MATTHEW K HARTMAN, photographer
Union Building
HISTORY OF THE UNION BUILDING
Did you know that the Union Building was the second big strong brick building in Crookston following the McKinnon Building (where Crookston Paint & Glass is today.) It was developed by the same Alex McKinnon. It was built to be the home of the Odd Fellows Lodge, and originally had the IOOF on the top of the building where UNION is today. The IOOF stands for the International Order of Odd Fellows which was big in Crookston at the time. Anyone who was anybody belonged to the order which held the entire third floor of the building.
It’s anyone’s guess at how the big 50 foot wide building housed 2 stores at a time but with one central entrance. 111 W Robert today shows no remnants of a dividing wall that I can see. Yet, the building to be built was described in the Crookston Daily Times as “It is to be a beauty, the style of architecture being different from anything in this upper country, and the finish will be very rich and massive. On the first floor there are to be two stores one on either side of a wide, marble floored hall, in which the entrance to each of the stores is located, besides the stairs leading to the upper stories.” At first, the main floor had one large store, N.S. Gervais’dry goods store. The second floor was divided into offices which were occupied by Crookston’s Mayor, the City Treasurer, and Comptroller, the Polk County Sheriff, the County Attorney, Western Union Telegraph office, Alex McKinnon’s loan office, and other private offices. The building had electric lights, a sewer system and plumbing.
In 1889, the Polk Directories list the 111 side (East side) as CG Baldwin, Jr. and Co. and on the 113 side, (West side) the Crookston Furniture Co. In 1906 the 111 side had the Singer Sewing Machine Co. run by the Iverson Sisters and the 113 side had A.H. Kahlert occupying it.The second floor had offices. First there were A.A.Just, Framers Land Co., R.T. Rasmussen, W.F.Manning, Button’s Business College, then there was J.A. Crowley, William Spellman, and P.K. Hasselrude. Later in 1911, there were William Viegel, John Crowley, PK Haslerude, and Mrs Amanda Swanson, and the “Twenty Five Thousand Club” In 1915, the Commercial Club, J.H. Denham, Paul Hagen, and A.A. Just is still there. No mention of 111 ½ after 1916. The main floor became home to Crowley and Holmboe Co. Probably dry goods. The address is now 111-113 W Robert Street. In 1930 the following places of business were listed under one address 111 W Robert. Union Block, Charles Lewis, Dentist, Morenson, Thos., beauty parlor and the Golden Rule Bazaar. This must be the year that carved out new UNION out of IOOF. But why? Does anyone know? Was there a big Workers Union in Crookston at the time? Maybe several, with the Railroad going strong, the sawmill, and the brick factory.
From 1935 to 1940, the 111 address held both the Hartz Grocery Store and the Coast to Coast and Auto Accessories store. Then, in 1940, the S & L Co. which stands for ________________ took over the entire 50 feet and remodeled the storefront to a recessed central door and palazzo flooring. You can still see the S & L Co. in the palazzo. If you look, be careful, it is very slippery in the winter! This remodel changed the way heat flowed in a historic building. (See article in this issue.) Remember the old gravity system of making change? The clerks on the basement level and the main level put your money and the sales slip in a container that they pulled up to the office mezzanine. Up there, the clerks made the change and sent it whizzing back down. How we loved to watch this as kids. They had this system at the former C.O.D. building (J and J’s Body Shop) as well. S & L had men’s clothing on the entire East side of the building and the ladies clothing on the West, however now it becomes one entire open space. The S & L Co. was owned by ____Myrold and stayed there until 1973. The building remained vacant until 1975 when it was reopened as Tiny Tiger. Check on this.
In 1977, Lyle Quist opened his “Trading Post” where he stocked Army and Navy surplus, and other interesting items. Lyle and his war bride, Elvira, ran the Quist Apartments on the second and third floors until 1997 when Crookston put into place a much stricter and better rental housing code. The apartments would need drastic changes and were shut down the same year. Lyle and Elvie can still be reached by phone and they tell me they still get calls for apartments and for army surplus. In May of 2005, the Quists held their auction, and new owner, Kay Hegge took a year to remodel the store with help from friends and relatives, and UMC Service Learning. People from Care and Share helped too. Gail Myers of Crookston created a painting scheme based on Kay’s pick of the metallic luster paint for the ceiling. Refurbishing the 1930’s lights casts light upon the pressed “tin” ceiling and shows it off to the fullest. The old oil furnace was replaced by a high efficiency gas furnace which blew warm air out the top toward the front, and then was pushed down and in a circle back to the furnace by two art deco-styled ceiling fans.