.
Do you have a photo taken in front of the mule barn doors? Submit your favorite picture to be part of UCM Magazine’s online photo gallery at ucmfoundation.org/photos.
