To better understand this post, you should have read Part One first. If you haven’t, you can here.
From the program titled, Maplewood Minstrels, Twelfth Annual Minstrel and Dance, February 3-4-5, 1944, this is page 6.
The funeral home that once belonged to Jay B. Smith, the magician, is still in business – a few changes of ownership later. You can read my posts about it here.
The HoleKamp Lumber Co. building later became the home of the St. Louis Closet Co. Today, it is the home of the Side Project Brewery. A 1955 aerial view of the site can be found in my post here.
An undated image of the Holekamp Lumber Co. with the Masonic Temple in the back ground.
You can read my posts about the Harper Pharmacy here.
Notice that June Rannells was scheduled to sing Put Your Arms Around Me Baby. I have written much about the Rannells, one of our oldest pioneer families. You can find some of my posts about them here.
Genuine Motor Parts was still at that location in 1975 and later. I did some posts about Golde’s Department Store which you can find here.
Notice the cool, probably neon, sign advertising the products of the Green Lea dairy in this image of the first Maplewood Bank building, which once stood at the NE corner of Oakview Terrace and Manchester. Today this site holds a parking lot. I know, I know. Why? Well, it’s a long story which you can find here.
Sunnen Products is the big one on this page. As I write this in 2024, I imagine that they are still the largest and much admired company and employ the most people in our town. Someone will correct me if I’m wrong. I have never posted much about them. It’s not an oversight. I just haven’t done the grunt work yet.
I have done quite a few posts about Bartold’s Grove and Inn that once occupied the site that Sunnen does now. You can find them here.
The Stertzing Florist Company has an interesting history that you can find here.
I got the Ladd Brothers covered. You can read about them here.
Ditto on the Hoffman, Paint, Glass and Paper Company. Take a look.
Have you said “uncle” yet? This is quite a lot to chew on. I’ll bet that no reader will follow all of those links.
It is just a few days after the presidential election. Many of my readers may be able to guess that my side took a beating. I sincerely hope that we don’t have a rocky four years ahead of us. Time will tell.
Doug Houser November 9, 2024
A bit outside of Maplewood, but I believe the Watson-Bocklage Funeral home on Clayton Road became just Bocklage Funeral Home by the ‘60s. I used to hang out with a group from St. Luke’s School that included Susan Bocklage (now Ferrara) and I knew her mom and dad. In the early ‘70s Susan gave several friends a tour of the funeral home including the basement. Young teen that I was, I thought it would have made a great spot for a Halloween party.
No doubt that it would have. What could be spookier than the basement of a funeral parlor?
I’m one of those weak ones that didn’t follow every link, but I loved seeing the ads for the various shops and businesses in and around Maplewood. I had flat(-ish?) feet as a young lad in the ‘60s and wasn’t allowed to wear tennis/athletic shoes or go barefoot much. I got dress shoes at Dreamland that had extra arch supports glued into them. Needless to say, as an active kid, I wore through those leather soles pretty quickly. I couldn’t remember the name of the shop on Manchester that did the repairs, but I believe it might have been Sam’s! I loved the smell of leather and shoe polish in that place and loved to watch them pry off the old sole (and sometimes the heel, too) and go to work making my shoes good as new.
Hey Bob, Many Maplewoodians have pleasant memories of Dreamland shoes which was in a small infill building between two larger buildings. Having just one aisle, it seemed like it was only about 10 feet wide. I arrived at the end of 1975 and I remember it very well. I miss the very small shops like Dreamland and the shoe repair guys. Thanks for sharing some of your memories. Those links, you didn’t get around to, aren’t going anywhere.
Dreamland was my family’s go-to shoe store for years, until they closed in the late ‘70s. My mother had 4 of us and was VERY practical!! (I even wore brown oxfords from there for my 6th grade graduation while the other girls wore chiffon and patent leather. They did not carry women’s dress shoes). We were grown and gone from the house on Elm and mother would put a note in a card for each of my brothers under the Christmas tree most years to tell them to go to Dreamland, pick out a pair of shoes, and put on her account!
The man there (name?) was the husband of the daughter of the former owner. She met him while he worked there for her dad. She was a teacher briefly, student taught and was a friend of some teachers where I worked. They were very kind, lived in Olivette, had one son who became a lawyer in Boston. When they retired, they moved to be near their son’s family.
By the way, having sat in that store many times, the shoe boxes were on shelves to the ceiling on both sides with a stairway to the basement about half way back down the middle to one side. They also used a sliding wooden library ladder along the shelves to get to the shoes. With the row of seats and passage for two people with people in the chairs, really, I think it was closer to 15 feet wide 😉. When they learned where I taught in Ecuador in the ‘70’s, they sent me back with a lovely big book of Jewish history for the high school library…The Albert Einstein Academy (Academia Alberto Einstein, Quito). I was still going there for shoes when in town. BRW, mother did whisk in Sherman’s Dry Goods (men’s apparel) in the 7409 block, north side for about 3-4 years. Remember her tailoring the cuffs on the men’s pants at night in the basement as none of the dress pants came in lengths in those days. Mother always worked at something. I remember the sound of either the vacuum cleaner or the sewing machine at night in elementary school. (Dad was a chemical engineer for MoPac in the lab on Chouteau. Ride the bus every day to work. Mother ran the cleaners on Oxford and the Confectionary on Commonwealth and Greenwood until I graduated, the store burned and we both went to Harris Teachers College due to insurance. Tuition, $75 a semester. Mother felt she could finish her two years without working. She taught in St. Louis public schools for 25 years. She retired at 70! Hard working woman who raised 4 kids. All of us, one way or another, went on to school too. No wonder I feel at home in Maplewood!! (Moved right back to this city when we returned after being in Ecuador the 70s.). Sorry, Doug!! You articles bring up lots of memories. Thx for that!
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Don’t apologize, Pickett. I find your memories very interesting as do, I’m sure, many of my readers. Feel free to recollect with abandon!
From John Sutton by email: Doug, your challenge has been met! I opened every link and found them truly interesting. In the 1940s and 50s, Mom took us shopping at Golde’s. We pronounced it as that Gold-ees. Maybe it should simply be pronounced Gold’s? I also remember when it burned. Regarding Minstrel Shows, I attended a couple of traveling shows that were under a big tent. Got in free, because I “helped” set up the tent. It’s sad, but I thought the black face comedy was funny. No way, today! I also got free admission to Toby Shows, by helping to set up the tents. This would also have been around 1954. Thanks for sharing, Doug!
You are very welcome, John. Goldee’s is the way we all pronounce it. I found your experience with the tent shows very interesting. Probably because I had none. I had to google the Toby Shows because I was unfamiliar with them. They sound awfully cool. Thanks so much for sharing your memories with us.
Great post, Doug!
Is the Martini family name on this related to the street with the same name? Was that a prominent family? Naomi the chairman and Frank singing a song!
I’d have to assume that it is, Ian. He was a mayor. Good to hear from you.
Hi, Ian Yes it is! I researched the city, handwritten council minutes from 1908 into the 1930s when Doug worked on the first 100 years book for Maplewoid. Martini was a Maplewood mayor who died, evidently fairly close to his service, and they named the street (which was more of an alley) Martini Drive in those meeting minutes.
These stories are so interesting. Thanks for posting them !
You are welcome, Barb. Thanks for the feedback.