A pawn shop in Joplin, Mo., closed for good.
But it wasn’t just any pawn shop. It was the Ben Milgrim Pawnshop, which had operated near the Mother Road for 78 years, acording to the Joplin Globe.
The contents of the business were being auctioned today at Joplin’s Jack Lawton Webb Convention Center. The auction company, Bob Lasswell & Associates, posted photos of some of the pawn shop’s contents on its website.
The Globe described some of Ben Milgrim Pawnshop’s colorful items:
Readying the sale last week, Lasswell unloads a hodgepodge of items, including an old wall clock advertising “Time to Buy Calumet Baking Powder,” a hat maker’s metal hat block, a pair of stuffed bobcats and a bearskin rug.
Meanwhile, a tow truck delivers an 8,800-pound safe emblazoned with “Ben Milgrim Pawnbroker” in gold letters and an 1883 patent date from Mosler Bahmann and Co., Cincinnati, Ohio. The safe is rolled alongside other same-era beasts from “Lighthouse Poultry Co.,” a bygone Joplin business, and the “Webb City Council Chamber.”
Nearby, Lasswell’s wife, Cara, slips 45 rpms into slots along the front of a 1950s Seeburg Selectomatic record player, punches a button to release “I Get the Blues When It Rains” and dances a little jig. […]
A jumble of “a little bit of everything” — 1950s Winchester hunting posters, antique wooden wall telephones, a framed Elvis Presley concert ticket, saddles — will sell along with pieces of Joplin’s history, including 1928 and 1941 group photos of the Joplin Police Department.
A 2010 story in the Joplin Globe says the business was impacted by its closeness to the Mother Road:
Because of its proximity to the legendary Route 66, the pawnshop drew not only customers from the Joplin area, but also from all around the country and, in some cases, around the world.
“A pawnshop was almost like a tourist place,” Martin said. “We would get people who just wanted to look. Because of Route 66, we had customers from almost all 50 states. I don’t know if we had any from Hawaii.”
According to the obituary of the pawnshop’s founder, Ben Milgrim, he was born in Poland and emigrated to the United States as a child. He opened his pawnshop at 813 S. Main St. in Joplin in 1933, the same year he got married to Pauline Brown.
Ben and his wife Pauline operated the pawn shop for 69 years. Ben’s pawn shop became a Joplin institution. There was a time when a trip to Joplin wasn’t complete unless you stopped at Milgrim’s Pawn Shop. The number of Ben’s loyal customers was legendary, and pretty much reflected the heart and soul of Joplin.
Ben Milgrim died at age 100 in 2010. His son, Martin Milgrim, now 75, sold the business to a couple in 2002 but still owns the building.
Milgrim’s building is part of the Main and Eighth Historical District in Joplin, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. According to the National Park Service, the building dates to about 1919.