Sometimes a building specifically constructed for one purpose is later remodeled and converted into something entirely different.

Saturday, February 09, 2002

Sometimes a building specifically constructed for one purpose is later remodeled and converted into something entirely different.

A good example of this is the American Legion Clubrooms, 142 N. Broadway Ave. Leo Carey Post 56 is now in a building which was built about eight decades ago as a place where automobiles were displayed, sold and repaired. And the name associated with this building prior to 1965 and its remodeling for use by the American Legion was Seliger.

Mark H. Seliger was born on Jan. 7, 1893, in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and came to Albert Lea sometime prior to 1914. The city directory for that year lists his occupation as musician. Just what instrument he played wasn’t listed. It’s likely he played for dances in the local lodge halls and maybe with a theater orchestra which supplied a crude form of sound effects for silent films.

Seliger married Mabel Ruden of Albert Lea on April 17, 1918. Two months later he was in the U.S. Army and assigned to the band of the Third Pioneer Infantry.

After serving in France during World War I, Seliger returned to Albert Lea to resume his musical career, plus a new job as a bookkeeper at the Nate Chier Garage, 311 W. Main St. (Not too much information seems to be available about Nate Chier, one of the city’s first automobile dealers.) Another employee at this garage was a salesman named Elmer E. Matthies.

Sometime in the 1920s, the two men went into business as Matthies-Seliger Motor Co. on North Broadway Avenue in a building constructed for the Les (also listed as Lex) Berglund Garage. In 1929 Matthies left the partnership and went to work at the Motor Inn Co. which he purchased in 1939.

The Seliger Motor Co. had the Dodge-Plymouth-Valiant dealership for the Albert Lea area.

A used car lot was located across the street at the northwest corner of Broadway Avenue and Water Street. (This site is now part of a city parking lot.)

The Seliger Motor Co. was in business until 1964, when the owner decided to retire.

During the following year the former garage building and auto showroom was converted into use by the American Legion.

Mark H. Seliger died on Feb. 6, 1985, at St. John’s Lutheran Home and is buried at Lakewood Cemetery.