Beloved Morley Cafe building crumbles

MORLEY, Mo. -- A Scott County town is mourning the loss of its most beloved social hub -- the Morley Cafe.

The cafe had served as a place where the town's happenings first were heard and conversations flowed with ease.

According to residents, the brick building collapsed sometime between 5:30 and 6 p.m. Sunday.

"We came by here at 5:10 p.m., and it was still standing. By 6:30, the word was out it was gone," said Morley resident Kenny Rodgers.

No one saw the collapse, but someone said they heard something, Sandy McArthur said. She was at her mother's home near the restaurant when she noticed something going on in the middle of town Sunday evening.

"I saw a sheriff's deputy parked there and bricks where they weren't supposed to be, so I circled the block, and there it was," McArthur said.

As word of the building collapse spread throughout Sunday, many residents stopped by the site to see it for themselves. Other passers-by slowed their vehicles as they turned the corner to see the rubble.

"We're all very saddened, because we've shared countless plate lunches and conversations together over the years," resident Dee Cookson said.

Dating to at least the 1930s, the former restaurant, tavern and meeting place had been closed for a couple years. During its time, over a dozen people owned the building.

"The people that have lived in this town probably have more memories of it than any other building in town," McArthur said.

She likened it to a community center.

"If someone had a problem, this is where the information got out, and people would get together to try to find an answer to the issue," McArthur said Monday as she stood outside what remained of the cafe.

And many good memories for many people were made there, she said.

"When I was a kid, you could go up there and get a 35-cent cheeseburger that was to die for, a milkshake for a quarter that was the bomb, and it was a place to hang out. The jukebox had all the good stuff, and it had a pinball machine. It was a fun place," McArthur said.

Rodgers said when he was in high school, the cafe would be open daily until 9 p.m.

"Times change, and they reverted back to breakfast and lunch," Rodgers said. "There's been numerous owners, numerous people who had good food here, and if you drove through here at noon, the farmers would be lined up along both sides of the street and around the corner. It was a busy, busy place."

McArthur said when she was growing up, Morley had at least two grocery stores and three gas stations.

Rodgers recalled the town having at least four grocery stores and four gas stations when he was a child.

"It's sad to see this town -- every little town -- go to where it's at," Rodgers said. ..."I just hope somebody buys the lot and puts in a cafe again."

Other residents gathered at the building site Monday recalled a clothing store, hardware store, barbershop and even a movie theater once were part of the town's landscape.

"It's sad to see things go, but it was inevitable with this building staying empty, and they didn't keep up maintenance on it," Rodgers said.

Some residents also believe the structure's flat roof played a role in its demise, as it had withstood many water events, such as hard rains and ice storms.

"The beams were saturated, and the brick mortar was like fine sand," Cookson said.

The building had reached the end of its life.

"Right now, everything is at a standstill," Morley city clerk Tanya Monroe said. "The security tape was wrapped around the scene Sunday night."

Lori McCoy, who worked as a waitress at the cafe for several years, took to social media to share her feelings.

In a post to her Facebook page, McCoy told of a time when she was working and two local farmers -- who had been cleaning rotted soybeans from a grain bin -- came to eat lunch at the cafe and the challenge she and her co-workers faced because the lingering smell of the rotted beans.

Like many Morley residents over the last couple of days, McCoy said: "The cafe may be gone, but the memories I'll hold close to my heart."