Corner Store Vanity Post

I guess since this is a blog all my posts are vanity posts to some degree or another...but here is a personal one that doesn't have a connection to Dayton.

One of the reasons I'm interested in corner stores or "neighborhood retail" is that is what I grew up with in Chicago.

Here's a few from my old neighborhood. During my time these were still operating as either stores or taverns (there were more, but turned into apartments by then), and as you can see one is still in buisness as a corner store...


...one not shown is kitty-corner across from the "Hondos' Tavern", it was a bakery and my grandfather was born on top of it a year after my great grandparents emigrated from Lublin, Poland (at that time Russia) in the decade before WWI.

The ones I have a connection to was Stak's tavern as my grandfather used to stop off there on his way back from work, and especially Zosias (sp?), as it was the one we used since it was around the corner and down the street.

Zosia's husband, Stanley, was the butcher, and they lived behind the store. The place had an old metal pressed ceiling, and a retarded guy, Joey, used to hang out there, and deliver grocerys for them with his wagon. Some of the older neighborhood guys would pitch pennys on the front stoop, too.

Joey had his wagon, but, usually, if people went shopping beyond just a few items you'd see them use those two-wheeled carts for grocery bags. Everyone had them. I guess you can still buy them in Chicago, but don't know about Dayton.

Royal Blue was probably part of an old chain or buying co-op, as they had this neat art deco lettering and graphics in blue and white. Zosias was, at one time, part of something called "Midwest Markets". Probably another local Chicago chain.

Hondos was probably pretty interesting at one time, before they put the brick siding on. It is in one of the older streets in the neighborhood, built in the 1890s, I think. Chicago has a lot of those corner turret buildings, but more on the busy streets, and closer in.

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As for Dayton, I might go ahead and post my St Annes Hill corner store tour. That one is more about what was in these stores, not so much the architecture.