Historic building to house auto repair shop
Staff writer
A new auto repair shop is expected to open soon after the new year in a historic Peabody building.
Peabody native Colton Glenn is buying a 1919 building at 122 W. 2nd St. The building has a colorful past, including having once been a World War II prisoner-of-war camp.
Glenn is a mechanic who worked at Webster Auto Service in Marion until October. Before going into the field full time, he grew up spending time in his father’s mechanic shop and tinkering around on projects.
In a nod to the building’s past, Glenn plans to name his new business Eyestone Automotive & Fab, a reference to the name it went under when the building was built in 1919. It will be a full-service automotive repair and fabrication shop.
As soon as Glenn is able to give current owners Terry Rhodes and Jim Taylor a check, he says, they will move out, and Glenn will move in.
Rhodes and Taylor operate a fabrication shop that produces parts for Circle D Corp. in Hillsboro. The building formerly housed Heckendorn Equipment of Kansas, which manufactured lawn mowers.
Since leaving Webster, Glenn has done auto repair at a shop at his home.
Glenn also has bought the fabrication contract with Circle D.
He has put together a team of three fabricators and two mechanics counting himself.
“I’ve thought about this a long time,” Glenn said.
The building was built as an automotive shop in 1919. It was named Eyestone Garage.
The name is cast in concrete at the top of the building.
“I thought it would be nice to incorporate the history into the name,” Glenn said.
At one time, it housed a 13-room hotel upstairs and a restaurant downstairs.
During WWII, it was converted to a POW camp for German soldiers who were sent to work on area farms. Then it became a lawn mower manufacturing plant.
Peabody Historical Foundation will help get grants to work on the building as soon as it changes hands, Glenn said.
“It needs a facelift,” he said. “I may get a mason out there to fix the mortar between the bricks and what not.”