Looking back: A block of history on Broadway

Published 1:17 pm Monday, March 6, 2023

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Following completion of the First National Bank building, a public open house was held March 5, 1903, from 7 to 11 p.m. Ladies were served a “neat box of confection” and gentlemen received cigars.

In 1942, Sullivan’s Paint and Wallpaper store, 121 S. Broadway, hosted a spring opening of the remodeled store. Paint demonstrations were given.

Plymouth Shoe store prior to 1937. Over the years, the upper floor housed Prof. L. T. Button’s Dance Studio, Albert Lea Business College, Tweedy Dressmaking School, Lewis print shop, Helmer Myre wrestling gym and Broadway Athletic Club.

The remaining crowd waits to meet Robert Wadlow, the tallest man in recorded history. In 1939, he appeared on a promotional tour representing a shoe company makers of his size 42 shoes.

In 1898, businesses along the east side of South Broadway included First National Bank, Times printing office, Jorgensen Bakery, Plymouth Shoe Store, Skaug Clothing Co., McMahn & Greene meat market, A. H. McMillen meat market and Albert Lea National Bank.

The building at 115 S. Broadway was constructed circa 1883. On the left is Peno’s stand. It served popcorn, ice cream, candy and malted milk.

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Story By Linda Evenson

Photos courtesy Freeborn County Historical Museum

Most of the buildings on the east side of the 100 block of South Broadway are more than a century old. Some date back to the 1880s.

The Plymouth Boot and Shoe store, 129 S. Broadway, opened in a newly constructed brick building in June 1893. The structure at 119 S. Broadway was built a decade earlier. Over the years it housed the City Bank, First National Bank, Albert Lea State Bank, Banquet Café and Mastercraft Camera Shop. The building was remodeled and refaced in 1923. The storefront was replaced in 1935.

The newest kid on the block is the current home of the Albert Lea Art Center, 101 S. Broadway. Gordon Electric razed the earlier structure, once home to the Case Corset Factory, replacing it with a modern building in 1962. At the opposite end of the block, 139 S. Broadway, construction began on the First National Bank building in 1902.