Pogue Store

The remnants of Pogue Store, seen here, mark the center of Edwardsville’s business district more than two centuries ago. In 1818, When Robert Pogue built his store, it was located directly across the street from Courthouse Square.

Pogue’s was a general store and fur trading post that sold supplies to early settlers as well as to Native Americans who came to the store to collect annuities in the form of supplies provided in the 1819 Treaty of Edwardsville. The one-story brick building had numerous additions over the years so that it once extended from Main Street to Second Street.

The store was also the land grant office for Madison County, which at the time covered about half of present-day Illinois. Edward Coles and Benjamin Stephenson were two of the first men appointed as land grant officers. As Edwardsville’s first post office, the store also functioned as a bank where monies were collected from federal land sales.

The store was a community gathering place in a village that counted among its citizens Edward Coles and Ninian Edwards, both Illinois governors, and many other early Illinois politicians, including Benjamin Stephenson, Joseph Gillespie, and Daniel J. Cook.

The Robert Pogue Estate sold the property to Isaac Prickett in 1826. Over the years, the building was also used as a residence, confectionary, tavern, and restaurant.