216 Bonham St 

In 1885 this was an empty lot east of the Lane Wagon Yard. Three years later a small building sat there, addressed as 310 Bonham Street. In 1892 a longer building was to its east, numbered 311 Bonham Street. The smaller was a grocery. 

In 1897 the two buildings were the same size, number 308 and 310 Bonham Street. The east section was a meat market, and the second floor was vacant. At 310 Bonham was a grocery, and the second floor was a hall for some organization. Five years later 308 Bonham was a dining room and hotel, and 310 Bonham was still a grocery...probably taken over by the Pete Humphries business from there to the west end of Block 21.

The 1908 Sanborn Map shows 308 is a confectionary, and 310 a meat market. Street numbers changed and in 1914 the building is 54 & 56, the former a meat market, the latter part of the grocery, with a large middle entrance in the wall. 

In 1920 maps show 54 & 56 Bonham are part of a Meat Market operation and restaurant. The Hancock Brothers, J.M. and C.J., ran the meat business. The building and the Pete Humphries company did not burn in the 1916 fire, and thus helped serve the rebuilding effort for Paris. However, in July of 1921 across the street Rodgers-Wade burned, and the front façade fell into Bonham Street, burning parts or all of some buildings on Block 21. At the time 54 & 56 Bonham are not listed as having occupants upstairs.

The 1926 Sanborn Map shows 54 and 56 Bonham have not changed. However, sometime in the 1920s or 1930s the Pete Humphries company changed its façade look. The numbers changed for Bonham Street businesses, too. The building took on the designation of 218 and 220 Bonham. However, the 1937 city directory says the building is 218 Bonham, and occupied by Paris Cut Rate Drugs. But, from 220 to 234 is still designated as one store, that of the Pete Humphries operation. The drug business was run by John R. & Will H. Campbell, who later moved to locations on the Plaza.

The building remained the same into the 1950s, when the heir of Pete Humphries decided to sell to the Tom Thumb Super Market grocery chain. Richard H. Lee stayed on with the new owners, but the company left Paris in the 1960s. 218 Bonham was vacant by 1959, later occupied by Gene Belew Music and the current book store operation.