Spring Valley’s Bustling Business District Remembered

The occasional history pages in The Spring Valley Sun are valuable snapshots of memory lane. For someone that was born and raised in Spring Valley, they trigger recollections stored deep in the vaults of memory. They also provide a backdrop, a more complete context, within which to better understand the experiences of the place and time.

The August 7^th, 2002 edition contained pages from the November 30^th, 1944 issue of the Sun that were exceptionally rich in familiar names, faces and places. The headline “Leonard Thompson To Open New Store Saturday” reminded me of a story.

“Len” always treated us kids like people. He was a good-humored fellow, and not averse to a joke or prank. David “Lars” Larson and I were in his hardware store to buy a small can of paint. Leonard helped us find what we needed, then started down the aisle toward the cash register with the can of paint in hand.

As a joke, he tossed it over his head back toward us, naturally expecting one of us to reflexively catch it. Lars was closest, and he just stood there and watched it hit the floor. Leonard looked around with a big grin just in time to see it hit the floor. The scene of Lars standing there looking at the paint can, and the look on Leonard’s face, cracked me up and left me with a fond memory. Oh, yes, and no paint was spilled. It was a laugh all the way around.

That got me to thinking of how different Spring Valley was during the 1940’s and 1950’s. I came into the world in 1938 in SV, and except for a couple of years during the Second World War, grew up there until I joined the U.S. Navy in 1956 following graduation from SVHS.

I would like to share some recollections of SV as it was in that decade following WWII. For you old timers, it may trigger some memories of your own and you might want to share them with us in the Spring Valley Sun. For the younger folks, it might be an interesting introduction to very a different community. These are the names and places as I recall them. I am quite sure of most of them, but if you find an error, please accept my faulty memory’s sincerest apology and note the “Disclaimer” in last paragraph below.

Spring Valley was the area’s social and shopping center in an age before freeways, television, the Internet gave us then undreamed of physical and intellectual mobility.

Spring Valley boasted a goodly supply of hardware stores. My Dad, Rex Pence, opened a Marshall Wells hardware store (across from what is today a pizza place). There were three other hardware stores on that same block: Leonard’s Coast-to-Coast (across from the movie theater, later Fagerland’s hardware); Ed Wolf’s Our-Own-Hardware (where Mary and Matt Huepfel’s Spring Valley Drug & Hardware is today); and Notterman’s hardware (just around the corner on Second Street behind the Hiawatha National Bank these days).

In addition to the four hardware stores on the same block on Main Street (McKay Avenue – the streets back in those days had names, but no signs, so we were unaware of them), there were seven filling stations. George Gauvin had a station across First Street from the old telephone company building, just the other side of where he lives today. Frank Carpenter had pumps at his Pontiac dealership just across the street from Gauvin’s station. There was Harry Howard’s Shell station where the aforementioned bank is today, and across McKay was the Pence Ford Dealership with its Skelly pumps. Clifford Larson, Lars’ Dad, had a Standard station on the NE corner of the intersection of Akers Street and McKay Avenue (where the SV Bank is today), and Art Duberke ran the Mobil station on the NW corner. Then there was the station associated with Gavic’s Garage (located where the village garage is now on Newman Avenue).

Thinking about the filling stations reminded me of Bob Langer and his motor scooter. Bob, a classmate, worked at Crystal Cave and needed transportation. None of us were old enough to get a driver’s license (let alone afford a car), so he got a small motor scooter. The scooter got great gas mileage, so Bob could stop by the gas pumps after hours and drain the hose into his tank. I remember that I was terribly impressed with his ingenuity and frugality. I thought the motor scooter was a Cushman. When I reminded Bob of that, he provided the following anecdote:

“It wasn't a Cushman, it was a Doodlebug and yes I used that technique, but occasionally the pump hose would shortchange me with my gas ration and I would have to blow into the tank to force the remaining gasoline from the line into the engine to get me home.  I also think about how I used to buy a nickel’s worth and get a double take from Clifford Larson, he would actually make me feel cheap.  That Doodlebug was unique in that it had 2 speeds by changing belts to a smaller pulley for power and a large pulley for speed. Thanks to Dale Brorson’s ingenious thinking at the Frank Carpenter Garage.  This of course allowed me to make it up the driveway hill to Crystal Cave.  Also it was important to stay in touch with Phil Olson's garage to use his tools for constant repair.  We were very lucky to have the availability of the different stations for tools, lifts or car washing in winter.  Also available gas station restrooms were very important to a family of 4 boys in a single bathroom house to have another facility for emergency uses. 

It's strange you should mention my frugality, I have to laugh because just tonight Joyce just called me Grasslie at the dinner table.  Grasslie was the banker in SV and it was the term always used by Geo. Wentland meaning tight!  So some things don't change.”

Thanks, Bob. Great stuff. It brings tears to my eyes – laughter, that is. There were certainly many garages and filling stations to choose from. And, for those of you that were not born yet, John Grasslie was the banker (reference the history page in the June 12, 2002 edition of the Sun for the lowdown on him).

There were four car dealerships: Carpenter’s Pontiac dealership across from George Gauvin’s filling station; the Pence Ford Garage (later Raasch & Heinkle) across from the Hiawatha National Bank; the Chevrolet garage in the middle of that same block; and Gavic’s Plymouth-Chrysler dealership on Newman Avenue. As Bob pointed out, we made good use of all the opportunities in town. I recall washing the car for dates at the Pontiac garage in the middle of the winter. We always had a problem with frozen doors when we drove outside. I also lubricated my 52 Ford convertible many a time on the grease rack at the Ford garage.

We were well fixed for food with Arneson’s grocery and dry goods (later Weghorn’s), McCardle’s corner grocery (later Geiger’s), Zimmer’s Red & White Food Stores, Larson’s Fairway, Joe Langer’s grocery (about where Gavic’s Law Office is today), Armstrong’s meat market and Gideon Arneson’s grocery next door. These grocery stores overlapped in time and were not necessarily all in operation at the same moment. I am certain, however, that at least four of them, and probably five, were in operation simultaneously at one point.

Bob wasn’t the only young entrepreneur growing up in Spring Valley. I lived in the “south end” for a few years following WW II, and the abundance of grocery stores presented us enterprising south end boys with an opportunity for gain. Arneson’s grocery (or Weghorn’s – I don’t recall for sure) stowed their empty pop bottles out back. We thought that was convenient, and as they apparently didn’t want them any more, we would transport them over to McCardle’s grocery store and redeem them for two cents on the bottle. It kept us in lollipops.

Leonard Thompson sold his hardware store to Fagerland’s and took over the restaurant again (where Deb’s is now), and Bert Safe opened another restaurant on the next block North of Stein’s Electrical on Main Street. For a time the “Dew Drop Inn” occupied a detached building brought in and placed by the Elevator at the bottom of “Church Hill” (officially Third Street for reference). Then there was Aggie Wood’s “Greasy Spoon” (I don’t recall its real name, but that is how we knew it as kids) where the Post Office is today. I barely remember the time when you could get a cone with two scoops of ice cream for a nickel at that restaurant. It broke our hearts, as well as our bank accounts, when the price was raised to a nickel per scoop – a 100% rate if inflation!

Teddy Wenum told me that Palmer, his dad, laughed about how they hated to see Aggie come in to the bank with her change. She would toss it into old lard buckets and bring it over for deposit. The problem was that the lard buckets were not cleaned out before hand.

There were two barbers. I draw a blank on the name (Trainer?) of one of them, but Matt Hanson had his shop about 2 doors North of Dad’s Marshall Wells hardware store. Dad would give me fifty cents and I would go get a haircut. With the resulting nickel in change I would head for the “Greasy Spoon” to purchase two scoops of ice cream in a cone.

And, oh yes, we had six taverns: Kren’s (Sneakers today); Christiansen’s (next door north of Matt Hanson’s); Three in a row south of Rex’s Marshall Wells store beginning with Lorraine Langer’s, then (the name escapes me – I didn’t frequent taverns much in those days), and Ducklow’s; and finally, next to the Dew Drop Inn behind Arneson’s Grocery store was (Sweeny’s?). It seems to me that there were actually seven, but these are all I recall. I know they outnumbered the churches by at least two-to-one, though.

We had three doctors. Dr. H. P. Conway, who brought many of us into the world in and around Spring Valley. He and his brother, Dr. John Conway, were old timers, but Dr. Doctor (really) was a newcomer. We also had a veterinarian, Dr. Klein.

There were two dentists, Dr. Erwin Fast and Dr. Budd. They were good dentists, but the equipment available to them was a limitation compared to today. The drill, for instance, was air-cooled and slow. The water-cooled high-speed drills of today were not yet available. The process was anything but fast (pardon the pun). I still remember the smell of hot tooth, and the assurance that THIS would be the last drilling on this particular cavity. Really! I learned very quickly to start at twelve and count backward by one each time that was said. I was a quick study, especially when the lesson was administered without Novocain, common in those days.

The list of duplicate business types wouldn’t be complete without attorneys and insurance agencies. As a kid growing up in Spring Valley, however, these “grown up” businesses were more obscure than those I actually frequented. If my memory serves me correctly, there were three law firms: Richardson’s, Gavic’s and Nestigen’s. Arneson’s Insurance Agency was in place back in those days as well. Ari Arneson said that they had been there pretty much through the whole century (1902, I think he said). I think there were others, but I am hazy on that.

That pretty much covers the businesses of which there were multiple examples operating simultaneously. There were, of course, many one-of-a-kind businesses as well. We can take a look at those, and the Friday/Saturday night crowds next time.

To be continued…

Disclaimer: I think my recollections are accurate, but I was pretty small for part of that decade. Some of these businesses changed hands several times, and I know I missed a few owners. I would welcome any corrections and/or additions to these recollections of that decade following the Second World War. If you see anything that needs correction, please write/call the Spring Valley Sun, and/or email me at pence@asu.edu. If you have anything to add, I would be happy to try to work it in, with credit to you, in a future article.

The Spring Valley Kid

Russell Pence

pence@asu.edu