Flooring in Troy,
the seat of Lincoln County

Troy is the seat of Lincoln County and it is not a river town, which turns out to be the most useful thing to know about it. It sits in the south central part of the county, west of Highway 61 and southwest of the Cuivre River, on ground that rises toward the courthouse. The Census counts 5,183 housing units inside 7.72 square miles, so this is streets and subdivisions rather than acreage. 81.1 percent of the units are single unit detached houses, 69.9 percent of occupied homes belong to the people standing in them, and the median year built is 2000. This page is the town. How each material behaves in that stock is on the five pages linked at the end.

12,683 at the 2020 count, an estimated 14,963 four years on

A town gaining people at that rate is doing two things at once. It is finishing houses that have never had a second floor covering, and it is turning over older ones as households arrive and move within the same few square miles. Those are different conversations. One starts from a builder specification nobody in the house chose. The other starts from rooms a household has not yet lived in through a full year.

Three decades account for most of what is standing

33.2 percent of Troy's housing units were finished in the 2000s, 15.6 percent in the 2010s and 14.2 percent in the 1990s. The bulk of this town went up inside one thirty year window, which is a strange thing to be true of a place that has held a courthouse since long before the railroad reached it. Those are the only three decade figures here: the Census publishes the rest with margins too wide to state as fact.

The old town is on a hill and the highway strip is not

Downtown Troy is noticeably hilly rather than flat. The courthouse end at the north sits at a higher elevation than the south end near Marble and Cap au Gris Streets, and Highway 61 runs east of the historic downtown, so the old square and the highway strip are two distinct parts of town. A house on the courthouse slope was built into a grade and has usually been added to, so its rooms do not all sit at one height. A house off the newer streets was set on a pad and finished in one pass.

The county's third seat, and the water that settled the argument

Lincoln County's seat was originally at Monroe, the town now called Old Monroe, then moved to Alexandria, and only landed at Troy, where it stayed. Troy is the county's third seat and Old Monroe is a demoted former one. Water won the argument. The National Register nomination for the Downtown Troy Historic District records that the town "was neither adjacent to the Mississippi nor the Cuivre River- both of which served as major transportation routes," and that "Troy's spring, however, provided a reliable source of water, which attracted early settlement." That spring stood near the present Main and Boone Street intersection. The town began around it as Woods' Fort, a stockade named for Zadock Woods, whose double log house beside the water was his home and a travelers' tavern. County officers first organized Lincoln County in that tavern, and for one winter the fort was headquarters for Lieutenant Zachary Taylor, later President of the United States. Troy then lost the thing it was founded on: blasting during sewer construction near Boone and Main Streets disrupted the flow and it never came back. The site is now Spring Park, dedicated as a Woods' Fort memorial by the Daughters of the American Revolution, holding reconstructed cabins and historical markers.

One of three identical courthouses, and the only one still standing

The Lincoln County Courthouse on Main Street was built to a Georgian design by Gustave Bachman, a German immigrant who settled in Danville, the seat of Montgomery County. Missouri once had three identical-plan Georgian courthouses, in Lincoln, Randolph and Montgomery Counties, two of them by Bachman, and only Troy's still stands. It is working county government rather than a museum: the county's official address, the County Clerk's office and in-person absentee voting are all in that building. Troy was a courthouse town for more than 50 years before it was a rail town.

A historic district bounded by Annie Avenue and Cap au Gris

Downtown Troy is listed on the National Register as the Downtown Troy Historic District, roughly bounded by Annie Avenue on the north, Second Street on the east, Marble and Cap au Gris Streets on the south and Court Street on the west, counting 39 contributing buildings, 1 contributing site and 2 contributing structures. The plat beneath it is older: the town was deeded to the public and laid out by Joseph Cottle, Lee F.T. Cottle and Zadock Woods, the spring reserved west of Main Street and Main Street platted 60 feet wide. Troy then incorporated in two steps, first as a town and later as a fourth class city, so a single incorporation year for this place is incomplete.

Fourteen schools, three counties, one headquarters here

The Lincoln County R-III School District is headquartered on West College Street in Troy, operates 14 schools, and serves "three counties: Lincoln, Warren, and Montgomery." Its high schools are Troy Buchanan High School, the Ninth Grade Center and New Horizons High School. A district reaching across three county lines from one town describes what Troy does for this corner of the state, and it is why an appointment here is often built around a school calendar.

The Lincoln Hills begin where the town ends

The country immediately east of Troy is the Lincoln Hills, a glaciated limestone karst landscape of bluffs, glades, sinkholes, caves and springs that Missouri State Parks says resembles the Ozarks rather than the farm country of northeast Missouri. Big Sugar Creek, a Cuivre River tributary, cut it. Cuivre River State Park carries a Troy mailing address, sits east of town per the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, and is described by Missouri State Parks as "one of the state's largest and most rugged parks."

18.6 miles NNW, and the interchange that changed the approach

The showroom at 15570 Veterans Memorial Pkwy in Wentzville is 18.6 road miles from Troy, north northwest, about 26 minutes. The way in from the south is US 61, and MoDOT rebuilt the Missouri Route 47 interchange over US 61 at Troy as a diverging diamond, replacing the existing bridge, and lists the project as complete. A finished interchange is what makes 26 minutes a number worth scheduling against.

What a measure at a Troy address actually settles

Somebody comes to the house. Rooms get drawn with real dimensions, transitions and finished heights go on the sketch, and a corner gets lifted rather than guessed at, because a predictable decade is not a known floor. On the courthouse slope the extra question is whether the rooms sit at one level. Off the newer streets it is usually door clearance. You keep the sketch either way, and the in-home measure page sets the appointment out in full.

The five floors we write about for Troy

Each asks a different question of this stock. Carpet in Troy is about rooms a fast growing town has not lived in yet. Solid hardwood in Troy is about what the house already has hard underfoot. Luxury vinyl plank in Troy is about one continuous main level. Laminate in Troy is about the flight and the upper hall. Tile in Troy is about the bathroom and the entry. Flooring Correct is family owned and holds 140 Google reviews at a 5.0 average.