"Did You Know This About Geary County History?
By Dr. Ferrell Miller
Geary County Historical Society Board Member
“Some History of 826 N. Washington Street“ Part 1
Sources: “Groceries Then and Now” by Dr. Virleen Carlson; “The Historic Downtown Business District of Junction City, Kansas; A Walking Tour” (pamphlet); numerous telephone directories at the Geary County Historical Society and They Came To The Smoky Hill: History of Three Generations by Frank Ziegler Glick.
Glick’s Grocery building at 826 N. Washington Street was built c. 1874. In 1878 or 79, the family of Fred and Margaret Glick lived upstairs from the grocery store in an area Fred had built for that purpose. The Glick’s reared 10 children of their own and at least one grandchild. (There will be more about the upstairs living quarters in Part 2 of this series).
From the outset of the store (1875), the Altweggs, Kellers, Ritters and Gfellers were friends who purchased items from the Glick’s store. Some would gather on stools at the back of the store where they would eat their noon meal, called “dinner” before continuing their shopping. Others, upon invitation from Fred, would enjoy the noon meal, which was prepared by Margaret, in the upstairs living quarters.
Fred Glick was not only a family head and merchant, but also served on the Board of Directors of the Central National Bank from 1901-1904. By 1904, Fred Glick had run the store for 30 years when his sons, Frank and Harry took over the business under Fred’s watchful eye. There was a barn behind the grocery store where the boys would unhitch the horses from the wagon and put the horses in the stable behind the store. Also behind the store was an “8-holer”, the outhouse with four holes per side, apparently divided by sex of the users.
In 1905 the south section of the building was a confectionary shop. In 1910 J.O. Halfhide had a short order restaurant at 824 N. Washington or the south side of the building. By 1912, when phone service came to Junction City, housewives could call in a grocery order and have it delivered by a horse-drawn delivery wagon (later, a motor truck).The store opened every day at 7 a.m. except on Sunday, when it was closed.
When Frank Glick was running the store, he rode a bicycle to work from his house at 222 West 7th Street. His children walked to Franklin School at 2nd and Madison Streets. It was not until 1915 sometime that his family obtained a car. The grocery store was one business in from the corner of 9th and Washington. By 1919, it had prospered so much that it had bought out the livery stable next door and expanded for more room. Today, these two buildings are still connected by a doorway.
The address above the store was still 826 ½ N. Washington Street in 1918-19. W.H. Tolles lived upstairs and in 1940 there were ten apartments called the Franklin Apartments. By 1933, the Glicks decided to sell out and close-up shop as a response to the bigger supermarket phenomenon. E.R. Hoyle and Sons purchased the Glick’s grocery and expanded the store from the north side of the building to the entire main floor. In the 1950’s, the building became the Sjoholm Furniture Store.
The site of the old Glick grocery store for sixty years is still standing and in use. More recently the building was the Garden Gate Antique Store and currently the Elite Academy of Martial Arts.
“Some History of 826 N. Washington Street“ Part 2 “826 ½ N. Washington Street”
As mentioned in a previous article about 826 N. Washington, Fred and Margaret Glick and their children lived above the Glick’s Grocery store at 826 ½ N. Washington Street. The source of information for this article is They Came To The Smoky Hill: History of Three Generations by Frank Ziegler Glick.
During the first twelve to fifteen years in Junction City, Fred and Margaret Glick lived in a tiny house on a farm with little personal privacy. However, once into the upper floor of the new stone structure, the Glicks were comfortable. It must have been about the mid-eighties when running water was first piped into their building and for years thereafter that meant only one spigot in the upstairs central hall- twenty-five stairsteps better than drawing water from the well behind the store. Each sleeping room, in addition to bed and chair and wardrobe, had a washstand with pitcher and wash bowl on top and a chamber pot sometimes disguised under a small commode, beneath. The outhouse toilet in the yard behind the building served for a quarter-century or longer until kitchen and bathroom facilities with running water were installed.
Throughout all the years of the grocery store, the front stairway went up between the two store fronts of the corner building. Some years after the store closed the two rooms were made into one, the old-fashioned fronts were replaced and the stairway moved to the south. The twenty-five steps in the old stairway had risers of eight inches and a landing in the middle of the climb. Upon reaching the top, one stood at the end of a hallway which ran the length of the building to the rear exit, opening on an outdoor stairway. On ones right, going from front to back, the first room was used as a parlor-living room and opening off of it was a small auxiliary room where the ladies kept their hope chests and other nice things. Then on down the hall there were three large bedrooms. All these rooms had windows onto Ninth Street and the front corner room on Washington as well. To one’s left at the head of the stairway was a wide but short cross-hall which led into the rooms over the older stone building to the south which had housed the family until the corner edifice was built. As one turned left into the room which bordered the stair-well it had windows on Washington Street. To the right off the cross-hall were three connected rooms. The first, dimly illuminated by a skylight, was the kitchen which later, when a water closet and bathtub were finally installed, was partitioned to provide a bathroom that shared the skylight. Next to the kitchen, was an in-between room whose only daylight came through a wide opening into the large rear corner room. That rear corner room, with windows both south and west was furnished with a large dining table and chairs, plus a rocking chair and other easy chairs.
When the family moved from the older stone building into the space just described, the children probably overflowed into the old rooms. After all the children left, except Anna, one of their daughters, those rooms were rented for sleeping to Union Pacific Railroad men, traveling salesmen and semi- permanent persons. Fred and Margaret eventually moved to the house on West Second Street, where their last years were spent.