Maplewood History: Minstrel Shows – Part Three

To better understand this post, you should have read Parts One and Two first.  If you haven’t, you can link to them here.

Part One

Part Two

From the program titled: Maplewood Minstrels, Twelfth Annual Minstrel and Dance, February 3-4-5.  This is page 11.

The Seliga shoe store can be seen in this image of the stores that once sat on the now almost completely demolished north side of the 7300 block of Manchester.  Citizen’s National Bank is the only building in this picture that has survived.  If you would like to know more about the redevelopment effort, you can link to it here.

Ted’s Corner, which once occupied the NW corner of Big Bend and Flora, can be seen just behind the streetcar.  Ted’s building was lost due to the widening of Big Bend.  To read more about Ted’s, you can link to it here.

The buildings that can be seen behind the streetcar still exist.  They are on the east side of Big Bend. The one nearest to the camera is the home of the much loved Claude’s Auto Repair. These are decent, honest, talented folks who deserve your business.  The one closest to the streetcar in the past was the home of the Parison Bakery.  It now contains the Frame of Mind picture framing company.  They are absolutely top notch as well.  Both of these businesses have been operating in Maplewood for a long time.  I am a customer of both.  I highly recommend them.

You can link to some early photos of the Parison Bakery/Frame of Mind building here.

Wow!  We hit the jackpot on this page.  Starting at the top, the story of E J Tire is fascinating.

Elmer Wind Jr., whose father was the E in E-J Tire, was one of the first of the long-time Maplewoodians that I met when I became interested in our community history.  He really kindled my interest by sharing everything he had with us.  The family business was located between the intersection of Manchester and Southwest Ave. in a wedge-shaped building that had been previously a saloon called, what else? – The Wedge.  You can link to more of this terrific story here.

A little farther down the page is the ad for the Priscilla Shop which can be seen in this photograph of the 1955 Easter parade on Sutton.  The intersecting street an the left rear is Maple.  The Harper Pharmacy building can be seen dimly through the trees.

The Zorensky brothers, who had one of their early stores in Maplewood, went on to become developers of shopping malls.  One of their creations was Crestwood Plaza.

Cousin Hugo’s was a fixture in Maplewood for a very long time.  The image is from 1940.  That’s Hugo at the bar.  Unfortunately if you had been at Hugo’s (now a restaurant) recently, your whistle isn’t the only thing that would have gotten wet.  Your feet would have, too.  Sadly, the Deer creek has overflowed its banks twice in recent years and the vintage bar building has been a victim.  For more historic photographs of Cousin Hugo’s and a few of Maplewood’s other historic bars, click here.

The Laux Bakery, whose ad is at the top of the page, was a favorite of many Maplewoodians.  To read George Holleman’s article from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on the same, click here.

Lowry Motor Company once occupied the site where you will find Gus’s Fried Chicken today.  After you see the fascinating and extremely rare images of Lowry’s that are from the magnificent collection of Laura Varilek’s, you may want to go there and have a look.  And while you’re there, try some of Gus’s chicken.  It’s fabulous!

Maplewood may be small but we have a very rich history.  According to one of my readers, “It’s the history of America!”  Indeed it is.  And I have a lot more to show you.

Stay tuned for Part Four of Dawn Yourtee’s late husband’s 1944 program of the Twelfth Annual Maplewood Minstrels, Minstrel and Dance with links to historic documents, articles and photographs from the archives of Yours truly.

Doug Houser           November 26, 2024