By Doris Reinke
Correspondent
There was a time when shopping in Elkhorn had a different pattern than is seen today. Instead of heading north to Market Street and establishments along Highway 67, or even to the big cluster of super stores on Highway 50 between Delavan and Lake Geneva, the destination used to be the central part of the city. For many years, downtown offered almost everything everyone needed to purchase.
Grocery stores and meat markets flourished there. Krogers, National Tea, A & P, Ferguson’s Model Market, Al and Bud’s, Roherty’s, Slattery’s, and the Meyers’ – McCall’s Nevins stores offered fresh and canned goods.
There were two shoe repair places. Frank Kurick was on S. Wisconsi St. and Charles Pieplow was on N. Wisconsin. Most people back then were thrifty people who regularly took shoes in to have heels renewed and sales replaced.
Car dealerships were prominent downtown. Melcher Nash autos were displayed on S. Wisconsin St. Chevrolets and Buicks were for sale in the Opitz Garage on E. Walworth St. and Elkhorn Motors, the Ford Garage, was also on E. Walworth St.
Most medical problems were taken care of downtown, too.
The Clinic, as it was known, was in the former Wales house on the corner of Geneva and Wisconsin Streets. There Doctors Ed Sorensen, Joseph Rawlins, Ridgway and Kenneth Bill saw patients. Dr. Richard Rogers and Dr. Henry Mol joined them a few years later.
The majority of dentists clustered downtown, mainly I offices above the street level stores. Some of them were Louis Gregerson, Norbert Sabin, Gerald Richards, T. Kurtz, A. J. Hofstede, and N. E. Kvool. These were the dentists of the 1940’s.
A number of service stations were available for motorists in the city’s central area. There was a Standard Station, Conoco, City Service and Shell. It was very convenient, especially since each one had an attendant who pumped the gas, checked the oil, aired the tires and washed the windshield.
If walking around from store to store created a thirst, there was a drinking fountain right on the corner in front of what is now Someplace Else, but then was a department store called the Chicago Store.
An interesting feature of shopping in Elkhorn was Early Closing, which took place in the summer every Wednesday afternoon. Many business owners apparently were dedicated anglers and once a week most of them closed up and adjourned to their cottages and boats out on Lauderdale Lakes.
Yes, the shopping pattern has certainly changed in the last fifty or sixty years. However, one thing has remained constant. Parking has always been free. No one in Elkhorn has ever had to keep a little cache of pennies and nickels in order to “feed” the parking meter.
Doris Reinke is a Walworth County historian, docent at the Webster House Museum, 9 E. Rockwell St., Elkhorn, and retired educator.
