Geneva Business History

Address: 830 G Street

Legal Description: Lot 75

Building: Fisher / Reeve Building

1872 Vacant Lot

1882 J. M. Fisher family residence.

1885 In May, J. M. Fisher planned to build a large two story frame store building with a basement on his lot adjoining D. J. Spear’s hardware store.

1885 In August the Fisher building on Court Street neared completion and was ready for occupancy. The lower story was occupied by D. J. Spear with a stock of dry goods, groceries, boots, and shoes. He called it the Trade Palace. The upper story was fitted up into offices.

1885 In September on opening day, Camp’s band played and nine clerks were kept busy selling to the crowd.

1886 The telephone company moved to new offices in the Fisher block on the second floor.

1886 Will R. Gaylord moved his abstract office at Geneva to the Fisher block upstairs.

1888 In May, D. J. Spear decided to sell at cost all his goods in the Trade Palace because of his ill health.

1888 In May, C. L. Meister & Co. of York put in a complete stock of dry goods and carpets in the rooms recently occupied by D. J. Spear.

1888 In August, Hitch and Rathbun rented the Fisher store rooms and moved their store from 874.

1890 In February, Hitch and Rathbun declared bankruptcy. The stock was in the hands of the Citizens Bank.

1890 In April, G. H. Palmer opened a tailoring establishment over the Hitch and Rathbun store.

1890 In May, Curtiss and Atherton purchased the abstract company of Will Gaylord on the second floor.

1890 In September, Newton Hitch opened a grocery store second door west of the Spear Hardware.

1890 In November, John R. Ballard moved his stock of boots and shoes into space in the Hitch & Rathbun store. Ballard engaged J. Lehman who was a first class boot and shoe maker.

1891 In March, Henry Wittemeyer moved his stock of merchant tailoring goods to the room occupied by J. R. Ballard and occupied the west side of the room.

Nebraska Signal, page 1, March 19, 1897

1892 In January the Hitch grocery stock was moved from the Fisher building to the armory block (984 G).

1892 In March, John Mills and J. H. Dempster formed a real estate business and occupied the rooms formerly occupied by Curtiss & Atherton.

1892 In October, the Sanborn maps showed a general store on the west and a boot and shoe store on the east.

1893 The west side of the building housed Mershon Grocery. The east side of the building housed J. R. Ballard Boots and Shoes. Ripson Photography was located upstairs.

1893 In August a fire destroyed much of the building. Much of the stock of all the businesses were destroyed. Some of nearby Fiegenbaum drug store stock and Spear’s Hardware stock were damaged while being removed during the fire.

1894 In April another fire that originated at 848 G burned three buildings along with what remained of the shell of the Fisher building. This building was unoccupied and owned by Geneva National Bank. Contracts had been let to begin repairing.

1897 The Sanborn maps showed this as a vacant lot.

1901 In April, Reeve & Son Co. purchased lots to build a new building to house their mercantile business, “The Right Place” on the old First National Bank lots adjoining the Isabel building. Cellars and stone walls were already in place so very little excavation was necessary. The storage basement would extend the full length of the building. The building would be 48 x 80, one story high, all brick and modernly finished. Reeve and Son remained in business until 1919.

1902 The Sanborn maps showed this as a dry goods store.

Courtesy of History Nebraska

1909 The Sanborn maps showed this as a dry goods store.

Nebraska Signal, page 5, September 19, 1918

1919 Eller Company, a company that operated several stores in southern Nebraska and Northern Kansas opened a dry goods store. The manager in 1921 was H. F. McKibbon.

1922 The Sanborn maps showed this as a dry goods store.

1932 Frank Braden closed his barber shop under the Eller Store and entered the employ of Harry Trussell in the shop under the Geneva State Bank.

1933 The Sanborn maps showed this as a store.

1934 Jack Moon, proprietor, opened a barber shop in the Eller & Co. basement.

1938 Harry McKibbin was with the J. H. Eller store for 17 years before he moved to Lexington.

1941 In February, Eller Co. moved its business to a location next to the Geneva State Bank (890 G).

1942 Occupants unknown through 1944.

1943 The Sanborn maps showed this as a store.

1945 A General Electric Appliance Store was opened by Central States Construction Company.

1946 Wennersten Appliance & Hardware was owned by Carl Wennersten of Shickley. The manager of the store was his son-in-law, Lloyd London.

1954 Lloyd London purchased the Wennersten Appliance & Hardware store from Mr. Wennersten and changed the name to London’s, Inc.

1959 London’s, Inc. closed the business and Lloyd London moved away.

1960 The building was for sale.

1961 M & M Distributing Company opened a store here. It was operated by Mr. and Mrs. W. C. Hansen.

1963 M & M Distributing Company moved their business to 128 South 8th Street.

1964 Geneva Auto Parts opened for business, W. C. Hansen was the owner.

1964 Geneva Machine Shop was located in an addition to the original building at the back of the store.

1968 W. C. Hansen and Roger Siems of Geneva Auto and Machine Shop manufactured a new device to test radiators. It was called the Spee-Dee-Filler-Neck tester.

1977 Geneva Machine Shop was sold to Ivan Tracy of Waco.

1977 Bill and Hazel Hansen announced they had sold their auto parts business to Don Lorensen and Dick Bedient of York. The name of the business remained the same, but was a division of Donrich Supply, Inc.

1992 In April, Geneva Auto Parts moved to 128 So. 8th.

1992 In September, the building was sold to Bernard and Joan Miller. They moved their merchandise here and opened Ye Ole Shoe Market along with their daughter Beth Webb.

1993 Silks-N-Such owned by Karen Allgood shared space with Ye Ole Shoe Market.

1997 Ye Ole Shoe Market closed. Silks-N-Such moved to the business room east of Jacox Jewelry at 860 G Street.

1997 Mike and Janet Wilkins purchased the building from Bernard and Joan Miller. They moved their business, Wilkins Livestock Insurers, here from a location at 942 North 13th Street.

1997 Body and Soul Bookstore opened in March 1997. Donna Wilkins proprietor, shared space with Wilkins Livestock Insurers here.

2003 Body and Soul Christian Book Store closed out their inventory.

2004 Geneva Machine Shop, owned and operated by Ivan Tracy was sold to Doug Heath. The business was renamed Heath Machine Shop.

2007 Heath Machine Shop was moved to a new location at 401 South 13th Street. No new business occupied the space. It was used for storage.

2010 Nevaeh Boutique opened for business in the front part of the building. They specialized in ladies clothing, accessories and purses.

2011 Nevaeh Boutique had a one year anniversary sale, but not sure when they closed the boutique as no more advertising was found.

2011 Wilkins Livestock Insurers continued to be located in the building.

2025 In October, a health food store, The Well, opened in the west side of the building. The proprietor was Malinda Monteforte.

This was ongoing as of the last posting.