1959 Businesses

Chapter 3

This page is part of the Reardan History 1959 booklet that was written by the Washington State History class of 1958-1959.

Insurance Office

In 1932 B. L. Barnard started his insurance business in his home. This business is operated as a service to the town people and surrounding community just as any other business that is established in a community. Any established business should be a booster for the town, community, and help build a better place to live in. It has increased in may hundreds per cent since it started and had no thefts or fires. It is now located next to the bank and barber shop. Before, the building was a store as well as a men’s clothing shop.

Chuck’s Service Station

On October 1, 1955, Chuck Anderson started his service station work. The business has increased 50% hand has had not thefts or fires. The station is one of eight stations.

Post Office

The post office has always been in Reardan. It is an indispensable business in any community. It has move twice and is now located between Frisk’s Grocery and June’s Grill. It has increased about 400% since it started. It has had not fires or thefts. The post office is a government leased business. Categories:Post Office

Frisk’s Grocery

On March 19, 1946, the Frisks opened their grocery store in the west room of the H. J. Mattes Building on the highway. The remainder of the building was occupied by a cafe, drug store and a tavern. Our sole purpose of going into the grocery business was a means of livelihood for ourselves. We had previously owned and operated a garage and service station at Harrison, Idaho.

Our business progress nicely until July 3, 1947 when we had a fire that did some damage to our stock of goods. But thanks to a very efficient fire department of Reardan, the loss was not too great.

Mr. Mattes kept urging us to buy the building. Finally on October 1, 1949, we accepted and purchased it. We then decided to move into the east end of the building. In 1952, the tavern and cafe vacated and we did some remodeling, preparatory to our moving the grocery store. Due to the helpfulness of many kind friends and wholesale salesmen, we were able to move our stock in one evening and open up, ready for business at 10 o’clock the next morning. We had a nice opening and served refreshments of coffee and cupcakes. The Silver Loaf Baking Company and M. J. B. Coffee Company assisted with the serving. Elsie, the cow, was present n person and proved very interesting to young and old alike.

Since that time we have engaged in a nice business. We have those faithful customer, who always “stand by,” those who come and go, and the new ones who move in. We enjoy people and always welcome all as friends, as well as customers.

We have had two thefts. The first one was perhaps a loss of $150 to $200 in merchandise and the latter one was a much smaller amount. One always locks the latch door after the horse is stolen, so after our first theft, we took out theft insurance. Our building now houses June’s Grill, The post office and our store.

Hamilton’s Garage

[Lawrence] Hamilton does not own the building. They have never had any thefts or fires. They started their business in 1944. The former owner died and it looked like a good idea to buy it. It serves as a service station to the community and a job for Hamilton. The business has increase about 100%. They have never moved. When Hamilton started his business, there were about 420 people and about 20 businesses. categories:Hamilton's Shell

Colville’s Garage

The old Colville Garage was a Methodist and Baptist Church. The new building was dedicated on June 2, 1928. The new building has never had a fire, but many thefts had taken place before an electrified burglar alarms was installed.

They began their business in 1919, just because they liked Reardan people. The owner, W. J. Colville, served as Water Superintendent, Councilman, and Fire Chief for over thirty years. Their business has increased 100 per cent. There were 22 businesses when they started their garage. They have never moved, except from the old building which is located directly behind the present building.