If you take Highway 14 east past Nixa’s historic Main Street, you’ll pass by a property on the north side of the road that has served the community since the 1950’s.
On this plot of land in the late 1800’s, the Stiffler family
built a log cabin, one of the first homes in Nixa. The property belonged to the
Stifflers’ heirs until 1958, when a prominent Nixa investor, Barney Wisner,
purchased it and built a feed mill. Wisner’s mill fostered agricultural growth
in the area during subsequent years. The mill’s ownership shifted multiple
times; it was eventually acquired by the Deffenderfer family.
Today, the property belongs to Rich and Leah Callahan. When
the couple purchased it in 2021, the mill was inoperable, but an elderly man
married to a descendent of the Deffenderfers was still working there and selling
feed. The Callahans had a vision for the property to serve the community in a
wholly different way, however.
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Photo from 14Mill website—This grain mill stood along Highway 14 for over 60 years.
“It will be a full scale bar, 10 restaurants inside and then
community seating in the middle,” said Leah Callahan. “We have over 5,000
square feet of outdoor space that will be filled with artificial turf and cornhole
boards, a bocce ball court and a little stage for live music.”
Americans are very familiar with food courts—bustling spaces,
often inside shopping centers, that serve anything foodlike which can
conceivably be sent through a deep-fryer and served in a paper trough. Three
years ago, the Callahans discovered the food court’s more sophisticated cousin:
the food hall, a communal space hosting multiple local food vendors under one
roof.
Leah Callahan described a visit that she and her husband
made to Mother Road Market in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 2020. “The second we walked in
we immediately fell in love with the vibe and the concept and knew that this
was what we wanted to bring to southwest Missouri,” said Leah. The couple, who
describe themselves as “empty-nesters” with many years of business experience, “talked
business” for the entirety of their drive home. They got in contact with the
strategic ops director of Mother Road Market, who became a mentor to the couple as they began
planning for 14Mill. In their research, they visited food halls in 20 different
US cities.
“[The food hall] is a totally unique idea for this part of
Missouri,” said Leah. “We had to spend a lot of time showing research and data
to our local bank and the SBA [Small Business Administration].” However, the
Callahans saw immediate interest from local vendors when they began pitching
the idea. Leah said that they already have a line-up of 20 businesses who are
interested in serving their food at 14Mill after their current vendors’ leases
expire.
Leah said that she and her husband initially hoped to
restore the original feed mill; however, their architectural team quickly found
this wasn’t feasible. Instead, they have chosen to build a new facility and
preserve as much of the property’s history as they can. “We were able to keep
some of the big grain mixers, and we are incorporating those into our
architecture,” said Leah. “We were able to build all of the tables for the food
hall out of reclaimed oak [from the mill].”
The Callahans have also preserved grain scoops, scales and
other artefacts, and hired a photographer to take photos of the mill before it
was demolished, which they plan to display inside 14Mill Market. They were even
able to save a piece from the interior of one of the mill’s walls where Barney
Wisner’s wife appears to have painted her initials.
14Mill Market will open its doors to the community next
month. The Nixa community has thus far received 14Mill with curiosity and
excitement, as it will be the first business of its kind to operate in
southwest Missouri. “We intend [14Mill Market] to be our ministry,” said Leah.
“Whatever way God will use us, whether we are ministering to our vendors, to our bar staff or to the
community, that is what excites us the most.”
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