| This wood-frame building is one of four older
storefronts that remain along West Main Street as reminders of
the early commercial era in downtown West Branch. The building's
abstract of tifle suggests that it was built soon after the lot
was deeded on November 13, 1894, by the West Branch Monthly Meeting
of Friends Church to two prominent West Branch businessmen -
Mayor S.C. Gruwell and J.C. Crew, a dry goods store owner. A
1912 map shows the building was used as a harness shop, a use
confirmed by a story in the February 9, 1910, issue of The
West Branch Times, which notes that Hans Johnson had purchased
the C.M. Paulsen music store. Mr. Paulsen apparenfly had leased
the building, as the abstract shows Johnson, who had operated
a harness shop elsewhere in West Branch since 1891, bought the
building from Gruwell and Crew. The building was later acquired by Hans Johnson's daughter, Rena, and his son-in-law, Einerr Larsen, after Johnson's death in 1937. The couple carried on Johnson's business and added shoes and a shoe repair service to the original stock of horse blankets, leather goods and buggy whips. The building was sold again in 1960 to a local physician, Dr. R.G. Stuelke, who leased it for use as a variety store. The building was later deeded to the West Branch Heritage Foundation for use as a museum. The old storefront was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 as a "well preserved example of a small town commercial structure.', It's thought that the wooden ceiling, the floors and the walls are original features, as is the chimney on the east wall. The front steps are not original, nor are the partitions and the north wall fireplace, which were added during the 1964-65 museum conversion. |