The Lowell Area Historical Museum presents a new weekly online series. Missing Along Main explores the buildings that once occupied Main Street but are no longer there.
1st Door East of the Old Post Office
101 E. Main: Somerby building – pre 1884
U. B. Williams building – built 1890s; rebuilt 1914
Molly Wepman – built 1958
There have been four buildings built on this site. Dr. Judd Carroll’s current building is the fourth structure.
In 1881-1882, the first floor of the J. L. Somerby building (located just east of the Post Office) was occupied by I. E. Strong, a jeweler. In 1883-84, A. W. Hine also a jeweler rented the space. Chapman’s photographic gallery was on the second floor.
According to the Lowell Ledger, Jan. 23, 1884: “About 8am fire broke out in the second floor of the Somerby building and although discovered early, the flames rapidly spread beyond control….Parties who discovered the fire and broke into Chapman’s gallery say there was a box, which they thought contained chemicals, on fire close to the stovepipe running up into the gallery from Hine’s jewelry store. Mr. Chapman says the box was not close to the stovepipe and did not contain chemicals.”
This “Big Fire” of 1884 destroyed this building and all the buildings on the bridge to the west of this one including four on the south side of the road –20 buildings in all. It took many years until the north side of the bridge was once again filled with buildings.
U. B. Williams erected the second building here, a small building in the late 1890s for his jewelry store. O. J. Howard rented it in 1909 for a produce office as Williams had moved his business into the new King building (built in 1905) which adjoined the post office on the west side.
In 1914, U. B. Williams removed the old buildings and erected two new buildings on this site adjoining the post office on the east. Each was 18×50 feet, frame, one-story high with a gravel roof. One (101 E. Main) was occupied by Mr. Macham’s barber shop and the other (103 E. Main) by Naum & Terppa and was a wholesale and retail confectionery and ice cream business known as the “Sugar Bowl.”
In 1930, the first door was Haysmer’s barber shop and later became Sigler jewelry. In 1933, the retail store of E. L. Kinyon greenhouse occupied the building. Then the store was redecorated and repainted and became the office for the Northern Ice Company.
Kent’s Jewelry store occupied the building in the 1940s. Wepman’s Clothing and Shoes operated by Molly Wepman was here and in the building to the east (103 E. Main) from 1950-1958.
The fire of 1958 destroyed this building and all the buildings from the post office east, leaving only the final building we knew as The Levee. After the fire, Molly Wepman built a new building at this location to house her clothing and shoe store. This “new” building exists today as Dr. Judd Carroll’s dentist office.
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