PHOTO OF THE DAY: THE MUSEUM’S MONDAY LOOK BACK

This is what Heritage Hall Museum & Archives posted on its Facebook page as part of it’s weekly Monday look back.

The distinctive double arch façade in the accompanying photo easily identifies the Ellwein Store, a fixture in the middle of the east side of the 300 block on Freeman’s Main Street in the first half of the last century. Although undated, the photo appears to have been taken in the teens; note the gas pump. Although the arches were eventually removed, the store was a central part of the local business district for seven decades.

In 1914, 110 years ago, Fred Jundt and David Ellwein started a grocery and dry goods store on the west side of the 300 block of Main – today the site of the southern portion of Norm’s Thrifty White. Several years later, Jundt sold his shares and Gideon Dewald and David’s brother Edward, joined the business and moved across the street into the building that would be its home until 1964. Dewald died during the 1918 flu epidemic and David and Edward’s brothers Emil and Leo joined the business, which now included grocery and dry goods and a plumbing and heating business; it was commonly known simply as Ellweins.

After they closed in 1964, the legacy of the grocery component of the store continued. It became home to Kenny’s (Weiland) Jack and Jill, who had operated a grocery store across the street at Fourth and Main, most recently home to Vision Care and now a vacant lot. The Weilands sold their business in 1979 and it became Clint’s (Schultz) Jack and Jill. In May 1981, Jerry Jenssen, of Woonsocket who had a grocery store there, opened Jerry’s IGA in the building. Five months later, a fire destroyed the building and the lot remained empty for the next 25 years.

It became home to the south half of the Freeman Public Library which was built in 2007.

In piecing this history together, we relied on “Freeman Facts, Freeman Fiction” (the book written for the 1979 Freeman centennial) and issues of the Freeman Courier, both of which we have in our archives. It’s a reminder of the value of recording and preserving our history; that’s our mission.

We invite you to visit Heritage Hall Museum & Archives. We’re open weekday afternoons from noon to 4 and we’ll be open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, March 15 and 16. Those are the dates of Schmeckfest 2024 and we’ll have special activities in the museum starting at 1 p.m.