Ever driven passed a house, maybe on a corner, and thought to yourself “I wonder if there was once a store there?” I do that pretty often. It might be because I’m a bit of a historian, but more likely it’s because I grew up in a time when little family-owned stores were very common in North Minneapolis. Often referred to now as “mom & pop stores,” those little stores seemed to be everywhere for many decades. Some were two story buildings with the store on the first floor and the family would likely live upstairs of the store. Many were essentially stores connected to the front of the family’s house. Some were mainly grocery stores, some were meat markets and some were confectionary stores, but they were all owned by a local family and were an integral part of the neighborhood.
I lived near two such stores as a kid. One was Kotzian’s, owned by George and Ellienor Kotzian, at 500 Queen Ave N, and was just a few doors down and kitty corner across the street from our house. I spent a lot of time at Kotzian’s because they had penny candy, a penny gumball machine with trinkets, popsicles and they served ice cream cones. They also had pop you could buy one bottle at a time. Most were 10¢ if you drank it in the store and 12¢ if you took it out of the store and then you’d get the 2¢ back when you returned the bottle. It’s where I learned to drink Squirt because it was only 8¢ in the store and 10¢ to take it out. The other store was Tony’s, a block and a half down the street on the NW corner of Queen and Glenwood. In looking at old city directories, I see it was owned by Anton Raciborski, but we all just called it Tony’s. Another store my family shopped at was Rackner’s which was farther down Glenwood at the corner with Newton. Rackner’s was a grocery and meat market, and I can remember my dad joking with Mr. Rackner about not putting his thumb on the meat scale. Racker’s also would let people put their groceries on “a tab” where they’d write what you owed in their ledger and you could then go pay it off on pay day.
I didn’t grow up in Camden, but I know there were many of these little family stores in this part of the Northside as well. One that I have heard many people who grew up in or near the Mississippi Courts talk about was Galeno’s at 4859 Lyndale. The Galeno family owned it from 1955-1997, but there was a store presence on that corner as far back as 1905 when it was Fredrick Scoville’s confectionary store. In the early 1930s Selma Ekeroth owned the store there, followed by Fred Ledin (1936-37), and then Fernadad “Fred” Valerius (1938-1941). In 1942, John “Jack” Gamble took over the store and owned it until 1955 when the Galeno’s bought it.
Whether you lived near Baker’s store at 2906 Morgan, Moore’s at 1010 33rd Ave N, Peller’s at 929 Penn, Johnson’s at 4209 Webber Pkwy, Strom’s at 3559 Lyndale or any of the many, many other small family stores on the Northside, I’m sure you have fond memories of going to them. If you’re too young to remember those stores, ask an older family member or neighbor about them. I’m sure they’d love to take a trip down memory lane and tell you about them.