A Little Bit of History

My car needed some maintenance work the other day.  The shop, Ron's Auto Repair, is located at 312 3rd Avenue, across from the old Sawnee Hotel.  Had a nice little conversation with the owners about the history of that location.  According to this site that lists businesses located on the avenues throughout the history of Brookings (http://www.sdstate.edu/sdsuarchives/collections/upload/Brookings-Businesses-avenues.pdf; businesses located on the streets are listed at http://www.sdstate.edu/sdsuarchives/collections/upload/Brookings-Businesses-streets.pdf), that building was built in 1945, and was the home of Lefevre Motor Coompany from 1945 until 1973.  Mr. Lefevre also seems to have been the agent for Hertz rental cars for about 10 years, from 1963-1972.  Then it was taken over for a year by a Mr. Boerger, and became Boerger Car dealers, selling Dodge, Chrysler, and Plymouth.  Ownership then changed hands in 1974  to Gerry Hoffelt, becoming Hoffelt Motors.  They moved to 2308 6th St, out by the Holiday Inn, in 1979.  The building then retained its automotive flavor, becoming Jerry's Tune-up for the next ten years.  In 1989, Ron Dobesh became owner, where he is still doing car repairs.  Mr. Dobesh originally had the Mobil station at 6th and Medary, kitty corner from Tom Bozied's Amoco station, from 1981-84.  From 1984-89, it was a Sinclair station.  In the early 80's, I had bought a used Chavy Caprice station wagon that needed quite a bit of work  I took it to Tom.  His station did a great deal of work, but the carburetor was in bad shape, so he took it over to Ron at the Mobil station, as carburetors were his specialty.

The reason for the conversation in the first place is that this part of town was my Minneapolis Tribune paper route during 6th-7th grade.  My route was the west side of Main between 3rd and 4th Streets, then west to the Retirement Center.  There were only about a dozen customers, but it provided me with some good spending money.  Lee Colburn and Stew Linn were also Tribune paper boys.  There may have been others in our class, but I cannot recall any at the moment.  There were a few businesses on Main that were customers, a few on 4th Street (one was the Quick Lunch.  It was run by Ralph Myers (sp?); Did he a few years later  move a block south and have a hang-out for high-schoolers called The Cue (not the one in the basement underneath Quail's, later Wilson's).  I remember playing pool there our sophomore year.  This was about the only place the song "I Can't Control Myself" by the Troggs was played.  It was kind of racy and raunchy

("I can't stand still 'cos you've got me goin'
Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba
Your slacks are low and your hips are showin'
Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba"),

even more so than their "Wild Thing," so the radio stations were reluctant to play it.  This venture of Mr. Myers only lasted a short while.  This site later was the Irish Shanty, which we visited a few times while in college.  Other businesses were  the Brookings Area Guidance Center and the Liquor Store, located in the back of the Sawnee Hotel.  One of the customers at the Retirement Center was Carl Christensen (sp).  He was the band director at State for many years.  I believe he was instrumental in getting John Philip Sousa to come to the campus at South Dakota State, probably in the 1920's, as Sousa died in 1932.  The Christy ballroom is named in his honor.  The last paper to be delivered was at 312 3rd Ave, Lefevre's.  At that time, he sold Studebakers and perhaps also Chrysler, Plymouth, and/or Dodge.  The company had also sold Nash automobiles before Nash became part of American Motors.  Anybody remember the 1958 song "Beep Beep-The Little Nash Rambler, by a group called the Playmates (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enqNl7tdLR4)?

Miss Briscoe, our algebra, Latin, and homeroom teacher, drove a yellow Studebaker similar to this one (http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2580/3915678580_49d736c002_z.jpg)..  Studebaker also built a model called the  "Avanti," which resembled a Corvette (http://www.ask.com/wiki/Studebaker_Avanti).   Anybody recall the bullet-nosed Studebakers of the early 1950's (http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=studebaker+bullet+nose&qpvt=studebaker+bullet+nose&FORM=IGRE).  Wayne "Slush" Elston, long-time little league and Legion baseball coach, had a gray one of these fine-looking (?) machines.

While looking over the businesses listed at the sites in the first paragraph, some interesting names cropped up, names that we may be familiar with.  These are listed in no special order.

From 1964-66, Dakota Research Service was located at 1313 2nd St (a few blocks from Hillcrest Elementary).  The proprietor is listed as Donald Scannell.  The Bobcat yearbook for those years lists a Vicki Scannell in our class.  Would this be her father?  What was the nature of his business?

From 1914-1931, Crase's Hatchery was located at 414 3rd St. This would have been across the street south from the old Montgomery Ward Store at the corner of Main and Third, near where Kenny Beckman's dad had his John Deere dealership, and a couple of blocks west of the courthouse.  In 1931, it moved a little to the west, to 404 3rd St.  In 1935, it moved next door to 406 3rd St, and in 1940, it moved to 313 5th St (near where Pizza Pub was), where it remained until 1949.  Would this be any relation to Cheryl Crase who was in our class?

From 1953-58, at 114 West 6th St., was located Larscheid Motors.  Would this have been the father of Mike Larschieid?  When Mike moved here in 1967, I believe his father worked at Lefevre's mentioned above.  In the 70's, when it was Hoffelt's, Mr. Larscheid worked there, and I almost bought one of those subcompact Plymouth Horizons from him (http://autos.ca.msn.com/photos/gallery.aspx?cp-documentid=20622569&page=3).

From 1960-63, Baird's Service Center was located at 216 West 6th Street.  This was across from Pioneer Park, near where the Dairy Queen was.  Was this Diane Baird's father?


From 1951-1954, Bates Insurance was located at 211 6th St.  I believe this was patsy Bates' father, as the business moved several times, eventually relocating to their home address at 802 4th St., presently the residence of Tom Bozied.

From 1959-61, Nu-Way Cleaners was located at 503 6th St. (across from Spies second location).  The proprietor was Ennis Brown.  My connection is that he was my first little league baseball coach.  He had a couple of sons, one of whom must have been in our grade.  Did they attend Hillcrest?  Does anybody remember them?

In 1963-4, Clayton Sloat's Midland National Life Insurance had an office at 517 6th St, again, right across from Spies.  I believe this is the father of Donna Sloat.  He seems to be doing very well.  He and a few other veterans recently spoke to some 8th-graders at the Middle School.

In 1965, William Keller had an insurance office at 725 6th St.  Was this the same William Keller that was one of the driver's education teachers?

From 1938-47, W. J. McComb had a Service Station, and from 1941-1956, he had McComb's Gardens at 1433 and 1443 6th St., across from the swimming pool.  Would this be any relation to John and Joan McComb?

In 1963, Jim Klassen had a State Farm Insurance agency at 317 3rd St., just north and across the street from Rude's Funeral Home.  He must not have liked selling insurance, because he returned to the classroom shortly thereafter.  He was our 8th grade speech teacher (1964-65), and the assistant principal when we moved to the new high school.

Browsing through these two websites of Brookings businesses over the last hundred years or so was intriguing.  If you get a chance, you may want to explore these two sites.  You may find a historical connection in there somewhere.