One building, two spaces, combined and split again.
The building you see today, originally known as the Hansen-Hubbard building was erected in 1909 by Cheneyite, George Yeaman for Charles I. Hubbard and Peter C. Hansen. The one-story brick building was divided into two stores with their entrances facing 1st Street. Part 1 is about the left half, 402 1st Street owned by Mr. Hubbard.
402 1st Street
What was here before? We can go back to 1882 when Marcus Kaminsky & Son operated a general merchandise store from a one-story wood building on this corner. Kaminsky left town in 1890 and the building served as the temporary home of Switzer Drug store after the February 1890 fire, sharing the space with J.A. Wise’s dry goods mercantile store. The building was briefly a saloon around 1897. In 1904, the building was the temporary location of the Farmers & Merchant Bank while they waited for their new brick building to be completed across the street where Wild Bill’s Longbar is today. Charles I. Hubbard moved his grocery and hardware goods into the wood-frame building in September 1904.
In April 1909, Hubbard and Peter C. Hansen commenced excavation for two one-story buildings, each 25 by 90 feet at the corner of First & F streets. While these were separate commercial spaces and owners, from the outside they had the same design and were separated inside by a single brick wall. At the corner, Mr. Hubbard’s building was replacing his former wood one, which was hauled away. Adjoining on the right, was Mr. Hansen’s building.
Both buildings will have basements and plate glass fronts and will be constructed in a strictly modern manner throughout.
In July 1912, a fire destroyed the roof of Hubbard’s store and damaged much of his stock. He set up temporary quarters in the corner building across 1st Street but was back in his store in a couple months.
In 1917, his list of goods included automobile parts, and in 1922 he also advertised auto tires.
Charles I. Hubbard, and later his son, operated Hubbard’s until about 1930. Charles and May Hubbard came with their two children from Wisconsin in 1900. The former farmer started a general store, creamery, and feed mill at a different location in Cheney before his move to 1st & F. Mr. Hubbard was actively involved in the community. He was elected to the city council in 1904, the same year he was named president of the newly formed Men’s Commercial Club. He was also a member of the Odd Fellows and the Whist Club. May Hubbard was also active in community affairs as a charter member of the Tilicum Club, as well as a member of the Rebekahs, and the Women’s Christian Temperance Union.
Eleanor Jones, who was born in 1913, cherished her early years in Cheney, especially her short-term business arrangement with Hubbard’s Grocery where she took candy bars, putting the charge on her father’s account until the day of reckoning when her parents discovered her devious scheme.
In 1927, Hubbard decided he wanted to focus on the grocery part of his business and sold his hardware and automobile goods to Abe Bottorff’s hardware. After his wife’s death in 1928, it was Clarence Hubbard who managed the business. The store closed around 1930. It may have been at this time that Pete Hansen purchased this half of the property. Mr. Hubbard passed away in 1936. D.E. Kelly’s Cheney Table Supply was located here, but a fire that started in the office of the store did smoke damage to his merchandise and Mr. Kelly closed in March 1934. The following month, Piggly Wiggly grocery rented the building, but was short-lived in the space.
Safeway took over in July 1934, continuing there until July 8, 1941, when they traded places with Roy Hansen’s Hardware store.
Safeway moved to 321 1st, while Hansen’s moved to 402 1st. Each business remodeled their new space to better fit their needs.
Hansen’s Hardware continued until June 1959; Roy Hansen sold to Norval Holmes who operated Holmes Hardware until 1967.
In 1968, after the Ben Franklin store next door was sold, the 402 space was absorbed by the Cheney Variety Store. You can read more on the occupants in the 404 article below.
The single-store use of the building continued until 2012, when The Mason Jar opened with a new entrance on F Street. Two other businesses have occupied the subdivided length of the building along F Street since 1997.
The original stamped tin ceiling and brick walls can be seen inside The Mason Jar. Hints of the old casement windows can be seen above the large glass windows along the front, and in the brick along the side of the building are the ghosts of old doorways.
404 1st Street
What was here before 1909? Well, nothing, until after 1905 when a small wooden structure on part of the lot held the office of the Cheney Transfer Company, a draying, or freight hauling business.
Monk & Company was the first tenant of the 25 by 90 foot space. Peter Monk sold men’s and women’s furnishings and millinery, or in modern terms, clothing, accessories, and hats. He had been in the general merchandise business with Louis Houck for several years in Cheney prior to branching out on his own. He was also elected to the City Council in 1909.
In 1910, Jesse G. Campbell bought out the merchandise of Monk & Co., as well as another business. He had initially started his Cheney Cash Store business on College Avenue, but after buying out Monk, he moved into 404 1st. Campbell arrived in town in 1904, operating other enterprises prior to the Cheney Cash Store. He was a member of Masonic Temple Lodge 42 A&FM and served as Worthy Patron of the Martha Chapter of Eastern Star.
You might be asking, what is a cash store? Think of it as a discount store, while other stores allowed customers to put purchases on an account with the store and pay at the end of the month or over several months, a cash store didn’t have customer accounts, claiming they could keep prices lower by operating on a “cash and carry” policy.
A fire in July 1912, gutted the Cheney Cash Store along with Hubbard’s grocery next door, but within a couple months, both were back open in their original locations.
Emory N. Guertin bought out Campbell in 1916, opening Guertin’s Cash Store. In 1922, he remodeled by adding windows to the basement that improved light for shoppers, a mezzanine balcony that provided ample office space, a comfortable rest room for ladies, and a department for ladies’ ready-to-wear apparel.
According to Mr. Guertin, “The entire interior of the store has been refinished and more conveniently arranged, making the store not only more pleasing in appearance but thoroughly modern in all respects.”
June Steward Labish recalled that the balcony was still there in the 1950s when she worked at Ben Franklin. During her time, there was still an office in use up there, but the remainder of the balcony was just used for display.
Shortly after Guertin’s death in 1924, C.B. Bernard, who had worked at Guertin’s from the beginning, along with W.J.H. Carr of Spokane, took over operations of the store. Mr. Bernard left in 1929 to open a men’s clothing store, and the business was renamed Carr’s Cash Store. Mr. Carr had the nickname of Alphabet Carr because of his three initials. He was also known as a strong-willed man who could be quite loud and blustery. He built a lovely brick home for his family at 5 6th Street, which is on Cheney’s Historic Register.
Carr had a long and successful run, his business surviving a fire next door in 406 1st in 1934 with just a bit of smoke damage.
In 1947, Les Zimmerman and family came west from Nebraska on vacation, stopping in Cheney for a bite to eat. They were impressed with the clean, neat, prosperous town and its friendly inhabitants. The family moved to Cheney in August 1948.
Zimmerman bought Carr’s Variety Store, remodeled, and opened as Ben Franklin in February 1949. He had operated a Ben Franklin franchise back in Nebraska for several years. Zimmerman’s Ben Franklin had a successful twenty-year run.
The Cheney Variety Store was the short-lived successor to Ben Franklin in 1968. This is the time when 402 was absorbed into 404 creating a single larger business space under the address of 404 1st. The following year, the variety store became Fonk’s. The front windows and door arrangement was significantly changed from the original in this period.
Ellen Holmes moved her Book & Brush to this location in 1979. She sold the business in 1988, but it continued under a different owner until 1993. Pro Fitness was the next business to occupy the space for a few years.
AAA Laboratory, a water testing business, opened in 1996. They split the building in 2012 to accommodate The Mason Jar with its new opening on F Street.
Peter O. Hansen, MD. 12 August 2019: My grandfather was Peter C. Hansen, who in 1909 was living in Cheney with his family and involved in several business ventures. I never knew before that he had a partner, Hubbard, and that they built this two part brick building at 402/404 Main Street in Cheney. What I have known is this – in 1938, the year I was born, my father, Roy S. Hansen, had bought a hardware store business located in the Oddfellows building kitty-corner across the street, and shortly after moved his business into the corner 402 Main Street suite. During my 21 years living in Cheney my father and his brother Elmer Hansen owned the 402/404 buildings, which were sold about 1980. My father sold his Hansen Hardware store business (in 402 Main St.) in 1959 to Norval Holmes. During the years Les Zimmerman owned the Ben Franklin store business in 404 Main St., he always had a candy counter in the front of his store with 5-6 bins and a scale on top for weighing small sacks of candy; this was very popular with us kids. Les did have a balcony in the rear of the store and in 1952 I remember climbing the stairs to meet with him several times in the evening while he mentored me in acquiring my Salesmanship merit badge in Boy Scouts.
Joan Mamanakis
