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.
105 E. Main St.
3rd door east of the Old Post Office
In 1873, this building on the bridge was occupied by W. J. Atkins and Greene Agricultural Implements. They sold lumber wagons and buggies as well as tools.
In 1885, the Sanborn map shows the building was a warehouse set back from the curb. By 1892, it was a one-story building that extended to the sidewalk and was recorded as Agricultural Implement Repository.
E. T. Brown & Co. (Elisher Brown, Frank E. Brown and John Sehler) formed in 1883 to sell farm implements, carriages and mill machinery. In 1889, Elisher Brown retired and sold to his younger partners. The company became Brown & Sehler. Advertisements scattered throughout the Lowell Ledger help to understand their business. Brown & Sehler had a full line of D. M. Ferry & Co’s Flower, Field and Garden seed. They sold sulky cultivators, hand potato planters, oak tanned handmade harnesses, and cutaway harrows for orchardists. In 1903, they took on another partner to become Brown, Sehler & McKay. In 1908, Brown & Sehler sold their business to F. B. McKay & Co. (This included J. H. Colby who was the silent partner of McKay.) F. B. McKay & Co. was listed in Lowell’s business directory until 1918.
The building was divided into two storefronts about 1915. The west half (105 E. Main) became a meat market and the east half (107 E. Main) was a harness shop.
In 1927, Claude Thornes’s barber shop was located in the west half. The barber shop was in the front and Mabel Scott operated the Vanity Beauty Shoppe in the back. In December 1945, Thorne sold to Bernie Bedell and Owen Ellis. Bedell had been an employee of Mr. Thorne for the past 19 years and Ellis was a barber in Alto. Miss Mary Van Oosten (Peckham) was operating the Vanity beauty parlor in 1945.
According to the Lowell Ledger in 1933 Mabel Scott operated Vanity Beauty Shoppe in the back of 105 E. Main while Claude Thorne who owned the Regent Barber Shop had his barber business up front. Bernie Bedell was also a barber in this shop.
This suitcase contains an ultraviolet stimulator. Claude Thorne’s daughters Donna Johnson and Barbara Zolliker remember: “It was used to treat baldness and other things; As far as I know, it didn’t prevent or cure baldness or anything else but when it was turned on it gave a fine show of ultraviolet snaps and crackles and sparks. My Dad was Claude Thorne. He and Bernie Bedell used this in the barbershop at 105 E. Main during the 1930s.”
In 1949, Margaret Mary’s (Bibbler) Beauty Shop was here. She featured “Complete Beauty Service, Individual hair styling, Permanents, Cold Wave and Machineless.” Bernie Bedell’s daughter, Beverly Bedell Anderson remembers getting her hair rolled and clipped. She also remembers that as a child she would go out on the tiny back porch to watch the Showboat coming down the river.
The Bedell and Ellis Barber shop remained in this building until the fire of 1958 destroyed it. The only thing saved was Bedell’s barber chair. All his daily journals and tools were lost. They reopened their barber shop on the south side of Main Street after the fire.
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