COLLINSVILLE — Every small town has them -- old signs that remind the community what came before.
But, one from Collinsville was spotted recently, at an antique store in Choteau.
It had been to Arkansas and back.
"So I took pictures and I posted it on Facebook," Lavieta Rich Rauh said. "I said this needs to go home."
Another friend saw the post and the two ladies threw their money together and brought the old Burnside and Heinrichs sign back to Collinsville and the building where it once hung.
"It brought back so many memories of me being a child and growing up here," Angela Cates Breeding said. I would come up here on Saturday with my dad to buy hardware or mom shopping for furniture."
It's the Silver Dollar Cafe now, which has had three cars run through the front of it, but all were by accident.
But like the sign, the building just keeps coming back.
It was a bank a hundred years ago, then owned by the Lee, Burnside and eventually the Heinrichs families, who sold hardware, furniture and ran a mortuary here too.
We broke the news to the current owner.
"There's a lot of history here," Silver Dollar Cafe owner Christy Stephens said. "It was a mortuary? No!! Are you serious?"
Generations of visitors and residents of Collinsville, remember the Lee, Burnside and Heinrichs family their support for the community.
"When all the girls graduated we got a little cedar chest from Burnside and Heinrichs," Rauh said.
The store closed for good in 1981, making way for big retail stores.
But returning the sign to the building where it hung for so long, was like reuniting two old friends, for these ladies.
There's a perfect place for it, near the window where the whole town can still see it.
"It's a great piece of history," Rauh said. "It will look good up here on the wall and I'm sure people from Collinsville will appreciate it."
Stay in touch with us anytime, anywhere.
Download our free app for Apple and Android and Kindle devices.
Sign up for newsletters emailed to your inbox. Select from these options: Breaking News, Severe Weather, School Closings, Daily Headlines and Daily Forecasts.
