In addition to the varied lines of merchandise that Jeter Mercantile offered to Montevallo customers, it also competed with F.W. Rogan’s store as one of the two morticians in town. New coffins for potential occupants were supposedly stored and available for inspection along the overhead balcony that ran around the interior of the store. The deceased who were brought to Jeter’s for embalming and preparation for burial were administered to in the basement of the store. There was a dark and foreboding staircase leading down to the inner sanctum where the mysteries of the embalmer’s art were performed. A large motorized hearse remained parked at the back of the store when not in use. When the City Council decided that mortuaries had to be moved off Main Street, Rogan dissolved his embalming business but M.P. Jeter transformed the front room of his rambling wood-frame residence at the corner of Vine and East Boundary Streets into a funeral parlor.
In the fall of 1915, the town of Montevallo met an often expressed desire by A.G.T.I. President Palmer for a Laboratory School building devoted to educating local children as well as providing an ideal environment for the training of future teachers. M.P. Jeter, Sr., as chairman of the local school board, spearheaded the movement for the school and also personally designed the three-story structure that housed elementary grades until 1964. The building was later named for Mr. Jeter and came to be known as the “Jeter Building.” The building was torn down in December of 2016 and the lot is the site for the new UM Center for the Arts.
Thank you to Clay Nordan, Vice President of the Montevallo Historical Society, for this information!
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