Office Depot, East Broadway

Stephen Bybee
Columbia, MO
January, 2011

This photograph was taken on a busy night for me, as any major snowstorm was a reason for me to be outside photographing Columbia. This also represents another documentation of a Columbia building or structure that has been developed or significantly changed since the photograph was made. In 2011 Office Depot still occupied this building on East Broadway, and Lucky’s occupied the larger structure to the south of this, a building once home to the incredibly useful Osco Drug, a veritable emporium of goods ranging from groceries and liquor to film developing and makeup, with room in there somewhere for economy-grade furniture, clothing, charcoal, and at least one full aisle of candy. And at the time I was a frequent customer, living just four or five blocks away on McBaine Avenue and generally walking or biking to class and to work. You might say that Osco Drug was an inescapable necessity. While Osco Drug was still here, the corner shop between Osco’s and Office Depot was in my earliest Columbia memories an ice cream parlor, followed later by Holly’s Alterations. The building that housed Office Depot ten years ago is now occupied by Crunch Fitness, while the location once home to Osco Drug is now home to Eatwell Market. The tall trees that are just barely discernible shapes in my photograph, rising up behind Office Depot, are the trees that in better weather shade the Columbia Cemetery, a property that is unlikely to change names or purposes anytime soon. In the opening between two buildings on the right side of the photograph, one can also make out the logo-emblazoned sign proclaiming and advertising the edifice and services of First National Bank, an institution that hosted an annual juried photography competition each fall. This sign was a beacon for me on many a walk or drive home late at night and shows up in several of my photographs from this part of Columbia.