The earliest maps, 1885 Artist View and the 1885 Sanborn Insurance Map, reveal that John and Tom Lane from probably North Carolina operated a wagon yard on the western half of Block 21. By 1888 Tom, who actually owned the land, had one small and narrow stricture at what was called 370 Bonham. It had two North Mill entrances, called 207 and 208. He then constructed a large, two-story building on the corner facing Bonham Street. It was first called 309 Bonham in 1892, and was split into three sections. The second floor was for boarding guests. The wagon yard stretched to West Houston, and to the back yard of the large home that faced North Short. There were sheds for wagon yard storage at 305, 306 & 307 West Houston.
In 1897 312, 314 & 316 Bonham each were rented to a grocery, management and for other purposes, such as a saloon. Boarding was still on the second floor. Tom Lane became the public weigher in the 1890s. In 1898 Pete Humphries took over the Bonham Street building as a grocery concern. By now, a large building stood at the northwest corner of the Lane Wagon Yard. Lane may have by now owned east of it to 149 North Short where a smaller house once stood.
In 1901 Brooks Wagon Yard and Sam Aikin's Wagon Yard covered much of what was once the Lane site. The old large home that faced North Short was gone, and it seems all the northern portion of Block 21 was in use for parking and servicing wagons. Aikin's operation was on the western end, behind Pete Humphries. By 1902 the grocery business brought in much trade, and many did actually bargain a trade with other agricultural products they grew. 312 and 314 Bonham were the grocery supplies, and the corner site, 310 Bonham, was a saloon in 1902. Paris, however, was only half a decade away from prohibition!
By 1908 the saloon portion is gone. It seems Pete Humphries occupied at least 312, 314, and 316 Bonham Street. He had constructed docks in the rear. Six years later he possible used at least one half of the building to the east. His two story structure was called 58, 60, & 62 Bonham Street. The public wagon yard to the north was using all the north end of Block 21 now with some additional sheds and hitches. It was addressed as 216 North 18th Street.
By the drawing of the 1920 Sanborn Map, the wagon yard is surrounded by a brick wall on the east and north. The large building at the northwest corner has spaces rented to an auto supply shop and a barber. The rest is for sale of hay, grain and feed. The 1921 city directory shows Byron H. Harmon, barber, in 18 North 18th Street. Pete Humphries now owns the building and wagon yard, with an address of 59 West Houston. He by then also covers 56 through 60 Bonham with his grocery business. He had added a wholesale department to what was being touted as the largest retail grocer operation in Northeast Texas. Humphries also used the parking lot on the next block west, which he purchased in 1948. At 62 Bonham, on the southwest corner, was the S & D Curry Clothing & Shoes business.
In 1926 the grocery business stretched from perhaps 54-62 Bonham. Pete Humphries died in 1933, but his son in law, Sam H. Freeman, continued the business. The city directory of 1937 has the operation using the address of 230 Bonham. In 1946 all the area once holding Lane's Wagon Yard and the old large home over on Second Northwest belonged to the Pete Humphries concern. The wholesale part of the business used most of the space north of the retail store that faced Bonham.
Freeman died in late 1950 at just 60 years old, a year after his wife, Pearle Humphries Freeman, leaving their young daughter Sally with the business. A week later she and her board of directors chose Richard H. Lee, a 16 year veteran of the company. He had been running the wholesale portion while Dick Floyd oversaw the retail. Things changed, however, quickly in the 1950s. The attachment at the rear of Pete Humphries was cleared for about 150 parking slots. A.C. Bonham purchased in late 1952 the old feed store on the corner of West Houston and Northwest Third Street. lt was then called Bonham's Farm Supply.
By 1957 Sally Freeman sold the business to Tom Thumb out of Dallas. Another Tom Thumb operation was across from Paris Junior College, purchased and run by C.R. Sikes in what became the Stellrose Shopping Center. It had been formerly owned by Leon Moss. The movement of growth to the east was just too strong for the grocery concern on Bonham, and it was gone by 1960.
Newton Wall Fire Sale Store took the space and was still there in January 1966. When the main Pete Humphries building burned or was torn down has not been determined, but City Pawn Shop constructed a concrete block, narrow building at 250 Bonham. It remained there until torn down in late 2016.