The LaCasa Store was built in the late twenties or early thirties at the Southwest corner of the LaCasa School Yard by Ferron and Faye Kenmore, who ran it for a few years. It is also located 3 miles East and 5 miles South of Hollis,Harmon County,Oklahoma. They sold it to Eber and Opal Thomason of Bethel. In about 1937 Otha Denzial "Slab" Graves purchased the store.
Mrs. Slab (Connie) Graves tells us he had just gotten out of high school in 1937 and didn't have a job so he bought the store and ran it for a year or so. She submitted a photograph showing the pumps in front of the store. She tells us that the pumps were filled with Ethel, Regular and Kerosene.
He sold the store to Mr. John Wright who ran it about 2 years. In 1940 Mr. Wright sold it to Howard and Marvelle Wright. Howard was his son. We ran it for a couple of years.
There was no lunch program at the school then, so we sold hamburgers, candy and pop to the school kids for their lunch. We also sold groceries, gas and ice.
While we were there rural electricity came to Harmon County. When this happened we bought an Electric Deepfreeze.
During the time we ran the store it was struck by a tornado and took the whole roof off the building. I was in the building when this happened. It was fixed back and we ran it a while longer.
Howard was Janitor for the La Casa school during that time.
In 1942 we closed the business and started farming. We sold the building to William Henry and Sina Lewis and they moved it about 2 miles North and made it their home. When they retired and moved to town, their son, Nevel Lewis and his wife Alice moved there and lived until they passed away. The house is still standing but no occupants.
See the La Casa School website
including the 2007 Buffalo Stampede Reunion photos.
