PHOTO OF THE DAY: HISTORIC BUILDING, HISTORIC PICTURE

This photo was featured on Monday in a weekly Facebook post by Heritage Hall Museum & Archives that offers a look back into the life of the Freeman community. The following text is included:

The sign at the top of this grand building identifies it as “The Schamber Building,” a moniker that lasted 115 years. The Schamber family built its general merchandise store — selling groceries, dry goods and clothing — on the northwest corner of Third and Main in 1900.

While the Schamber Store closed in 1971 and home to other businesses, the building continued to be known by that name until it partially collapsed in October 2015 and was demolished.

The first new business to locate in the classic two-story building after the Schambers sold it, was Freeman’s Ben Franklin Store.

Gideon and Lucille Rembold first opened their variety store half a block south on the west side of the 300 Block on Freeman’s Main Street in 1965 in the space immediately north of Jamboree Foods that today is the southern portion of Merchants State Bank. The Rembolds purchased the Schamber building in late 1975, following the closing of Skogmo, a clothing and fabric store that opened in 1973 and closed two years later. The Rembolds added 2,600 sq. ft. of storage space on the back of the Schamber building when they moved in.

Ben Franklin – a “five and dime,” arts and crafts and clothing store – was a fixture in the Freeman retail business for three decades. Ben Franklin closed in 1987 and the following year the Schamber Building became home to Prairie Town Plaza, a “mini-mall” with four businesses: Prairie Town Gifts, Ivan and Ray’s Carpet, Corner Closet, and A Stitch in Time. Over time, businesses inside Prairie Town Plaza closed, leaving only Prairie Town Gifts as its occupant. It closed in 2001 and in 2010 Johnny Stahl bought the property.

As the Freeman Courier reported in its Oct. 22, 2015 issue, “The community lost one of its most recognizable and historic buildings in dramatic fashion last week when the back two-thirds of the Schamber Building crumbled under its own weight around 1 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 15 … The rest of the building, including the distinguished front side, was removed Saturday morning, Oct. 17, by Knodel Contractors.”

This photo is from our archives and the history comes from Freeman Facts, Freeman Fiction and the Freeman Courier, also in our archives.

If you want to do research of your own or tour our museum, visit us; we’re open weekdays from noon to 4.