A 1980s church bulletin sparked this story. (Provided)
It’s a little like a time machine.
On Feb. 28, a post on the I Love NE Minneapolis Facebook page showed the back page of a Saints Cyril and Methodius Church weekly bulletin, published on September 21, 1980. There were 26 thumbnail advertisements for local Northeast businesses, most near the church’s location, some a little farther out, to Central and Hennepin Avenues.
The page was a snapshot in time, a list of some of the businesses that existed in the Sheridan and St. Anthony West neighborhoods on that particular week, almost 45 years ago. In that relatively small commercial area, there were electrical repair shops, restaurants, a hardware store, banks, a drug store, barber shops and beauty salons.
Where are they now?
The Eklund Clothing Company, at Hennepin and 4th Street NE, was founded by Nels P. Eklund in 1893. Eklund emigrated From Sweden to Burlington, Iowa, in 1878, where he learned about retail sales. He moved to Minneapolis in 1894, and with a partner founded the Nelson & Eklund Clothing Co., which became the Eklund Clothing Co. about ten years later. The store, specializing in men and boys clothing, remained at the Hennepin location until its closing in 1984; at the time it was one of the city’s oldest retail businesses.
In 1980, Curtis Hall, the building at 165 13th Ave., was the home of the Military Order of Cooties, a branch of the Veterans of Foreign Wars organization known for their hospital visits and volunteer work (“cootie” was World War I army slang for the lice that plagued soldiers in trenches). The local chapter was called Pup Tent Number Eleven, and the building was known to nearby residents as “Cootie Hall.”
The hall was rented for weddings, receptions, and other meetings. The Cooties had held their meetings at 705 Jackson St. until 1964, when that building was torn down for a multi-unit residential project. Curtis Hall has had various occupants after the Cooties, including the Minneapolis Photo Center, Shuga Records and, since 2016, the Young Joni restaurant.
The Kozlak University Funeral Chapel, now the Kozlak-Radulovich Funeral Chapel, opened in 1908, when Stanley Kozlak built the business on the corner of 20th and University Avenue. The building housed his furniture, hardware and funeral services as well as the local dance hall. In 1936, a new, white-columned building next to Jax Café became the funeral home. In 1978, the business was sold to Nick Radulovich, and has added two more chapels, in Blaine and Maple Grove. The other funeral home on the bulletin, Kapala-Glodek-Bertch Funeral Service, was on the 200 block of 13th Avenue for 85 years before closing in 2017. They maintain a chapel in Sunset Cemetery and a funeral home, as Kapala-Glodek-Malone, in New Hope.
Nye’s Polonaise Room on Hennepin Avenue began as a bar in 1950, added a restaurant in 1964 and became a Northeast institution. It closed in 2016, but reemerged in 2018 as Nye’s Bar (without a restaurant) on the east end of the original site.
Elsie’s Restaurant and Lounge, on Marshall and 8th Street, began as a bar and bowling alley in 1956; a restaurant and meeting space were added in 1976. Elsie Nelson ran the business until its sale in 1991 to Tim and Mike Tuttle, fourth-generation bowling proprietors. Nelson died in 2000.
The Chance Bar, at Lowry and 4th Street NE, advertised itself as having “The oldest back bar in town,” and the sign above the front door said “First Chance” and “Last Chance,” depending on which way you viewed it. The bar sat at the eastern edge of the 1884 liquor patrol limits, meaning no bars allowed east of 4th Street NE. Enforcing the limits involved the use of foot patrols, and legend has it that the limits were set to allow a cop to walk to the end of the limit in half his shift time, and the same amount of time to return to headquarters at City Hall. Actually, the limits were set to contain the saloons in two parts of the city; Franklin and Cedar Avenues just south of downtown, and Northeast, according to one of the patrol limit creators, “because of the area’s strong contingent of Poles, Irish and Germans.” The Chance Bar is now the Northeast Palace.
Murlowski Hardware, at 357 13th Ave., was in the space now occupied since 1999 by Rogue Buddha Gallery. Dolly’s Dairy Store was a block east, at the corner of 5th and 13th. Now a residential duplex, Dolly’s building still has diagonal front steps at its southwest corner, typical of mom and pop stores of the era. The building housing Marshall Street Auto Electric, just south of Dusty’s Bar, is the current home of Twin Ignition Startup Garage, an incubator for tech-oriented businesses and the owner’s woodworking art studio. Its front was almost completely rebuilt to match the original after many years as Old Science Restoration.
Bell Manufacturing and Services was founded in 1965, making radiator enclosures and other sheet-metal products, and the company spent 19 years at its 1400 Marshall St. location. The business now has a 130,000 sq. ft. site at 3400 Marshall St. NE. where it manufactures steel furniture and accessories.
Scherer Brothers Lumber Company ended its 80-year presence at 9th Avenue NE and the Mississippi River in 2010 (it still has seven locations, some specialty stores, in the Twin Cities). The former lumber yard is now the site of Graco Park, which opened in 2024.
Northeast Bank’s former building at 13th Avenue NE and 2nd Street was home to the Polish White Eagles Association, and much later, Dangerous Man Brewery, until the tap room and growler shop closed in 2023. The brewery announced a complete closure March 21.
Across 13th Avenue was the Second Street Pharmacy, which sold religious items such as rosaries, crucifixes and statues along with prescriptions and the usual drugstore merchandise. The space has held a number of businesses since the pharmacy closed and is currently home to Squared Up hair salon.
The salon is very near the site of Boike’s Barber Shop, at 1308 2nd St. NE, where one could get contour razor cuts and scissor blending. Arthur Boike, a 1955 DeLaSalle High School graduate, took over the shop from his father Roman in 1972. In 2000, the shop was featured in City Pages and got its “Best in the Twin Cities” award. He and his shop were neighborhood staples for over 50 years. In his later years, Boike would bring his Northeast friends on casino bus trips, organizing each trip with a pickup location at the Gasthof zur Gemütlichkeit restaurant at 23rd and University. Boike died in 2023.
The storefront occupied by the Williams Electric Company at 2312 Central Ave. is now home to Supermercado Latino, a Hispanic grocery.
Minneapolis TV and Electronics Inc., at 158 13th Ave., is now the home of Fiber Works MPLS, offering classes in sewing and mending, textiles and fiber arts.
Fidelity Bank and Trust Company, at the corner of 24th and Central Ave, and the First Minneapolis Bank at 30 4th St. NE are now branches of US Bank, at those same locations. Fidelity closed in 2007, and part of the block was rebuilt as the Central Avenue Lofts.
Leitschuh’s Insurance office in the 1980s was in a now-heavily remodeled 1928 building at 1222 2nd St. For the past five years, Oro by Nixta, a full service Mexican restaurant, has occupied the space. The Leitschuh agency has offices in Brooklyn Park.
Besides Elsie’s and Kozlak Funeral Chapel, the only other listed business still at its 1980 location is the Northeast State Bank, at Broadway and Marshall Street. Therres Bros. service station, at the southeast corner of University and 13th Avenue, was demolished and the Northeast Neighborhood Early Learning Center now occupies the site. Ed Gromek, the former owner of Ed Gromek Upholstery, died in 2003.
Information for Kathy’s Coiffures, Bettye’s Beauty Salon and King Koin Launderette was not available at this time. By 1981, a sign in the King Koin Launderette suggested that it had closed for remodeling. But it never reopened, and is now Dreamsong Art Gallery, the second arts use for that building.
At St. Cyril’s, Administrative Assistant Alicia Inamagua provided a current weekly church bulletin. A lot has changed. Two of the pages are in color, and half of the copy is in Spanish. The back page still has ads and, like the 1980 edition, it features insurance agencies, restaurants and funeral homes. But some of the current advertisers (12 in all) speak to a different world: bilingual elementary schools, a Catholic dating service, home security systems and help with immigration laws.