Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 54, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 March 1919 — OLD LANDMARK BEING RAZED [ARTICLE]

OLD LANDMARK BEING RAZED

RESIDENCE WHICH WAS ONCE A. "QUART SHOP’’, WITH HISTORY BEING TORN DOWN. One of the oldest, if not the oldest, landmarks in Rensselaer, is being wrecked by Hiram Day, who has purchased the building and will use the lumber in other building operations. The building referred to is the old Tutuer tenant house on Cornelia street, which has outlived its usefulness and is now being tom down. This building has quite a history, and the older citizens will remember this place, as it was used some fortyfive years ago as a “quart” shop, where wines, liquors, and beer were sold in the original packages under a government license. A “bull pen” was built bn the west side of the building where the alley now running to Billy Fry’s barn is -located and here customers were supposed to take their quart of liquor outside of the main building and do their drinking there. In those days this location was way out of the residence section and the building just east of it, belonging to the same estate, and one or two other .buildings in the same neighborhood were the eastern boundary of the town. There was no railroad in Rensselaer those days and what "Is now McKinley Ave. had no

one residing on it. Many were the fights that occurred on the site of this building those days and the officers were kept busy in going after the citizens of “Nubbin Ridge,” who in those days loved to come to town and paint it red and many were the fights resulting from their patronizing this “quart shop.” “Nubbin Ridge,” by the way, has passed away and is now a prosperous farming community. ■ ■■■ • ' , ■ Upon the death of the owner of this “quart the building was converted into the present residence and has had numerous tenants in the last twenty or twenty-five years. The passing of this historical spot will .be regretted by no one, unless it be some of the old timers of those days, few of whom are left now. This “quart shop” was followed by several others later -which wfere located in the business section of the city, one of these which was located for a shoTt-time on the site of what is now KuSoske’s garage, was especially notorius and was known as “Red Hell?’ and judging from what happened there in those days the name was very appropriate. But some of the older citizens will have to write the history of these places, for the writer was too young those days to remember just what did happen in these relics of early days, which are now outlawed in nearly every community.