Snapshot of History
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North side of the Mount Ayr square in 1994.
David Pugh took this photo in 1994. It shows Extremes Pizza at 114 W. Madison and Cunning Co. Inc. at 112 W. Madison.
Aunt Jennie’s Attic occupies 114 W. Madison today and has been there since 2005. John Blauer built the first brick building on this lot in 1897. Mr. Blauer owned and operated a Racket Store which was another name for Variety Store. Dr. Dwight Rueben Bement bought this building in 1903 and had his office upstairs. Dug Sullivan had a harness shop downstairs. Dr. Bement was once the town doctor in Goshen.
Dr. Bement died in 1910 and W. Moore had a furniture store on the ground floor at this time. Moore sold his furniture store to F. E. Gleason in 1918 and Gleason sold out to Clair Rhoades and Willis Hood in 1929. Then, fire struck in February 1933.
Rhoades and Hood were still downstairs and Dr. and Mrs. T. I. Moffet were upstairs when fire gutted the building. Dr. Bement’s widow, Anna, still owned the lot and she hired Leonard Rusk to rebuild. That building still stands today.
M. E. Freeland moved into the new building in September 1933. He left in 1948 and Ben Franklin moved in April 1949 with Laura Zierke as manager. The Ben Franklin Store left in 1971 and I don’t know what went in next. I believe Tim Irving sold clothes here in the 1980s before starting an arcade in early 1989. Jeff Powell took over management in November 1989. Extremes opened here in 1991 and they had arcade games.
The Wilson building at 112 W. Madison was built in 1891 by H. H. Wilson, a very successful retailer, farm owner, grain dealer, and real estate developer. Wilson had a grocery business in this building until 1918 when he sold out to Charlie Horne, and brothers Arthur and Harry Liggett. Horne left in 1928 and the Liggetts sold to Max Bliss in July 1947. Max sold to Charles Hyde (co-founder of Hy-Vee) in October 1947. The business was called Hyde’s until 1952 when the name became Hy-Vee. Hy-Vee moved in 1962 and Bob Hudson opened a grocery store here. Hudson closed in 1964 and Hy-Vee temporarily located here due to a fire at their other building.
When Hy-Vee was able to return to their repaired store, Gambles moved in about 1965. Lion Auto closed on the east side of the square allowing Gambles to move to their former location and W. B. Cunning Co. moved to the Wilson Building on January 1, 1973. The Cunning firm moved in 2012 and Circle of Life moved in. Circle moved to the east side of the square and attorney Lisa Noble occupied the Wilson building in 2018 and 2019.
I started “Snapshots of History” in December 2010 so it’s been ten years of learning. One thing I didn’t anticipate – it gets easier all the time!
