Cafe Berlin Building

History

The corner of Tenth and Park has fueled Columbia for decades. A 1948 yellow-brick Boone County Oil station stood here until 1998, when it was torn down for a new building: a 2,400-square-foot convenience store and office with an outdoor eating area meant to draw students from nearby Columbia College. It opened as an AMPRIDE station in May 1999 and was later sold to Warrenton Oil, which ran it as Fast Lane.

Like many downtown gas stations, it struggled as shoppers and stations moved out toward the mall and busier roads like Providence. We bought the building in 2009 with a simple goal: it shouldn’t feel like a gas station, and it had to be mixed use.

That September, Cafe Berlin moved in from Providence Road, with about 15 volunteers hauling most of the equipment across town by bicycle. The building has also been a stage for Theatre NXS and for Talking Horse Productions, and today it’s known around town for its food, music and culture.

History from CoMo Preservation’s Historic CoMo blog.