- A KINDER-GENTLER TIME, Part Two -
This article was originally written by Vivian Donaldson, who graduated from Eureka High school in the 1930s.
“Coming back to Main Street to the east side was the Safeway Store( now G&W), the Princess Barber Shop, the Princess Theater which opened in 1915, and in that area at one time, the West’s Jewelry Store. I do think the Gas Company had an office in the area with Leonard Mehl as manager. Also, a Kroger store and Moore Abstract office. Inez Marshall had a dress shop and then the Greenwood Café and Hotel which, for all purposes, was the hub of activity for Eureka. Ward McGinnis held forth there and the Continental Bus service was quartered there. Certainly, Cattlemen’s Day centered at the Greenwood Hotel.
“At the very center of the street at the intersection of Main and Third Streets was a cement flag pole holder. It was fairly big around and was chest high to an adult. I remember very well when we had “snake dances” (pep rallies) seeing Paul and Lola Meredith and Wilbur Ware climb up on the cement ledge to lead cheers. As Eureka tried desperately to keep Highway 54 coming through, one of the stipulations was the flag pole had to go.
“East of the Greenwood Hotel, but part of the building was a millinery shop and the Greenwood Barber Shop, probably owned by Crayton Gardner and the Vapor Cleaners owned by Ray Karns. Across the alley was a small café, then on to the east was the McEntarfers & Company, a plumbing and sheet metal business, the Kansas Power & Light Co. and on the east corner the Grove Building in which Dr. Grove practiced (eye, ear, nose and throat). Dr. Slade, a dentist, was also in the building and there was a beauty shop run by Seamons & Bumgardner, also several apartments and rooms were for rent.
“Across the street south was the Congregational Church and going back toward Main Street was the post office and the Democratic Messenger newspaper. Then the Red Owl Annex, owned by “Muggsy Ford” and then the Basement Grill which at that time was run by Shorty Dodson. Above the grill was the Citizens Bank (later Freeman’s) and around the corner to the south was a basement barber shop which could be entered through stairs off Main Street (since closed up) and Henry Moore and “Coalie” Coalscott were the barbers and they even offered baths.
“I’m going to take a little time to note the cars and people who are on Main Street tonight. People would get to town early in the evening to find a “good” parking spot and watch the parade of people going into stores and visiting on the street.
“Since there was no T.V. and radio was only free of static on the very best of clear days, you can understand why there were dances and band concerts and ball games at the Fair Grounds, and football games at Thrall field (west of Poplar and Fourth Street, later Teichgraebers Oil Well Service). Nearly always there also was the Ted North Tent Players, or later on, the Herbert Walters Tent Show. There was a band stand in the bowl at the park (where soft ball is played now) and Mr. Wagner, who preceded the Aleys, brought in Vaudeville often and had other promotions, such as Charleston contests and dishware give-a-ways.
“The Movietone Newsreels were showing the unrest in Europe with a certain paper hanger and his goosestepping Nazis on display with their tanks and heavy artillery. However, it seems a long way off. Little did we know that these years were going to be some of the last years of small-town peace.
“I see Vic Corbin going up the street in his “nitro” truck. He was what was known as a “shooter’. Treating wells by dropping the nitro-glycerin canisters into the wells.
“While the automobile had come into its own, still there were teams of horses around town. The Lockwood’s plowed gardens all across town. My mother always hired them. Mr. Sherman did the same and also ran a dray ( wagon that carried freight and did not have sides). Fred Martin hauled coal and lumber. He later used a truck and Joe Cope and son Ed hauled coal and lumber for Houston Lumber Company.
“I’m reminded of a story Joe Cope used to tell on himself and another young man whose name has been lost in time. It concerned Edith Random, teacher and principal of West Side School. She was a strict teacher but fair. She was having some problems with Joe and his friend so she pinned Joe’s sleeve to the pocket of her long full skirt, and his friend to the pocket on the other side. Her admonition to them was “ and don’t tear my skirt. Needless to say, they didn’t dare. There were no school buses and no school lunches. We had an hour at noon to walk home, eat and get back to school. I lived eight blocks from school and would meet myself coming and going.
“The 200 block on the east side of Main had Allen’s Drug Store, Doctors Cheney, Milton and Roy, upstairs dentists and Souders & Martin “ Trade with the Boys”. A grocery store either A & P or Piggly- Wiggly, Betshers Cleaners, W.T. Peter, Jeweler, also Carters, Jewelers,(opened in 1916), French’s News Stand, the Booterie and “Buck” Morris City Drug Store ( later Jerry Handley had it) on the corner.
“The J.D. Clark Rexall Drug Story was on the west side, and M.A. Miller Department Store, which was a wonder to us younger kids. You made your purchase and your money was put in a brown sort of jar with the sales slip clipped to the bottom. The clerk then pulled a lever and like a sling shot the jar zinged on a wire up to a cashier’s cage. There Marie Jackson made the change and it zinged back to the clerk. Then there was Bright Clothing Store, the Brooks Store, Reed’s 5 & 10 cent store, and on to the corner, the Basham brothers, Francis, John, Jim, Charles and George had a clinic ( now Colangelo’s).
“Going east on Second Street behind City Drug Store were businesses that I do not recall. Across the alley east was the fire station and city police station. I do not know what his official capacity was but Zeke Franz was always there at the station. To Eureka’s shame Zeke had come down with small pox and I suppose isolation was indicated for he was put out on Canyon Hill Road near the slaughter house. The flies were everywhere and Zeke a target and helpless to fight them off. I do remember the indignation over this incident.
“Into the next block on the east side (100 block on Main) was the P.S. Wheeler Variety Store. Every dress or coat I had until I entered high school was made from fabrics from Wheelers. My mother was an excellent seamstress and tailor. Upstairs was Mozingo’s Studio. Going back down stairs and south was Pop Henderson’s barber Shop and the Ben Franklin Store. Upstairs again, was a room called the “ old opera house” where you might find “Mutt” Klein and his wife, Nora, playing for another dance. Nora played great “ragtime” and was so pretty. Zocherts Shoe Store, Johnson Bros. Grocery and Hammonds Hatchery filled out the east side of the block.
“Over to the west side at the corner of Second and Main Street, now known as the Clever Building, was a large frame grocery store called Farmers Union. At one time it was a three-story building ( had the Masonic Lodge in the top floor before they moved to Third and Oak). The Farmer’s Union was owned by a group of farmers and businessmen. Theodore Fisher had his grocery store there and Phillips 66 had offices on the second floor. Fishers moved three addresses south and were there until they retired. (Greenwood County Museum was in their building until they built the new building on Fourth Street).
“At one time just north of Fishers Grocery there was a theater called the Regent. This was before “talkies” and there was a piano player in the pit to fit the music to the picture. The first picture show I saw was called “The Lost World”.
“Grover Hartenbower disposed of the stores built on the front in 1925 and made the “Arcade” so that around the corner from Fishers and into the “Arcade” was a barber shop run by Bill Vaughn and later by Doc. Hart (Bill Hodgson was also a barber there for a while), a restaurant run by Mary Gafford, gas pumps and a garage run by Grover. There were three Hartenbowers in business at this time. Back of the Clever Building and across the alley, Harvey Hartenbower and his son, Ed, ran the Motor Inn (south across the street of where the VFW building is now) and on Main Street across on the east side, Jesse and Bernice ran the Hartenbowers Café which was a favorite meeting place for all the young people in Eureka because there was a dance floor and an alley out behind where differences could be settled.
“I’ve just about finished with Eureka I remembered, but I wonder how many people remember Bill Russell, who was a blacksmith, at a building where later Howard’s Grocery was located. (north of Sonic today) He was muscular and had a rolling sailor-like walk and was probably the cleanest blacksmith anyone ever saw. Later Hawthorne Brothers ran a trucking business out of that same building. On the corner of First and Main was another frame building called the Commercial Hotel built in 1868 and torn down in 1940, (Home Bank drive through is there now). It did not last very long in my memory so I have not any idea how long it had been there.
“Does anyone remember “Ginger” Allen and the livery barn on Elm Street along Walker’s Run? Or the fire that took the Teichgraeber Mill and burned on and on. The building that was later a creamery and later owned by Russell & Sons, was the original flour storage room. Ogle Cornett bought it and remade the outside and ran a seed and hide business there also.
“Does anyone remember the “Chautauqua” which performed under a tent at the park? Or Will Dennis along with “Brick” and “Jr.” and “Cotton” who were fixtures at the beautiful to watch “sulky” races at the race track? Or the Junior-Senior tug of war on the Canyon Hill Road when there was still a big old iron bridge on which to stand and watch? Or the ice cream man who had a horse and covered cart and sold cones? His name was John.
“Well, these are my memories of a carefree time. Yours may be altogether different, especially if you never wound the May Pole in grade school, or sat on a warm cement sidewalk and played jacks with a friend or had a “green river” or “four hundred” while you sat at little tables in real ice cream chairs. So, if you don’t agree with my memories, do write your own.”
