Published: November 28, 2008 10:31 am            

Historic Downtown Clinton — 1968

It seems like yesterday that Clinton had 35,000 people and our downtown area was booming.

All the dime stores were still there, and Jupiter was the Dollar Store of its day. Bond-Walgreen and Wagner’s were popular drugstores, along with Milo Johns Rexall at Fifth and Third.

Do you remember the stores along Fifth Avenue in 1968? It seems like such a short time ago, but 40 years have ticked by, and over half the city’s population do not remember it. There was no west end of Clinton then, typewriters were still in vogue, and there was no gambling, no cell phones or video games.

At this time of year, the 1968 Clinton Herald was chock-full of ads for both the old businesses and the new chain stores. There on its pages, interspersed with retiring President Lyndon Johnson and Vietnam War pictures, are near-record voting lines for the Nixon-Humphrey battle, and Detroit Tigers’ Denny McLain's 30-win-season. (He played in Clinton in 1962.) Big advertisements appear for Petersen-Harned-Von Maur, Penney’s, Montgomery Wards, Sears, Grants, Woolworth’s, Kirk’s Jewelry, Backer-Wagner Appliance and Kline’s.

Martin Morris, near Shull’s Men's Wear, had plenty of competition at $109 for two suits. A big ad shouts “3 BIG FREE PARKING LOTS! DOWNTOWN CLINTON HAS MORE OF WHAT YOU'RE LOOKING FOR!” Clinton had some 60 businesses listed.

All this commercial hub-bub was occurring as the war raged on and an earthquake struck. On Friday, Nov. 8, at 11:05 a.m., the city shook for 30 seconds with a 5.5 Richter Scale event emanating from the New Madrid fault, (epicenter Cairo, Ill.) — oddly reminiscent of an 1811 earthquake that changed the course of the Mississippi River in one spot. Clinton was so busy at the time that people scarcely noticed and quickly returned to their routine activities. Heck, we had new industries to build… like Ralston Purina and Chemplex.

On downtown’s near perimeter (Camanche Avenue, Seventh Avenue, and busy Second Street) were many more establishments. Most stores were adjacent to downtown, and very few (except Paul’s) were out on the Miracle Mile.

Old stores — such as Goddard’s Town and Country with “TV Pete,” Roehl-Phillips, Reneirs, Volckman’s, Namanny Shop, Brumer’s, Bender’s, McKinley & Hummelgaard — were intermingled with Stiles on Seventh Avenue, the Morris Plan with Dave Carmody, and Cobb Optical in the Tucker Building.

Supermarkets were located on the fringes: Eagles, Arlans, Del Farm, Kopp’s and A&P. How did so many businesses flourish simultaneously in such a small area? Marcucci’s had a special on a Swiss Steak Dinner for 95 cents! And Machael’s, before it burned to the ground, was known to sell just about everything.

The Herald was also on a busy street. The pages of 1968 carried Ev Streit’s great column on Gun Control. An ad for the theaters shows “The Odd Couple,” with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, and “The Boston Strangler,” with Tony Curtis and Henry Fonda.

On other pages we see two fresh young teachers — Dick Kissack and Gary Herrity — running an Elks’ Youth Contest. Fraternal organizations were downtown then, too. Lee Paasch had recently purchased the Lanning Ford business and was offering a used Ford Pickup for $1,295; McEleney’s had a '67 Camaro Sports Coupe for $2,395. Everything that anyone did was done “downtown.”

Ominous signs clouded Clinton’s historic horizon though. The Milner chain bought the Lafayette and Clinton Hotels and soon tore down that old 1912 Kehoe Hotel where “Big Ed” Kehoe chain smoked his signature stogeys. He not only ran the hotel on Seventh Avenue and Second Street, but also the nearby Columbia Hotel (710-712 S. Second St.) and the Brunswick Pool Room, until the 1940s, when the main hotel became the Clinton Hotel. Milner’s reason to buy and tear down the old hotel — to make it a parking lot.

Further out, we find The Big E, Tode’s Lumber, Gaarde’s Jack and Jill, and Petersen Furniture and Maple Shop. Paetz Grocery Store advertises top-grade turkeys for 49 cents per pound or those “with parts missing” for 29 cents. Further on Camanche Avenue were Sandy’s and the Holiday Store. But way out where the sand dunes used to be, Paul’s appeared to be the lone ranger, selling men’s sweatshirts for a dollar, flannel shirts at $1.99 and a can of Heet for 18 cents.

In 1968, Guzzardo’s and Brown’s Shoe Fit were the new kids on the block. Facades like theirs were quite popular then. (But maybe it’s time to take them down and return to more cohesive storefronts — perhaps with nostalgic green awnings for a welcoming and unifying ambience.) The Shoecraft Building still reposes behind its “modern” front, and the Jacobsen Building, or Lamb Block, is one of a kind. To the east, just beyond it, was the home of Allen’s Tea Room — where Otto Korn did business decades ago. We can still see his name etched in the entryway.

Clinton has many excellent old buildings within its historic downtown district. Nearby is a great natural attraction — the Mississippi River, on whose banks a new city-owned marina/restaurant will soon be complete. This can all come together in a vision of historic and economic success.

If you have trouble remembering where some of these businesses were, just get out a City Directory (easily found at the Clinton County Historical Society Museum on First Street, in the old Oaks Lumber Bldg.), and peruse the many entries documenting where said stores were situated. The directory will prove that these were just a few (of many!) establishments in Clinton in 1968… before ever-bigger big box stores arrived. Most of the merchandise was made right here in the US of A, too.

As those of you who travel already know, many communities save their downtowns by creating quaint small shopping centers and specialty shops and, in the process, develop destination places with entertainment and fun, small eating establishments. The memory and good feelings of the roaring downtown era can be partially recaptured through an historic district.



Gary Herrity is the Clinton Herald’s historical columnist. His column appears on page 5A on Fridays.

        

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