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

In July 1855 he came to Carver County with his parents when his family established a
homestead there. In December 1862 he was married to Mary (Maja Stina) Svensdotter,
who was born in 1842 in Västergötland, Sweden. In February 1865 Peter enlisted in
Company H of the 1 st Minnesota Heavy Artillery in the Union Army during the Civil
War, serving as a corporal until his discharge in September 1865. Eighty-seven of the
enlisted men in his regiment had died of disease. One of the soldiers serving with Peter
A. Johnson was Albert Woolson of Duluth, who would die at age 106 in 1956, the last
surviving soldier on either side of the American Civil War, both Union and Confederacy.
After the war Peter A. Johnson returned to his parent‟s homestead. In 1877 he moved to
Carver and at the 1880 U.S. Census for Carver Village was listed as a carpenter. In 1880
Peter A. Johnson purchased the Kult building from merchant John Sundine, which
included the December purchase of Sundine‟s stock of general merchandise. P. A.
Johnson then went into the general store business for himself. In 1882 Johnson added to
the store‟s property, perhaps for warehouse space, with a small land purchase from next
door hotel owner Ferdinand Strache. Peter A. and Mary Johnson undoubtedly lived in
quarters above the general store, retiring from the general store business about 1904. In
1904 they sold the building to Charles Prodahl, who in April of 1904 had sold an 80 acre
farm in San Francisco Township, with plans to open a saloon in the Johnson‟s building.
Peter and Mary Johnson died four months apart in 1912 and are buried in East Union
Cemetery in Dahlgren Township.
Charles Prodahl‟s saloon plans for the building were short-lived, for the following year,
in 1905, he sold the building to the Minneapolis Brewing Company and moved to
Chaska, and by May 1906 he had moved again and was living in Excelsior, Minnesota.
The Minneapolis Brewing Company leased out the building to Alois Loew and his wife
Annie (Whele), who until 1909 ran it as the Alois Loew saloon. Beer was supplied by
the Minneapolis Brewing Company who took delivery from Minneapolis by the
Minneapolis-St. Louis Railroad and stored it in their Carver warehouse, which was
located near the railroad tracks by the present day Carver railroad water tower. From the
warehouse beer was delivered by horse and wagon to the Alois Loew Saloon. Alois and
Annie Loew used the second story above the saloon for a family residence. In November
and December, 1906 a brick addition to the rear of the building was added, and in
February 1909 Loew purchased 2 ½ acres of nearby land from Carl Anhalt for $170,
perhaps to raise hops for use in the beer business or to plant some produce in advance of
their move to 304 Broadway in Carver, where they opened a confectionary business.
The Kult/Sundine/P. A. Johnson/Loew building was owned by the Minneapolis Brewing
Company, and later its stockholders, the Minneapolis Shareholders Company, from 1905-
1944, being leased to a number of different owners. Prohibition (1920-1933), which
made the public use and sale of alcohol illegal in the United States, destroyed many
business concerns, including this building‟s use as a saloon. After the Loews moved the
building saw usage as the Riverside Cafe, and after Prohibition the building was again
used as a saloon, being called the Riverside Bar from the 1930s-1960s.