Della Behm as the Maryville investor in the Mary Mart Shopping Center and owned the Knotty Pine Motel. She earlier owned Della’s Style Salon in downtown Maryville before focusing on developing the south end of Maryville. In 1955, she announced plans for the Mary Mart Shopping Center, which included space for 800 cars. Other investors include Kansas City investors Ronald and Alice Freemyer
Maryville Daily Forum, November 23, 1955, announcement of Mary Mart Shopping Center Page 1, Page 2
New Shopping Center To Open South of Maryville Next Mar. 1. Miss Della Behm and Associates Reveal Kroger Grocery Firm and Hardware Store Have Rented Space. A new $300.000 shopping center will be erected by Mar. 1, the owners announced today.
It will house five to seven businesses and will contain parking at a ratio of 4 square feet of parking to every square foot of building space. The Kroger Grocery company is to lease a section. A hardware also been disclosed.
Miss Behm disclosed that the Shopping Center had been to the development.
The building, to be of concrete block and steel construction, will be 300 feet long and 80 feet deep, except for two offsets at either end, which will be 110 feet deep. Thus, the building’s total space will be approximately 30,000 square feet. Located on 7½ Acre Tract Plans call for the construction of the new building north and south along Highway 71, just north of the Knotty Pine Motel, which Miss Behm now operates. It is to be located on a 7½ acre tract, which Miss Behm, Ronald Freemyer, and his wife, Alice Freemyer, purchased from Judge M. J.
Hull last April.The Kroger company, which has had a local unit in Maryville on the east side of the Square since 1948 (in the Lloyd Building at 303 Market – just north Burney’s), has leased the first section, which will be 90 feet by 100 feet at the north end of the shopping center.
The new location will nearly double the square footage of floor space they currently have. A Kroger official said a self-serve meat department, modern lighting, and fixtures would be installed in the new store.
Hardware Store Planned. Miss Behm said at noon today that a town hardware store had rented the section next to the Kroger store and would operate under the name “Mary Mart Hardware Store.” She also said that variety, drug, and clothing stores had been contacted for locations in the new shopping center.
She said she would be going to Kansas City on Friday for further work on the leases. An Independence contractor has been employed for the construction. The Kroger lease filed in the Nodaway County Recorder’s office calls for a lease to start Mar. 1, 1956, and continue until Mar. 1, 1966 -ten years. It is also called an option for an additional 10 one-year leases. The corporation lease was signed and filed by R. I. F. Coffin, the firm’s real estate manager.
Outside the Kroger, the other locations will be 50 by 80 feet and 100 feet.
Room for 800 parked cars: the planned building space is 30,000 square feet, and parking would be 120,000 square feet.
Miss Behm recently closed “Della’s Style Shop after 20 years in downtown Maryville. Since she sold the dress store on Oct. 15, Miss Behm has been operating the Knotty Pine Motel.
Reticent about plans. Miss Behm said, “We are going to make it one of the finest rural shopping centers in the Midwest.”
Maryville Daily Forum March 12, 1956
Articles of incorporation were filed in March 1956 in the county recorder’s office in Maryville, announcing the formation of the Mary-Mart Corporation of Maryville. The organization will do business in real estate and has some 500 shares with $100 par value according to the articles. Shareholders listed are Della Behm, 2011 W. 2nd St., 250 shares; Ronald Freemyeer, Kansas City, and Alice Freemeyer, Kansas City.
They would also acquire the Mac Steakhouse
Maryville Daily Forum June 16, 1975 obituary
Miss Della Behm Dies Sunday. Miss Della M. Behm, 67, a retired Maryville businesswoman, died at 12:55 a.m. Sunday at the St. Francis Hospital, where she had been admitted several hours earlier. Miss Behm had operated Della’s Style Shop for 20 years, owned the Knotty Pine Motel for about 20 years, and was one of the organizers of the Mary Mart Shopping Center.
Born Aug. 27, 1907, at Hopkins, she was the daughter of the late Henry L. and Margaret Holker Behm. She was a member of St. Gregory’s Catholic Church, the Altar Society, and St. Gerard Circle.
Surviving sister is Mrs. Clara Watkins, and her brother-in-law, C. O. Watkins, Maryville; a sister-in-law, Mrs. Roy Behm, Kansas City; five nephews; and three nieces.
The funeral mass will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday at St. Gregory’s Catholic Church. Burial will be in St. Patrick’s Cemetery. The family rosary will be held at 8 p.m. today at the Price Funeral Home, and the parish rosary will be held at the same hour and place on Tuesday.