Business

A Neighborhood Store

Posted by Lost in Lansing on May 23, 2022

Posted in: Business, Lansing History, People, Uncategorized.

The little store at 1704 Maplewood (FPLA/CADL)

Throughout the history of the United States the corner store was a fixture in the everyday life of an urban neighborhood. With the demise of the general store, and the growth of department stores, the local corner or neighbor store quickly filled this gap in the retail trade.

What was a corner store, well it’s a retail operation tucked into a neighborhood. The stores were not on a main street or a bus route, they were surrounded by the homes of their customers. You didn’t drive to your neighborhood store, you walked or road your bike. It is the place you went as a kid to return the glass bottles you collected for the 5¢, then used your windfall to buy a pop, baseball cards, penny candy or on those hot days a cool treat.

For adults the store stocked ice cold beer, cold cuts, can goods, fresh vegetables and paper products. In the era before the grocery store and for many years afterward, the neighborhood store served the needs of the community. What made these hole in the wall stores interesting is the owner lived above his or her business. That was their appeal, the owner was always around. In Lansing, just to cite a few examples, there were stores at 1529 New York, another at 110 N. Butler and believe it or not, one at 1001 Seymour. Although many of the hole in the wall stores were torn down years ago you can still see an example of what they looked like. There is one that is still standing at 401 Shepard, right across from the Allen Community Center.

The store at 1704 Maplewood first appears in 1924 and was owned by Mrs. Pearl Joel. Pearl was married to George P. Joel. The couple met while Pearl was working as a telephone operator, they married on January 28, 1921, in Lansing. It may have been that George and Pearl intended to operate the store and raise a family, but it was not to be. The 1924 Lansing City Directory listed Pearl as the only operator of the business. George, a World War I veteran was at his parents’ home, in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, slowly wasting away from pulmonary tuberculosis. Pearl would sell the business to Thomas West and move to Pennsylvania to care for her husband. George Parrish Joel passed away on Christmas Day 1925. (Morning Press 12/26/1924)

Pearl Madeline Randel was born in Burns Township, Michigan on June 5, 1898, to Henry J. and Dora B. (nee Wriggelsworth) Randell. Little is known about Pearl’s early life except that she married Volney M. Vorce in Lansing on November 24, 1915, he was 20 she was just 17. The couple had one child, Maxine R. Vorce. Volney served in the 119^thField Artillery in World War I with Carlton Randell, Peral’s brother. The couple divorced in 1920, Volney was cited for extreme and repeated cruelty. After George’s death in 1925, Pearl married Harvey D. Hincher in Novi, Michigan on January 1, 1925. The couple settled in Lansing where Harvey worked for Hill Diesel Engine Company. Harvey adopted Maxine in 1931. (LSJ 12/10/1931) Unfortunately Harvey died of a heart attack on July 6, 1946, at the age of 47. Pearl met the widower, Paul Edgar Fancher and the couple married on April 19, 1947, in Lansing. Paul worked for Oldsmobile for 35 years and when he retired in 1965, he and Pearl moved to Englewood, Florida. One bit of information that is known about Pearl is she was an accomplished amateur photographer, who won several awards. After Paul’s death in 1971, Pearl ,oved to Atlanta, Michigan where she lived with her daughter. Pearl died at the age of 91 on July 9, 1989. (LSJ7/11/1989)

That was quite a rabbit hole to dive down, but Pearl’s life was an interesting, especially how fate brought George and her to open a little store on Maplewood, which reflected the dreams of many veterans and their wives following World War I.

So, a little more about 1704 Maplewood. In 1927 the business became part of a loose affiliation of local corner stores called the Lansing Service Stores, with A. E. Thomas as proprietor. In the 1940s Earl V. Osgood acquired the business which he operated for several years until the mid-1950s when he sold the building to Village Cleaners. In the 1960s Harry Penton bought the building and established Penton Upholstering. In the 1970s the building became the site of the Emmanuel Tabernacle, with Pastor Harold Wonders. The city of Lansing issued a make safe or raze, order in 1980 resulting is the building being torn down. So ended the dream of a young married couple.

THE NOTORIOUS GATE HOUSE

Posted by Lost in Lansing on May 13, 2021

Posted in: Business, Lansing History.

Another Rich Haul

THE OFFICERS AGAIN PULL THE NOTORIOUS GATE HOUSE

Proprietor Charles Brand and Several Inmates of the House are Again Before the Bar of Justice

“Brand refused and reached as if for his pistol pocket, but the marshal quietly shoved a revolver under his nose, said he guess not, and right then and there Brand capitulated. The officers in the meantime, by the aid of a certain key in the hands of Officer Drum, had entered every room in the house and ordered every male and female occupant to dress and join the forces below. Every room contained a man and a woman and in several instances they were captured in bed. Two rooms refused admittance to the officers, the occupants having been warned by Miss Brand, sister of the proprietor, that officers were in the house, but without ceremony these doors were broken down and all except “Kit” Smith and Nora Keating, who were sick, were compelled to enter the hacks bound for jail.

There was the biggest kind of circus at the Gate House last night. Marshal Shubel, Officer Drum and six policemen raided the entire ranch and quartered seven girls and five men in city jail, with Proprietor Charles Brand as the head of the list, charged with keeping a house of ill fame. The raid has been on tap ever since March 26, and every preparation possible had been made. It worked almost beautifully. Between 2 and 3 o’clock this morning a hack stopped in front of the notorious ranch, apparently filled with gay young bloods who were out for the night, all more of less tipsy, with slathers of money. One jumped out and merrily made for the door. Aroused by the noise Proprietor Brand raised the window from above and in a minute opened the door to the man knocking. The man stepped inside, pulled off his false mustaches and revealed the determined countenance of Marshal Shubel. The astonished landlord gave a gasp, which was somewhat prolonged when out of the hack tumbled that officers’ efficient assistants instead of the anticipated gay young spendthrifts. The landlord was squelched and became most abject until the raid was over and Marshal Shubel ordered him to get into the hack and go to jail with the rest.

The foul language used by inmates during the raid would have done credit to a fiend incarnate. There was no limited to it, and in jail this morning the women were still inclined to swear at every and anything. They were all in bad temper, and looked longingly towards the door whenever anyone passed out.

“Don’t you put my name in the paper,” shouted one, “for if you do, you, I will kill you when I get out.” “Yes and I’ll help,” said another, with curses and the foulest epithets. The men are all quartered behind the bars, but the women are lying on couches and chairs in the office. The following is a list of those arrested, with the charges: Charles Brand, keeping a house of ill fame; A.E. Rude, disorderly; John Demorest, disorderly; F.H. Merrill, disorderly’ Bessie Benson, prostitute; Jennie Stage, prostitute; Margaret M. McCumery, prostitute; Flossie Martin, disorderly; Mabel Gray, disorderly; Ida Cook, disorderly, Emily Ford, disorderly; “Kit” Smith and Nora Keating have not yet been charged.

“This time,“ said Marshal Shubel, “I have got Brand sure and I will make it the warmest kind of a time for him” Certainly the outlook for that individual does not bear the rosiest hue imaginable. There is a disposition among the officers to believe that the Gate house has been the scene of crime, and a thorough search of that house and premises will be made on that theory., and if any crimes are hidden within its portals the officers intend to bring it to the surface. The raid was well planned, well carried out, and is well applauded by every decently inclined person in the city. The parties were arraigned before Justice Chase this afternoon, A.E. Rude pleaded guilty and was fined $10 or ten days in jail. Mabel Grey, Bessie Benson, Fred Merrill, Flossie Martin, Ida Cook, Frank Bowman, Jennie Sloge and Margaret McCumery pleaded not guilty and were held on bonds of $200 each until next week. Charles Brand pleaded not guilty to a charge of keeping a house of ill fame and was held in $500 bonds which he furnished.” (State Republican 4/17/1891)

On April 30, 1891, a jury of six men, Fayette M. Howe, D.B. Moon, J.A. Bowen, Charles Thenen, John B. Voiselle and William S Sellers, deadlocked over the guilt of Flossie Martin three jurors for a guilty verdict and three jurors for an acquittal. Just what happened in Flossie’s later life is unknown.

For DB