Historic Homes and Businesses in Carver - Carver County Historical ...

the help of a millpond dam, before going into service as Carver‟s Masonic Hall. In
January 1874 the Grand Lodge of Minnesota Masons, A.F. and A. M. (Ancient Free and
Accepted Masons), in session at St. Paul granted dispensation for a new lodge, Carver
Lodge #111. Carver‟s first officers included William H. Mills, Henry R. Denny, and
Andrew P. Peterson. In 1875 the Carver lodge was chartered, with membership granted
to officers Mills, Denny, and Peterson, as well as Gustave Krayenbuhl, Henry W. Busse,
F. L. Smith, F. C. Mosbaugh, W. Rhy, John O‟Brien, Charles D. Dauwalter, George
Houghton, and others, with a total of 16 charter members. Already by 1882 membership
in the Carver Lodge had increased to 35. The Carver Masonic Hall served for many
years as a meeting lodge and ceremonial hall for Freemasons and for the women‟s
counterpart organization, the Eastern Star Carver Chapter #231. Many of Carver‟s
pioneer families had membership in the Masons and Eastern Star, including members of
the Funk, Dauwalter, Brunius, Nord, Ahlin, Holm, and Nelson families. The hall
remained in Mason/Eastern Star service as late as 1972, surviving the great floods of the
1950s and 1960s. It was the last structure still standing on Carver‟s once bustling
commercial and industrial levee before it fell into neglected disrepair. It was torn down in
the 1980s after being separated from the town by the flood dike and suffering damage
from a wind storm. Remnants of its foundations can be seen today, a bit southwest of
Spring Creek‟s intersection with the floodwall.
Carver General Store. Once located at 317 Broadway at the corner of Fourth Street
East, where the 1987 U. S. Post Office building now stands, it was built about 1860 and
was torn down under contested circumstances in the early 1980s. The store was probably
first operated in the 1860s by Enoch Holmes, one of Carver‟s pioneer citizens who
arrived in 1857, and who served as the Carver census taker of the 1860 U. S. Census. In
the 1880s Holmes, a partner, Fritz Wommer, and later a third partner, John Hebeisen
operated a general store as the Pioneer Store of Carver County, but at another location on
the southeast corner of Main and Broadway, calling it Holmes, Hebeisen, & Wommer,
and specializing in clothing, dry goods, groceries, boots, shoes, and serving also as agents
for McCormicks new steel binder and mower. In 1889 they sold the business to the
Olson Brothers of Carver to pursue other interests. The general store was then operated
at its new location at Fourth and Broadway as Olson Brothers and Ahlin for much of the
1890s until it was sold to A. L. Skoog, who ran it for a decade, and whose home still
stands on Third Street East. In 1909 Skoog sold the general store to Robert A. Johnson,
who operated it for many years. Johnson‟s home yet stands on Fourth Street West.
The store was said to be the best general store in the county and featured such sundry
items as hats, shoes, boots, clothing, notions, and dry goods. It was a splendid example
of a 19 th Century general store and was once believed to be the oldest commercial
building on Broadway. It was built during Carver‟s heyday and originally served as a
trade and transportation center for all of Carver County. It was constructed of Merriam
red rock and locally manufactured buff-colored brick. It was two stories, with three bays
on the second floor, and featured a full basement and a one-story brick grocery
warehouse section at the rear. It had a recessed entry on the north end of the front side,
with large 4 by 4 mullioned glass windowpanes and two sections of 8 by 8 window panes