The Rogers Building, located at what is now 103 N. Madison Street, was constructed in 1897 according to the date stamped in the building's rear threshold. It sits on lots 5B and 8A of block 13 of the original town site. The building is currently (2008) occupied by Titus County Title Company, but for most of its life was home to the Rogers Hardware Store.
When it was constructed, the Rogers Building was the second building on North Madison Street (then Kauffman Street) north of West First Street (then Rusk Street). The building that once sat on the corner originally contained a grocery store. It was torn down years ago, and Billy Craig's Wrecker Service currently uses the lot it once occupied for a parking. The two-story Rogers Building, like some other buildings around the square built in the same period (the Masonic Lodge building for one), originally had a tin and cast iron front with tall doors and windows.
Mark Collins (Bud) Rogers was born in Lewisville, Ark., on February 22, 1855. He moved to Mt. Pleasant in 1870, where he lived for the rest of his life, becoming one of Mt. Pleasant's pioneer businessmen. On December 24, 1875, he married Miss Bettie Black, and they had six children.
Mr. Rogers established Rogers Hardware in 1906. A good businessman, he accumulated considerable property in addition to his hardware store. Mark was also active in politics.
In 1908 J. F. Wilkinson, Jr. resigned as Mt. Pleasant City Alderman, and M. C. Rogers was elected in his place. Mr. Rogers continued to serve as Alderman until April 1917.
O. L. Crigler married Mary Rogers, one of Mr. and Mrs. M. C. Rogers' daughters, on October 16, 1916. O. L. Crigler was a prominent Mt. Pleasant paving and building contractor and was responsible for the construction of much of the early infrastructure and larger buildings in Mt. Pleasant and surrounding towns.
Mr. Rogers health began to fail in the latter 1920s, and he became unable to continue being active in his business affairs. His daughters, Bess and Faye Rogers, took over operation of the hardware store. Mark Collins Rogers died of heart problems on April 26, 1932, and is buried in the Masonic Cemetery.
Bess and Faye continued to operate the hardware store under the name of Bess Rogers Hardware Company. In August, 1938, O. L. Crigler removed the original tin front from the building and replaced it with a modern brick front. The store's interior was never updated much, and oak display cases and other fixtures that had graced the building for years were still in use until it closed.
Bess and Faye continued to operate Rogers Hardware until shortly before they both passed away in 1981. When their health eventually failed, the inventory and contents of the building were auctioned off prior to the building being sold. Like the antique fixtures, another thing that made Rogers Hardware interesting was that the sisters never reduced the price of obsolete inventory and sold it to acquire modern items. When you stepped into the store, it was like stepping back in time with its oak display counters and unusual inventory. When the inventory was auctioned, new kerosene lanterns, early auto parts, tools, hardware items, and other original relics of a bygone era were still on the shelves in their original boxes.
Miss Faye Rogers passed away on May 12, 1981, followed six months later by Miss Bess on November 30, 1981. Both are buried in Masonic Cemetery.
Mike Setty, owner of Titus County Title, has done a great job of preserving the old building's historic appearance. Of course, the Title Company required that the building be divided into several offices and work rooms in order to conform to their business requirements. However, walls were installed in such a manner as to cause as little damage to the original building as possible.
The interior is attractively decorated around the building's historic nature. The wooden ship-lap ceiling was retained downstairs, and period light fixtures that came from the old First Baptist Church were used in the main hallway dividing the offices to complement the building. Round metal air conditioning ducts were hung from the ceiling by metal straps. The round metal duct both appears to fit the building's time period and called for few permanent modifications to the structure, while providing the heating and cooling required for a modern business.
The offices are carpeted, but the building's original wooden floors were preserved and are exposed in the waiting room and center hallway. The original wooden floors were attractively stained and sealed and show the character of many years of use as a public building. In several spots, scorch marks are visible where wood-burning stoves once sat to heat the building before central heat and air were invented.
Though no longer used, the old hand-drawn elevator once used in the hardware store to transport merchandise to the second floor is still there, and appears to be in good order. A very similar elevator was once installed in the Blythe Sanitarium across West First Street where Hotel Stephens once sat and the 1897 Bell Tower is now located.
On the building's second floor, it is obvious where O. L. Crigler installed a new front on the building in 1938. Like many of the older downtown structures, the building's side walls are made of sand brick, but a seam is visible at the front of the building where more modern, hard-fired brick used in the front of the building replaced the previous brick.
The building's south exterior wall proudly displays the Rotary Club's mural stating "Mount Pleasant, The Good Life" which is featured both on the home page of our website and on its own page under the Civic Organizations topic. You may read the story of how this beautiful mural came about there. Even though it appears to have been done as part of the Bell Tower project, they were actually two projects done several years apart.
We congratulate Mr. Setty on preserving one of Mt. Pleasant's oldest downtown buildings when he converted it into a home for Titus County Title!
