The Lesser Businesses - continued
Again the rude sub-heading. Think of it like “James the Lesser”. He was a saint.
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| Main Street looking south - 40's |
Gas Stations
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| Dingwall Tire |
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| Pure Oil |
Would you believe there were 5 service stations in Lowry? They were called gas stations but “service station” was the proper term. There was no such thing as self-service. For the price of the gas, you got your tank filled (31¢/gal), your windshield washed and the oil checked. Frankie Koubsky's Sinclair Station bordered Highway 55 at Main St. We would sometimes help him pump the gas, but I could never figure out where the gas cap was on some of those 50’s cars (behind the license plate). I think Deloss Thue and then Gus Klingbeil had the station on the east end of town at the junction of #11 & 55. Jim Dingwall had the station on the west-end at 55 & 114 but at some point he built Dingwall Tire & Oil farther west on 55 and the station passed to Stan Brosh, Stan's Standard - not sure of the timeline. And Bob Bennett’s Pure Oil station was right in town, just past Molander’s to the east at the intersection of Drury & #11 on the former site of the Lowry Hotel.
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| About 1921 - Lowry Hotel in the background |
Lumber Yard
The Lumber Yard was on the north side of 55 at the end of Main Street. My great-uncle Gust was the owner but it was managed by Cal with the able assistance of Bill Thompson. At some point, it was sold to the Smith family. It had an amazing amount of lumber for a small town yard. On either side of the long wooden shed were individual bins holding lumber of various sizes - 2x4, 2x6, 8’ plywood sheets, sheetrock, etc - and at that time a 2x4 was actually 2”x4”. Most every kind of building material was available, from windows and doors to shingles to bags of concrete.
Elevator
The elevator was across the tracks to the north of the Lumber Yard. At one point, Lowry had 3 elevator buildings, but I remember only the one. I really didn’t know what went on there, except farmers would drive to town with tractors pulling overloaded wagons, usually with corn, drive up the slope onto the big scale and dump their load into a pit. How that grain got up into the elevator proper was a mystery. Occasionally, when there was a bumper crop or issues with the railroad, the elevator filled to capacity and corn was piled on the ground waiting for railroad cars to take shipment.
Depot
The depot sat north of 55 to the west of the Lumber Yard, next to the railroad tracks as you might expect. Jim Robieson was the depot agent and had been for 40 odd years. For a good many years, the Robieson's lived in the depot with a passel of kids, but in '57 Jim and Ellen lived next door to my grandparents.
The Lumber Yard still received much of its freight by train, but sadly, by the mid-50’s, the depot was in decline with much of the train freight traffic & mail delivery replaced by trucks, a side-effect of Eisenhower’s push to create interstate highways to facilitate the movement of military vehicles, making over-the-road trucking a viable alternative to trains. Some wag has said if railroads had defined themselves as "transportation companies", you might be booking that flight to Las Vegas on Northern Pacific Air. “Freeways” were also a boon to the tourist trade, making it possible to reach Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon by car on your 2 week vacation. There were still trains regularly passing through Lowry but mostly carrying grain.
Creamery
The creamery was set back from Main Street on the north end against the alley splitting the Main Street blocks from Aurora. One of my “chores” was to walk to the creamery with an empty pint milk bottle and bring it back filled with whipping cream. I can still smell the place. I didn’t think it was at all pleasant - a combination of the heat of pasteurization and the hot water wash of the concrete floors. Bud Bodeker was the creamery man I remember.
Blacksmith
Art Schlueter's blacksmith shop was on the north end of Main and it was a pretty interesting place, with a hot forge roaring and the sound of a hammer on anvil. Straightening bent plow shares, creating new parts from raw iron. Stuff straight out the the 1800’s. But Art didn’t really like kids hanging around, and with hot metal and sparks flying, I can understand why. Wencil Kalina also had this place, but the ownership sequencing fails me.
Tavern
Dave Chan’s Cafe was a place I wasn’t supposed to know anything about. My people referred to it as the beer joint - or the tavern. However, I entered this den of iniquity (my grandmother's term) fairly frequently with Big Time to play hearts or the bowling game. The place smelled of stale 3-2 beer (Pope County was a "dry" county - a WCTU episode for another day) And guess - yup, there was an apartment above the place with stairway along the south wall. Big Time's grandmother lived there and she had an old Edison cylinder record player that you had to crank to play Rudy Vallee tunes or opera. Pretty neat, but I preferred our Hi-Fi with the modern 78 and 33 1/3 vinyl platters.
Restaurant
Bosek’s Store
[The photo at right shows a glimpse of Bosek's Store abutting the Dahl House to the south & the stairway to the apartment above the tavern to the north]
Henry Bosek had the small grocery next to the Dahl House. I always thought he was a quirky guy and I didn't go in there much. The building had originally been the Farmer's & Mechanic Bank which failed during the depression. Henry lived in the store and slept in the old vault.
Joe’s Meat Market
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| Meat Market reincarnated as a Post Office |
Next to Bosek's store to the south was Joe Shermak's meat market, but everyone called it the Butcher Shop. I guess I understood in the abstract that in the back live pigs became ham and bacon and cows became hamburger and pot roast, but I never really thought about that when my mother sent me to pick up a few pork chops for Sunday dinner. I thought the best thing about the butcher shop was the popcorn machine which Joe rolled out every Saturday night.
Hardware Store
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| Martin Heggestad by Dave Nelson's mistake (black, but not a Buick) |
Episode #8 covers Hoplin & Nelson Hardware. I've enough material for a lot more on that topic. I'll percolate on it and decide whether to inflict you.
McIver’s Store
If someone were to write the history of Lowry, (It's actually been well done. Find yourself a copy of the 1986 Lowry Centennial book) the McIver family would figure prominently. From William who built the store at the turn of the century to legendary Doc Bert McIver, and his descendants, they were pillars of the community. I have written about Howard & Mary and McIver's Store in my "Fashion" episode #13 , but here again, there's more McIver's store material waiting to be inked. Be sure to read the excellent McIver family history on the Lowrymn.com site: http://www.lowrymn.com/mciver_family.htm
The Clinic
The clinic was actually on the east side at the north end of the skating rink, technically on Florence Ave. My mother was a RN and after the war, she worked at that clinic with Dr. Maynard Nelson. But I remember it as a dentist office - a place I dreaded because of my cavity ridden teeth from my bubble gum habit. (This was well before the fluoride controversy.) The dentist was Dr. Lawrence Wright, a negro - yes, remember this was 1957. Doc Wright was the manager of the Lowry baseball club, so he was a-ok with me, outside the dental chair that is. I'm sure he experienced some racial discrimination, but I was never aware of it.
The clinic did double duty as Doctor Lee made the trek from Glenwood in his T-Bird a couple days a week to apply his gentle healing touch.
What did I miss?
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