SRHS
Steamboat Rock Historical Society
100 YEARS OLD
CENTENNIAL 1855-1955
RESTAURANT
The old drugstore owned by Rus Holmes was gone and the Green Door Lounge and Restaurant had opened in its place. Stan and Shirley Caldwell were operating this quite successful operation in 1976.
GROCERY
The doctors office had been closed for some time. Its last doctor, Dr. Bremner had come the year of the centennial. The Legion bought the building and held their meeting in it for a while. In 1976 Burns Grocery was occupying the building.
KNIGHT’S LOCKER
Knight’s locker was still operating with Jerry Knight at the helm. over the years Jerry was assisted by Gene Buthman and Helen Alison.
APARTMENTS
The building that had been the Legion Hall in ‘55, was an apartment building owned by Roland Newby in ‘76.
IMPLEMENT AND HARDWARE
The Implement building was still standing empty and Luiken Hardware had been sold to Jim McDonald in 1973.
LUIKEN AND SONS
The Luiken’s closed the furniture store in the ‘60s and Harold Luiken bought it for a parts department. By the end of that decade they did a complete remodeling of the furniture store building adding another 30 feet of width on the west side, and 20 feet to the east. The result was an office complex and parts department in a 90 foot by 80 foot modern building. By ‘76 Luiken and Sons was going strong.
The town hall was now only a town hall. There was now a fire-hall that housed the fire engines on Seventy Street.
GARAGE
The garage on the corner was taken over by Bill and Jesse Smith after Harold Luiken gave up the Chevy franchise. They gave up the business in 1971, and now in 1976 it was Kieth’s Standard Service operated by Kieth Richtsmeier.
BARBER SHOP
Now turning east and crossing the street to the north side, the barber shop is the first stop. It was 1976 that George Hemmen, our last barber, closed the barber shop and went to work for the bank.
LIBRARY
The Steamboat Rock Public Library with Lois Luiken as librarian, had made many advancements over the years thanks to the support of the Progress Club and other. The library building was located where it is today.
SOME WERE GONE
Next door was the burned out former Burns Grocery. They of course were now at the other end of Market street.
The little house that had once been the doctors office and later Ubbe Peters home was now empty as well.
The last General Store in Steamboat Rock (Eilers, last Millers), that had stood on the corner across from the bank was now gone. It had been torn down a year earlier.
BANK
The bank was still there, but it was no longer locally owned and had gone through two ownership changes. First to the First National Bank and now in ‘76 it was the Second National Bank.
BEAUTY SHOP
In February of 1972, Sheryl Hughes opened Sheryl’s Hair Fashionette in the building Susan Dardis had operated. Sheryl purchased the building and her business continues there today..
Dolly (Lucille Folkerts) retired in January of 1983 and Angie Luiken opened a shop in her home in May that continues to operate in Steamboat Rock today.